Search results

THE second Combustion Colloquium organized by the A.G.A.R.D. (Advisory Group on Aeronautical Research and Development to the N.A.T.O. Countries) was held at the University of Liege, in Belgium, on December 5–9 last, and was attended by about 200 delegates. The seventeen papers which were presented and discussed were grouped under the following headings, although their subject matter sometimes overlapped these boundaries:

The present paper is about numerical simulations of one‐ and two‐dimensional lean hydrogen combustion at an equivalence ratio of 0.7. The initial flat two‐dimensional flames show unstable behavior. The instabilities generate flame wrinkling and flame induced turbulence. As a result, cusp‐like structures arise that both merge and break up in new cusps. Therefore, physically, the laminar burning velocity associated to an adiabatic flat flame does not exist. Instead, a statistical effective burning velocity and flame width develop in which the cusp like structures and their effects are included. The purpose of this paper is to describe the phenomena with a reduced chemical approach.

Simulations are performed with detailed kinetics, to study the main properties and dynamics of the wrinkling. An attempt is made to reduce the chemistry employing flamelet generated manifolds to make a step towards large‐scale, low cost simulations, which are still able to capture the physics. Here the manifold was built of premixed flames with variations of stretch, unburnt temperature and equivalence ratio. A priori correlations are presented, together with results from actual reduced chemistry simulations.

It was found that with introduction of variation of equivalence ratio into the manifold the main physical phenomena are captured. Moreover, an effective inclusion of differential diffusion was succesfully tested and applied. Results of effective burning velocities and flame widths are presented.

The paper shows the potential of performing accurate simulations using the chemical reduction technique of flamelet generated manifolds for pure lean hydrogen flames.

This study aims to present a basic mathematical model for investigating the structure of counter-flow non-premixed laminar flames propagating through uniformly-distributed organic fuel particles considering preheat, drying, vaporization, reaction and oxidizer zones.

Lycopodium particles and air are taken as biofuel and oxidizer, respectively. Dimensionalized and non-dimensionalized forms of mass and energy conservation equations are derived for each zone taking into account proper boundary and jump conditions. Subsequently, to solve the governing equations, an asymptotic method is used. For validation purpose, results achieved from the present analysis are compared with reliable data reported in the literature under certain conditions.

With regard to the comparisons, although different complex non-homogeneous differential equations are solved in this paper, acceptable agreements are observed. Finally, the impacts of significant parameters including fuel and oxidizer Lewis numbers, equivalence ratio, mass particle concentration, fuel and oxidizer mass fractions and lycopodium initial temperature on the flame temperature, flame front position and flow strain rate are elaborately explained.

An asymptotic method for mathematical modeling of counter-flow non-premixed multi-zone laminar flames propagating through lycopodium particles.

A computational fluid dynamics code for the calculation of laminar hypersonic multi‐species gas flows in chemical non‐equilibrium in axisymmetric or two‐dimensional configuration on shared and distributed memory parallel computers is presented and validated. The code is designed to work efficiently in combination with an automatic domain decompositioning method developed to facilitate efficient parallel computations of various flow problems.

The baseline implicit numerical method developed is the lower‐upper symmetric Gauss‐Seidel scheme, which is combined with a sub‐iteration scheme to achieve time‐accuracy up to third‐order. The spatial discretisation is based on Roe's flux‐difference splitting and various non‐linear flux limiters maintaining total‐variation diminishing properties and up to third‐order spatial accuracy in continuous regions of flow. The domain subdivision procedure is designed to work for single‐ and multi‐block domains without being constrained by the block boundaries, and an arbitrary number of processors used for the computation.

The code developed reproduces accurately various types of flows, e.g. flow over a flat plate, diffusive mixing and oscillating shock induced combustion around a projectile fired into premixed gas, and demonstrates close to linear scalability within limits of load imbalance.

The cases considered are axisymmetric or two‐dimensional, and assume laminar flow. An extension to three‐dimensional turbulent flows is left for future work.

Results of a parallel computation, utilising a newly developed automatic domain subdivision procedure, for oscillating shock‐induced combustion around a projectile and various other cases are presented. The influence of entropy correction in Roe's flux‐difference splitting algorithm on diffusive mixing of multi‐species flows was examined.

