Atmospheric low swirl burner flow characterization with stereo PIV

The lean premixed prevaporized (LPP) burner concept is now used in most of the new generation gas turbines to reduce flame temperature and pollutants by operating near the lean blow-off limit. The common strategy to assure stable combustion is to resort to swirl stabilized flames in the burner. Nevertheless, the vortex breakdown phenomenon in reactive swirling flows is a very complex 3D mechanism, and its dynamics are not yet completely understood. Among the available measurement techniques to analyze such flows, stereo PIV (S-PIV) is now a reliable tool to quantify the instantaneous three velocity components in a plane (2D–3C). It is used in this paper to explore the reactive flow of a small scale, open to atmosphere, LPP burner (50 kW). The burner is designed to produce two distinct topologies (1) that of a conventional high swirl burner and (2) that of a low swirl burner. In addition, the burner produces a lifted flame that allows a good optical access to the whole recirculation zone in both topologies. The flow is studied over a wide range of swirl and Reynolds numbers at different equivalence ratios. Flow statistics are presented for 1,000 S-PIV snapshots at each configuration. In both reactive and cold nonreactive flow, stability diagrams define the domains of the low and high swirl topologies. Due to the relatively simple conception of the physical burner, this information can be easily used for the validation of CFD computations of the burner flow global structure. Near field pressure measurements reveal the presence of peaks in the power spectra, which suggests the presence of periodical coherent features for almost all configurations. Algorithms have been developed to identify and track large periodic traveling coherent structures from the statistically independent S-PIV realizations. Flow temporal evolution is reconstructed with a POD-based method, providing an additional tool for the understanding of flow topologies and numerical codes validation.     

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.     

Inviscid,laminar and turbulent opposed flows

This paper attempts to reproduce numerically previous experimental findings with opposed flows and extends their range to quantify the effects of upstream pipes and nozzles with inviscid, laminar and turbulent flows. The choice of conservation equations, boundary conditions, algorithms for their solution, the degree of grid dependence, numerical diffusion and the validity of numerical approximations are justified with supporting calculations where necessary. The results of all calculations on the stagnation plane show maximum strain rates close to the annular exit from the nozzles and pipes for lower separations and it can be expected that corresponding reacting flows will tend to extinguish in this region with the extinction moving towards the axis. With laminar flows, the maximum strain rate increased with Reynolds number and the maximum values were generally greater than with inviscid flows and smaller than with turbulent flows. With large separations, the strain rates varied less and this explains some results with reacting flows where the extinction appeared to begin on the axis. The turbulent‐flow calculations allowed comparison of three common variants of a two‐equation first‐moment closure. They provided reasonable and useful indications of strain rates but none correctly represented the rms of velocity fluctuations on the axis and close to the stagnation plane. As expected, those designed to deal with this problem produced results in better agreement with experiment but were still imperfect. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

关于湍流拟序结构的思考

本文在简要地回顾了30多年来湍流拟序结构研究的进展之后,评述了目前拟序结构研究的动态。笔者强调准确的湍流场数据库建立的重要性,它是定量描述和研究拟序结构的基础。笔者评述了关于拟序结构目前流行的几种观点和方法,认为应当把研究拟序结构的动力学作为我们研究的目标。笔者深信准确掌握拟序结构的动力学规律,对于预测和控制湍流将有极大的推动。      

Intense Reynolds-stress events in turbulent ducts

The aim of the present work is to investigate the role of intense Reynolds shear-stress events in the generation of the secondary flow in turbulent ducts. We consider the connected regions of flow where the product of the instantaneous fluctuations of two velocity components is higher than a threshold based on the long-time turbulence statistics, in the spirit of the three-dimensional quadrant analysis proposed by Lozano-Durán et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 694, 2012, pp. 100–130). We examine both the geometrical properties of these structures and their contribution to the mean in-plane velocity components, and we perfom a comparison with turbulent channel flow at similar Reynolds number. The contribution to a certain mean quantity is defined as the ensemble average over the detected coherent structures, weighted with their own occupied volume fraction. In the core region of the duct, the contribution of intense events to the wall-normal component of the mean velocity is in very good agreement with that in the channel, despite the presence of the secondary flow in the former. Additionally, the shapes of the three-dimensional objects do not differ significantly in both flows. In the corner region of the duct, the proximity of the walls affects both the geometrical properties of the coherent structures and the contribution to the mean component of the vertical velocity. However, such contribution is less relevant than that of the complementary portion of the flow not included in such objects. Our results show that strong Reynolds shear-stress events are affected by the presence of a corner but, despite the important role of these structures in the dynamics of wall-bounded turbulent flows, their contribution to the secondary flow is relatively low, both in the core and in the corner.     

Large-eddy Simulation of Triangular-stabilized Lean Premixed Turbulent Flames: Quality and Error Assessment

In this numerical study, an algebraic flame surface wrinkling (AFSW) reaction submodel based on the progress variable approach is implemented in the large-eddy simulation (LES) context and validated against the triangular stabilized bluff body flame configuration measurements i.e. in VOLVO test rig. The quantitative predictability of the AFSW model is analyzed in comparison with another well validated turbulent flame speed closure (TFC) combustion model in order to help assess the behaviour of the present model and to further help improve the understanding of the flow and flame dynamics. Characterization of non-reacting (or cold) and reacting flows are performed using various subgrid scale models for consistent grid size variation with 300,000 (coarse), 1.2 million (intermediate) and 2.4 million (fine) grid cells. For non-reacting flows at inlet velocity of 17?m/s and inlet temperature 288?K, coarse grid leads to over prediction of turbulence quantities due to low dissipation at the early stage of flow development behind the bluff body that convects downstream eventually polluting the resulting solution. The simulated results with the intermediate (and fine) grid for mean flow and turbulence quantities, and the vortex shedding frequency (f_s) closely match experimental data. For combusting flows for lean propane/air mixtures at 35?m/s and 600?K, the vortex shedding frequency increase threefold compared with cold scenario. The predicted results of mean, rms velocities and reaction progress variable are generally in good agreement with experimental data. For the coarse grid the combustion predictions show a shorter recirculation region due to higher turbulent burning rate. Finally, both cold and reacting LES data are analyzed for uncertainty in the solution using two quality assessment techniques: two-grid estimator by Celik, and model and grid variation by Klein. For both approaches, the resolved turbulent kinetic energy is used to estimate the grid quality and error assessment. The quality assessment reveals that the cold flows are well resolved even on the intermediate mesh, while for the reacting flows even the fine mesh is locally not sufficient in the flamelet region. The Klein approach estimates that depending on the recirculation region in cold scenario both numerical and model errors rise near the bluff-body region, while in combusting flows these errors are significant behind the stabilizing point due to preheating of unburned mixture and reaction heat release. The total error mainly depends on the numerical error and the influence of model error is low for this configuration.     

Identification of local extinction topology in axisymmetric bluff‐body diffusion flames with a reactedness‐mixture fraction presumed probability density function model

The effects of finite‐rate chemistry, such as partial extinctions and re‐ignitions, are investigated in turbulent non‐pre‐mixed reacting flows stabilized in the wake of an axisymmetric bluff‐body burner. A two‐dimensional large‐eddy simulation procedure is employed that uses a partial equilibrium/two‐scalar reactedness mixture fraction probability density function (PDF) combustion sub‐model, which is applied at the sub‐grid scale (SGS) level. An anisotropic sub‐grid eddy–viscosity and two equations for the SGS turbulence kinetic and scalar energies complete the SGS closure model. The scalar covariances required in the joint PDF formulation are obtained from an extended scale‐similarity assumption between the resolved and the sub‐grid fluctuations. Extinction due to strong turbulence/chemistry interactions is recognized with the help of a ‘critical’, locally variable, turbulent Damkohler number criterion, while transient localized extinctions and re‐ignitions are treated with a Lagrangian transport equation for a reactedness progress variable. Comparisons with available experimental data suggested that the formulated approach was capable of identifying the effects of large‐scale vortex structure activity, which were inherent in the reacting wake and dominant in the counterpart isothermal flows that otherwise would have been obscured if a standard time‐averaged procedure had been used. Additionally, the post‐extinction and re‐ignition behaviour and its time‐varying interaction with the large‐scale structure dynamics were more appropriately addressed within the context of the present time‐dependent method. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An LDV system for turbulence length scale measurements

An LDV system for making spatial correlation measurements of velocity fluctuations in turbulent nonreacting and reacting flows is presented. The LDV system is the dual beam type and consists of an elongated probe volume and a two-point optical fiber detector. Results are presented of the integral length scale measured in a nonreacting grid generated turbulent flow.A version of this paper was presented at the ASME Winter Annual Meeting of 1984 and printed in AMD, Vol. 66     

条件矩模型模拟湍流扩散燃烧

对条件矩模型模拟湍流扩散燃烧进行了初步的研究.在条件矩模型中,标量的统计是以混合分数为条件的,条件平均使得非线性化学反应源项可以在一阶条件下被封闭.模拟结果和美国Sandia国家实验室的实验结果对比表明:对温度、主要组分浓度的预报结果是令人满意的,NO浓度的预报在趋势上也符合实验结果.误差分析表明,提高标量耗散率的预报精度和二阶条件矩模型都将有助于推动条件矩模型的发展.     

Proper Orthogonal Decomposition of the mixing layer flow into coherent structures and turbulent Gaussian fluctuations

The Proper Orthogonal Decomposition is used to decompose fluctuating turbulent flows into a coherent non-Gaussian component and background fluctuations. An application is performed from 2D experimental data of a turbulent plane mixing layer flow. The analyses of the energy spectra and the Probability Density Function of the velocity field show that POD extracts an incoherent part approaching the quasi-Gaussian distribution properties. The background fluctuations are homogeneous with small amplitude. New future applications are then conceivable like the modeling of the incoherent part for particular inflow condition generation methodology and the analysis of the cyclic velocity field variabilities in Internal Combustion engine flow. To cite this article: Ph. Druault et al., C. R. Mecanique 333 (2005).     

Evaporation of bi-component droplets in a heated, highly turbulent flow

This work aims to understand the phenomena that occur in a combustion chamber where multi-component fuel droplets are injected. Many evaporation models exist but the influence of turbulence on spray vaporization is not yet well understood. This study gives a useful database to improve these models. The objective of the work is to measure the dispersion and the evaporation of bi-component (octane/3-pentanone) droplets and the resulting vapor mixing in a well-known, heated, highly turbulent channel flow. The carrier flow shows high turbulence levels, flat profiles for the mean velocity and the velocity fluctuations. The injected droplets have a large variety of behaviors due to the large polydispersion and to the turbulence. The evolution of 3-pentanone liquid concentration, mass flux, and droplet clusters are described. Mean concentration, fluctuations of concentration, and mixing of the vapor phase are characterized.     

Numerical modeling of 3-D turbulent two-phase flow and coal combustion in a pulverized-coal combustor

In the present paper, a multifluid model of two-phase flows with pulverized-coal combustion, based on a continuum-trajectory model with reacting particle phase, is developed and employed to simulate the 3-D turbulent two-phase flows and combustion in a new type of pulverized-coal combustor with one primary-air jet placed along the wall of the combustor. The results show that: (1) this continuum-trajectory model with reacting particle phase can be used in practical engineering to qualitatively predict the flame stability, concentrations of gas species, possibilities of slag formation and soot deposition, etc.; (2) large recirculation zones can be created in the combustor, which is favorable to the ignition and flame stabilization. