Large Eddy Simulation and Extended Dynamic Mode Decomposition of Flow-Flame Interaction in a Lean Premixed Low Swirl Stabilized Flame

In this paper, numerical studies are reported on the effect of flow-flame interaction at large and medium scales and its impact on flame stabilization in a lean premixed low swirl stabilized methane/air flame. The numerical simulations are based on a large eddy simulation (LES) approach with a three-scalar flamelet model with equations for mixture fraction and fuel mass fraction and the level-set G-equation to account respectively for stratification of the mixture, fuel leakage at the trailing edge of the flame, and tracking of the flame front. Distinct frequencies, associated with the flame stabilization process, are identified from point data of LES in the outer and inner shear layers of the burner induced flow field. To understand the effect of the spatial structures related to the observed flow frequencies, a dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) is performed. Based on the analysis of LES data, frequency specific coherent flow structures are extracted along with associated flame structures through an extended version of DMD. The inner shear layer generated vortices are associated with recurring frequency specific coherent structures of both flow and flame and contribute to the flame stabilization in the outer regions of the flow.     

Simultaneous OH and Schlieren visualization of premixed flames at the lean blow-out limit

The structure of an air-propane premixed flame was studied experimentally at the lean flammability limit, using Schlieren photography synchronized with OH-imaging done with the Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence (PLIF) technique. The flame was studied in a wide range of fuel equivalence ratios. Various steps in the process of the flame destabilization were investigated, including partial lift-off, stable lift-off, and final blow-out conditions. The flame structure was visualized for each stage showing the transition from a flame held at the nozzle to a flame held by the flow structures. In order to study the latter conditions in more detail the flame was acoustically excited at the preferred mode frequency generating large, stable, coherent structures in the core region. The modified flame structure was visualized to understand the interaction between the flame and vortical flow dynamics.It is shown that for the flow conditions when the flame cannot be stabilized at the nozzle, a new anchoring point is reached at the location of the initial vortex roll-up in the jet shear layer. At this point the flow reversal and transition to turbulence produce stagnation points with relatively low local velocities and velocity gradients where the flame can be stabilized. When the flame jet is being forced at the jet most unstable frequency, large coherent structures are formed and the flame is stabilized intermittently on these vortices.     

The stabilization mechanism of the lifted jet diffusion flame in the hysteresis region

Recent experimental efforts focused on near-field coherent vortex dynamics, and their impact on stabilization of a lifted jet diffusion flame in the hysteresis region are reported. Simultaneous jet flow and flame visualizations are conducted first to obtain a global feature of flow/flame interaction. The statistical liftoff heights are calculated by a DIP (digital image processing) method. The gas concentration and velocity distributions induced by the vortex evolution as well as the corresponding flame front motion are deduced from phase-averaged measurements of planar Mie-scattering gas concentration images, LDV and ion-signals, respectively. The planar gas concentration technique employed here extends our previous work (Chao et al. 1990, 1991 a) to include phase-averaging. Results of the experiments show that the most probable flame base locations in the hysteresis region are at the coherent vortex roll-up and pairing locations. The deeply entrained air lump caused by large-scale vortices during roll-up and pairing is the main obstruction to flame propagation back to the nozzle exit and causes the hysteresis phenomenon.     

Buoyancy-Driven Coherent Structures in Free Round Flame

Complex interactions between fluid dynamics and combustion processes areamong the topics most often undertaken in recent years. The free roundflames dominated by large-scale vortex structures seem to be a veryinteresting type of flow as indicated by the many experimental resultsavailable in literature. The so-called outer coherent structures whichare believed to be generated as a result of buoyancy-driven instabilitywere experimentally investigated by means of laser Doppler anemometry.The results of spectral analysis of fluctuating velocity componentsrevealed the regular oscillations of the flow field with well-defineddiscrete frequencies depending upon the mixture composition. Theexternal excitation of coherent structures at a frequency matching theirnatural shedding frequency allowed the construction of velocity vectormaps of organised vorticity. From the results obtained one may statethat the coherent vortices are located in the outer part of flame withthe trajectory of their centres moving far from the flame front. Theirlocation and very large sizes (comparable with the flow width) suggesttheir important role in mixing and, especially, in the entrainmentprocesses which are the essential in combustion systems.The dimensionalanalysis taking into account the characteristic parameters of vorticesand thermal structure of the flame suggests that buoyancy forces havesignificant impact on organised vorticity and can be considered asresponsible for its origin.     

Characteristics of strongly-forced turbulent jets and non-premixed jet flames

Previous researchers have demonstrated that strong pulsations of the fuel flow rate can significantly reduce the flame length and luminosity of laminar/transitional non-premixed jet flames. The physical mechanisms responsible for these changes are investigated experimentally in acoustically-forced jet flows where the peak velocity fluctuations are up to eight times the mean flow velocity. Both reacting and non-reacting flows were studied and Reynolds numbers, based on the mean flow properties, ranged from 800 to 10,000 (corresponding to peak Reynolds numbers of 1,450–23,000), and forcing frequencies ranged from 290 to 1,140 Hz. Both the first and second organ-pipe resonance modes of the fuel delivery tube were excited to obtain these frequencies. An analysis of the acoustic forcing characteristics within the resonance tube is provided in order to understand the source of the high amplitude forcing. Flow visualization of jets with first resonant forcing confirms the presence of large-scale coherent vortices and strong reverse flow near the exit of the fuel tube. With second-resonant forcing, however, vortices are not emitted from the tube as they are drawn back into the fuel tube before they can fully form. Increased fine-scale turbulence is associated with both resonant cases, but particularly at second resonance. The power spectra of the velocity fluctuations for a resonantly pulsed jet show the presence of an inertial subrange indicating that the flow becomes fully turbulent even for mean-Reynolds-number jets that are nominally laminar. It is shown that these pulsed jet flows exhibit strong similarities to synthetic jets and that the Strouhal number, based on the maximum velocity at the fuel tube exit, is the dominant parameter for scaling these flows. The Strouhal number determines the downstream location where the coherent vortices breakdown, and is found to provide better collapse of flame length data (both current and previous) than other parameters that have been used in the literature.     

入口速度比对射流拟序结构的影响

为了深入了解湍流流动机理以及湍流拟序结构发现过程的影响因素，本文采用大涡模拟方法对不同入口射流伴流速度比的平面湍射流流动进行了数值模拟。采用分步投影法求解动量方程，亚格子项采用标准Smagorinsky亚格子模式模拟，压力泊松方程采用修正的循环消去法快速求解，空间方程采用二阶精度的差分格式，在时间方向上采用二阶精度的显式差分格式。模拟结果给出了平面射流中湍流拟序结构的瞬态发展演变过程，分析了入口速度比对射流拟序结构发展演化过程及宏观流场形态的影响。为进一步研究射流拟序结构及其在湍流流动中的作用提供了基础。     

Role of Buoyancy on Instabilities and Structure of Transitional Gas Jet Diffusion Flames

Transitional jet diffusion flames provide the link between dynamics of laminar and turbulent flames. In this study, instabilities and their interaction with the flow structure are explored in a transitional jet diffusion flame, with focus on isolating buoyancy effects. Experiments are conducted in hydrogen flames with fuel jet Reynolds number of up to 2,200 and average jet velocity of up to 54 m/s. Since the fuel jet is laminar at the injector exit, the transition from laminar to turbulent flame occurs by the hydrodynamic instabilities in the shear layer of fuel jet. The instabilities and the flow structures are visualized and quantified by the rainbow schlieren deflectometry technique coupled with a high-speed imaging system. The schlieren images acquired at 2,000 frames per second allowed exposure time of 23 μs with spatial resolution of 0.4 mm. Results identify a hitherto unknown secondary instability in the flame surface, provide explanation for the observed intermittency in the breakpoint length, show coherent vortical structures downstream of the flame breakpoint, and illustrate gradual breakdown of coherent structures into small-scale random structures in the far field turbulent region.     

Noncircular jets in combustion systems

Combustion dynamics of burners with corners were studied using Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence (PLIF) imaging. The effect of sharp corners on the air flow dynamics, shown earlier in cold flow tests, was also found in the reacting flow of a flame. The sharp corners interrupted the coherent structures generated in an axisymmetric shear flow. The combustion at the flat sections of the flame occurred in periodic, coherent large scale structures but was continuous and homogeneous in the vertices sections. The azimuthal structure of the noncircular flame changed in a pattern similar to that found in nonreacting flows. Combined regions of small- and large-scale mixing in the same flow, a unique feature of burners having sharp corners, is beneficial for combustion applications.     

Non-linear Response of Turbulent Premixed Flames to Imposed Inlet Velocity Oscillations of Two Frequencies

This paper describes an experimental study investigating the non-linear response of lean premixed air/ethylene flames to strong inlet velocity perturbations of two frequencies. The combustor has a centrally-placed bluff body and a short quartz section. The annulus between the bluff body and the flow tube, which also housed the acoustic pressure transducers, allowed the reactants into the combustor. The inlet flow was perturbed using loudspeakers. High speed laser tomography, OH* chemiluminescence and OH Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence (PLIF) have been used for flow visualization, heat release and flame surface density (FSD) measurements respectively. The heat release fluctuations increased initially linearly with inlet velocity amplitude for a single frequency forcing, with saturation occurring after forcing amplitudes of around 15% of the bulk velocity, which was found to occur due to vortex roll up and subsequent flame annihilation. The introduction of energy at the second frequency (i.e, the harmonic) was found to change the vortex formation and shedding frequency, depending on the level of forcing. This resulted in a non-linear flame response transfer function (defined as the amplitude of unsteady heat release divided by the amplitude of velocity perturbation at the fundamental) whose amplitude depended greatly on the amount of harmonic content present in the perturbations. The introduction of higher harmonics reduced the flame annihilation events, which are responsible for saturation, thus reducing non-linearity in the amplitude dependence of the flame response. These results were further verified using sequential time-resolved OH PLIF measurements. The findings from this study suggest that the acoustic response of the flame was mostly due to flame area variation effected by modulation of the annular jet and evolution of the shear layers.     

Soot formation in a steady, nonpremixed, recirculating flame

An inverted step burner has been designed in which a steady ethylene, recirculating flame is established. The burner was housed within a vertical wind tunnel. Laser extinction was used to determine the soot volume fraction in the recirculation zone. Temperatures were determined by a thermocouple. One-dimensional laser-Doppler velocity (LDV) measurements were obtained with a frequency shift system to measure the flow field in the recirculating flame. All the measurements were obtained for a fixed ethylene flow rate; a low and a high velocity in the approach flow were investigated.

Variation in air velocity changed the structure of the flame. At low flow conditions, the soot loading has two distinct peaks at the lower and upper edge of the flame. At the higher air velocity, the upper part of the flame has a much lower relative soot loading as a result of the shorter residence time. The location of the peak values of the soot also changed with the residence time. The peak temperature was of the order of 1600°C. The soot loading was low in the regions of high temperature and relatively high in regions of low temperatures, reflecting the important role of thermal radiation in these luminous flames. The LDV measurements were used to reveal the nature of the flow field. The local soot loading in the flame increased as the approach flow velocity increased; this result suggests the possibility that soot may continue to grow when it is recirculated to regions of growth in a flame.     

Effect on flow field characteristics in methane–air non-premixed flame with steam addition

The present paper reports on an experimental study to determine the effect of humidity on the flow field and the flame stability limit in turbulent non-premixed flame, and examines the dynamical behavior of the unsteady aerodynamic flow structures observed on a bluff-body burner at both humid and non-humid air combustion states. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) is used to capture the instantaneous appearance of vortex structures and obtain the quantitative velocity field. Streamlines and velocity contours analysis are used to identify specific flame structures and reveal the effect of steam added on the vortex structure. The results show both central fuel penetration limit and partially quenching limit in the humid air case reduce. The decrease in the critical penetration limit is primarily attributed to a reduction in momentum of the humid air. The flamelet concepts are applied to discuss the partially quenching limit in the blue neck region. The analysis reveals that the large decrease in the partially quenching limit is due to the increase in chemical reaction time of the humid air combustion.     

Spectral and modal analysis of the flow in a helical coil steam generator experiment with large eddy simulation

This paper presents an analysis of flow in the shell side of a 24-degree cut helical coil steam generator (HCSG) with large eddy simulation (LES). In the study, the open source, high-order spectral element CFD code Nek5000 was employed for numerical simulation. LES was performed at a Reynolds number of 9000 based on the inlet velocity and tube diameter. Spectral analysis was carried out along the tube bundle to investigate vortex shedding and to reveal shedding frequencies in HCSGs. Wavelet analysis was carried out to determine the time-frequency information of the fluctuating velocities in the domain. Flow was decomposed into modes with proper orthogonal decomposition, which revealed coherent structures in the flow and evolution of coherent structures in time. For the validation of Nek5000 in complex geometries, results from the numerical simulation were compared with experiments conducted at Texas A&M University. Overall, the LES results showed good agreement with experimental data.     

Uncovering large-scale coherent structures in natural and forced turbulent wakes by combining PIV,POD, and FTLE

Planar velocity data of the unsteady separated flow in the turbulent wake of a circular cylinder obtained by particle image velocimetry (PIV) are analyzed in order to visualize the large-scale coherent structures associated with alternating vortex shedding at a Reynolds number of 2,150. Two different cases are examined: unforced vortex shedding in the natural wake and vortex lock-on incited by forced perturbations superimposed in the inflow velocity. Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) is employed to reconstruct the low-order wake dynamics from randomly sampled snapshots of the velocity field. The reconstructed flow is subsequently used to determine the evolution of the finite-time Lyapunov exponent (FTLE) fields which identify the Lagrangian coherent structures. The results demonstrate that the combination of methods employed offers a powerful visualization tool to uncover large-scale coherent structures and to exemplify vortex dynamics in natural and forced bluff-body wakes.     

Simulation of vortex shedding behind a bluff body flame stabilizer using a hybrid U-RANS/PDF method

The present study aims at the investigation of the effects of turbulence-chemistry interaction on combustion instabilities using a probability density function(PDF) method.The instantaneous quantities in the flow field were decomposed into the Favre-averaged variables and the stochastic fluctuations,which were calculated by unsteady Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes(U-RANS) equations and the PDF model,respectively.A joint fluctuating velocityfrequency-composition PDF was used.The governing equations are solved by a consistent hybrid finite volume/MonteCarlo algorithm on triangular unstructured meshes.A nonreacting flow behind a triangular-shaped bluff body flame stabilizer in a rectilinear combustor was simulated by the present method.The results demonstrate the capability of the present method to capture the large-scale coherent structures.The triple decomposition was performed,by dividing the coherent Favre-averaged velocity into time-averaged value and periodical coherent part,to analyze the coherent and incoherent contributions to Reynolds stresses.A simple modification to the coefficients in the turbulent frequency model will help to improve the simulation results.Unsteady flow fields were depicted by streamlines and vorticity contours.Moreover,the association between turbulence production and vorticity saddle points is illustrated.     

On the Flame-generated Vorticity Dynamics of Bluff-body-stabilized Premixed Flames

This investigation considers the dynamics of flame-generated vorticity for a premixed, submerged bluff-body stabilized flame. Experimentation characterizes the far-field region in particular with a level of detail not previously afforded to this type of flow. Simultaneous particle imaging velocimetry (PIV), Mie scattering and CH ^? chemiluminescence are used to obtain velocity fields and flame location. Mean static pressure measurements at the combustion chamber wall capture the pressure field. Analysis of the flame fronts in relation to the mean velocity and vorticity fields provides useful insight into the interaction of the flame and the flow. The unique nature of the velocity and vorticity fields and their effect on downstream flame structures are explained by the baroclinic torque generation of vorticity. The coupling that exists among pressure, heat release, and baroclinic generation is acknowledged and will influence strategies for control of the baroclinic mechanism.     

含双侧分支受限空间油气爆炸火焰行为与超压特性大涡模拟

为研究含分支结构狭长受限空间油气爆炸特性规律，基于大涡模拟WALE模型和Zimont预混火焰模型，对横截面为100 mm×100 mm的含双侧分支管道受限空间油气泄压爆炸特性进行了数值模拟。通过对火焰形态、火焰传播速度和动态超压3个物理量的对比，验证了所建立模型对于含分支结构受限空间油气爆炸计算的适用性。基于数值模拟结果，对爆炸过程中的流场结构、火焰形态和超压变化规律进行了分析，指出了“浪花状”火焰的形成原因。结果表明:（1）火焰传播进入分支管道前，在主管道和分支管道交界处会产生旋转方向相反的对称涡旋结构，并随着火焰传播不断向分支管道内部发展；（2）当火焰传播进入分支管道后，分支管道内部前期已建立流场决定了火焰的形态，火焰锋面在涡旋结构作用下呈“浪花状”，此后火焰和流场相互影响，流场向湍流转捩，火焰锋面褶皱变形；（3）爆炸超压升压过程可划分为4个阶段，受到火焰锋面面积和分支管道泄压共同作用，表明爆炸流场、火焰行为和动态超压呈现出显著耦合性。     

Three-dimensional temporally resolved measurements of turbulence–flame interactions using orthogonal-plane cinema-stereoscopic PIV

A new orthogonal-plane cinema-stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (OPCS-PIV) diagnostic has been used to measure the dynamics of three-dimensional turbulence–flame interactions. The diagnostic employed two orthogonal PIV planes, with one aligned perpendicular and one aligned parallel to the streamwise flow direction. In the plane normal to the flow, temporally resolved slices of the nine-component velocity gradient tensor were determined using Taylor’s hypothesis. Volumetric reconstruction of the 3D turbulence was performed using these slices. The PIV plane parallel to the streamwise flow direction was then used to measure the evolution of the turbulence; the path and strength of 3D turbulent structures as they interacted with the flame were determined from their image in this second plane. Structures of both vorticity and strain-rate magnitude were extracted from the flow. The geometry of these structures agreed well with predictions from direct numerical simulations. The interaction of turbulent structures with the flame also was observed. In three dimensions, these interactions had complex geometries that could not be reflected in either planar measurements or simple flame–vortex configurations.     

Coherent Vortex Simulation (CVS), A Semi-Deterministic Turbulence Model Using Wavelets

In the spirit of Ha Minh's semi-deterministic model, we propose a new method for computing fully-developed turbulent flows, called Coherent Vortex Simulation (CVS). It is based on the observation that turbulent flows contain both an organized part, the coherent vortices, and a random part, the incoherent background flow. The separation into coherent and incoherent contributions is done using the wavelet coefficients of the vorticity field and the Biot–Savart kernel to reconstruct the coherent and incoherent velocity fields. The evolution of the coherent part is computed using a wavelet basis, adapted at each time step to resolve the regions of strong gradients, while the incoherent part is discarded during the flow evolution, which models turbulent dissipation. The CVS method is similar to LES, but it uses nonlinear multiscale band-pass filters, which depend on the instantaneous flow realization, while LES uses linear low-pass filters, which do not adapt to the flow evolution. As example, we apply the CVS method to compute a time developing two-dimensional mixing layer and a wavelet forced two-dimensional homogeneous isotropic flow. We also demonstrate how walls or obstacles can be taken into account using penalization and compute a two-dimensional flow past an array of cylinders. Finally, we perform the same segmentation into coherent and incoherent components in a three-dimensional homogeneous isotropic turbulent flow. We show that the coherent components correspond to vortex tubes, which exhibit non-Gaussian statistics and long-range correlation, with the same k ^−5/3power-law energy spectrum as the total flow. In contrast, the incoherent components correspond to an homogeneous random background flow which does not contain organized structures and presents an energy equipartition together with a Gaussian PDF of velocity. This justifies their elimination during the CVS computation to model turbulent dissipation. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

LES/CMC of Blow-off in a Liquid Fueled Swirl Burner

Large Eddy Simulations of two-phase flames with the Conditional Moment Closure combustion model have been performed for flow conditions corresponding to stable and blow-off regimes in a swirl n-heptane spray burner. In the case of stable flame (i.e. low air velocity), the predicted mean and r.m.s. velocities and the location and shape of the flame agree reasonably well with experiment. In particular, the presence of localised extinctions is captured in agreement with experiment. Using model constants previously calibrated against piloted jet methane flames (Sandia F) with localised extinction, we obtain that at the experimentally determined blow-off velocity of the swirling spray flame, the predicted flame also blows off, demonstrating that the LES-CMC approach can capture the global extinction point in a realistic configuration.