The purpose of this study is the computational analysis of atmospheric, laminar, stoichiometric and premixed hydrogen-air flames in the presence of a quenching mesh. The assessment of the predictive capability of different reaction mechanisms, the clarification of the relative importance of the thermal and chemical effects for mesh quenching and the investigation of the influence of the mesh geometry on the quenching effectiveness are the focal points of the investigation.

The problem is posed as unsteady, two-dimensional. Differential governing equations are numerically solved by the finite volume method for the reacting hydrogen/air mixture, assuming an ideal gas behaviour. Thermal radiation and buoyancy are neglected. A coupled solver is used to treat the velocity-pressure coupling, along with a stiff-chemistry solver for the chemical kinetics. Second-order discretization schemes are used in space and time. A uniform grid resolution is used, where the grid independence in terms of the flame speed prediction is ensured in preliminary calculations for one-dimensional flames.

It is found that a detailed reaction mechanism is necessary for an accurate prediction. Meshes with round openings are found to be more effective that those with slit openings (SOs), by a factor of two in the maximum safe gap size. A perforated plate is observed to have a higher quenching potential compared to a wire mesh, for SOs. It is also found that the heat loss to the wall is the dominating quenching mechanism for the present problem, whereas adsorption of radicals plays a subordinate role.

In contrast to the previous studies in the field, a detailed reaction mechanism is applied instead of a single-step one, while still using the latter for comparison. The role of wall-radicals interaction for the quenching effectiveness of the mesh is addressed for the first time. Parametric studies are performed on the mesh geometry, which was not done before. Hydrogen is considered as fuel in contrast to the great majority of the previous work.

The purpose of this paper is to numerically investigate the three-dimensional (3D) reacting turbulent two-phase flow field of a scaled swirl-stabilized gas turbine combustor using the commercial computational fluid dynamic (CFD) software ANSYS FLUENT. The first scope of the study aims to explicitly compare the predictive capabilities of two turbulence models namely Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes and Scale Adaptive Simulation for a reasonable trade-off between accuracy of results and global computational cost when applied to simulate swirl-stabilized spray combustion. The second scope of the study is to couple chemical reactions to the turbulent flow using a realistic chemistry model and also to model the local chemical non-equilibrium(NEQ) effects caused by turbulent strain such as flame stretching.

Standard Eulerian and Lagrangian formulations are used to describe both gaseous and liquid phases, respectively. The computing method includes a two-way coupling in which phase properties and spray source terms are interchanging between the two phases within each coupling time step. The fuel used is liquid jet-A1 which is injected in the form of a polydisperse spray and the droplet evaporation rate is calculated using the infinite conductivity model. One-component (n-decane) and two-component fuels (n-decane+toluene) are used as jet-A1 surrogates. The combustion model is based on the mean mixture fraction and its variance, and a presumed-probability density function is used to model turbulent-chemistry interactions. The instantaneous thermochemical state necessary for the chemistry tabulation is determined by using initially the equilibrium (EQ) assumption and thereafter, detailed NEQ calculations through the steady flamelets concept. The combustion chemistry of these surrogates is represented through a reduced chemical kinetic mechanism (CKM) comprising 1,045 reactions among 139 species, derived from the detailed jet-A1 surrogate model, JetSurf 2.0 using a sensitivity based method, Alternate Species Elimination.

Numerical results of the gas velocity, the gas temperature and the species molar fractions are compared with their experimental counterparts obtained from a steady state flame available in the literature. It is observed that, SAS coupled to the tabulated flamelet-based chemistry, predicts reasonably the main flame trends, while URANS even provided with the same combustion model and computing resources, leads to a poor prediction of the global flame trends, emphasizing the asset of a proper resolution when simulating spray flames.

The steady flamelet model even coupled with a robust turbulence model does not reproduce accurately the trend of species with slow oxidation kinetics such as CO and H2, because of the restrictiveness of the solutions space of flamelet equations and the assumption of unity Lewis for all species.

This work is adding a contribution for spray flame modeling and can be seen as an extension to the significant efforts for the modeling of gaseous flames using robust turbulence models coupled with the tabulated flamelet-based chemistry approach to considerably reduce computing cost. The exclusive use of a commercial CFD code widely used in the industry allows a direct application of this simulation approach to industrial configurations while keeping computing cost reasonable.

This study is useful to engineers interested in designing combustors of gas turbines and others combustion systems fed with liquid fuels.

The paper aims to be a first step toward the efficient, yet accurate, solution of detailed combustion fields using the lattice Boltzmann (LB) method, where applications are still limited due to both the stiffness of the governing equations and the large amount of fields to solve.

The suggested methodology for model reduction is developed in the setting of slow invariant manifold construction, including details of the while. The simplest LB equation is used in order to work out the procedure of coupling of the reduced model with the flow solver.

The proposed method is validated with the 2D simulation of a premixed laminar flame in the hydrogen‐air mixture, where a remarkable computational speedup and memory saving are demonstrated.

Because of the chosen detailed LB model, the flow field may be described with unsatisfactory accuracy: this motivates further investigation in this direction in the near future.

A new framework of simulation of reactive flows is available, based on a coupling between accurate reduced reaction mechanism and the LB representation of the flow phenomena. Hence, the paper includes implications on how to perform accurate reactive flow simulations at a fraction of the cost required in the detailed model.

This paper meets an increasing need to have efficient and accurate numerical tools for modelling complex phenomena, such as pollutant formation during combustion.

Decreasing energy demand due to improved building standards requires the development of new biomass combustion technologies to be able to provide individual biomass heating solutions. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, the development of a pellet water heating stove with minimal emission at high thermal efficiency.

The single components of a 10 kW water heating pellet stove are analysed and partly redesigned considering the latest scientific findings and experimental know‐how in combustion engineering. The outcome of this development is a 12 kW prototype which is subsequently down‐scaled to a 6 kW prototype. Finally, the results of the development are evaluated by testing of an accredited institute.

Based on an existing pellet water heating stove, the total excess air ratio was reduced, a strict air staging was implemented and the fuel supply was homogenized. All three measures improved the operating performance regarding emissions and thermal efficiency. The evaluation of the development process showed that the CO emissions are reduced by over 90 per cent during full load and by 30‐60 per cent during minimum load conditions. Emissions of particulate matter are reduced by 70 per cent and the thermal efficiency increased to 95 per cent.

The result represents a new state of technology in this sector for minimal emissions and maximal thermal efficiency, which surpasses the directives of the Eco label “UZ37” in Austria and “Blauer Engel” in Germany, which are amongst the most stringent performance requirements in the European Union. Hence this design possesses a high potential as heating solution for low and passive energy houses.

A mathematical model has been developed to study turbulent, confined, swirling flows under reacting non‐premixed conditions. The model solves the conservation equations of mass, momentum, energy, species, and two additional equations for the turbulent kinetic energy and the turbulent length scale. Combustion has been modelled by means of a one‐step overall chemical reaction. The numerical predictions based on the eddy‐break‐up model of turbulent combustion show a recirculation zone in the form of a one‐celled toroidal vortex at the combustor centreline. High levels of turbulence characterize the recirculation zone, whose diameter and velocity first decrease and then increase as the magnitude of the outer swirl number is first decreased from counter‐swirl to zero and then increased to co‐swirl flow conditions. Counter‐swirl produces steeper velocity gradients at the inter‐jet shear layer, promotes faster mixing and yields better combustion efficiency than co‐swirl. The numerical results are compared with those obtained under non‐reacting conditions in order to assess the influence of the heat release on the size of the recirculation zone.

Low combustion completeness has been the main defect of hybrid rockets. The present study tries to address the problem by bringing up the setup of the precombustion zone, which do not increase the manufacture cost and complexity.

A precombustion zone can provide a space for the liquid oxidizer to vaporize before entering the combustion zone, and prevents the endothermic effect of liquid oxidizer which can block the chemical reaction as well as the fuel regression. Therefore, this design is expected to raise the combustion completeness. The numerical simulation focuses on the flow field inside a cylindrical hybrid combustor. The distribution of temperature, combustion mode, mass fraction of reactants, velocity, combustion completeness, and solid‐fuel regression rate are presented.

With the setup of prevaporized zone of appropriate length, the upstream separation bubble which is unobvious for the case with no prevaporized zone can increase the mixing of reactants, and then increases the combustion completeness. Besides, the radial temperature distribution is more uniform. But when the length of prevaporized zone exceeds about one fourth of the combustor length, due to no enough space for the reactants to react, the combustion completeness begins to decrease and the radial temperature distribution becomes uneven. Therefore, a prevaporized zone with about 24 per cent of the combustor length can have optimum combustion completeness in the present study.

This study provides a useful design to raise the combustion completeness of a traditional hybrid rocket. However, the manufacture cost and complexity are not increased. So the results can be a good reference for the hybrid rocket designers.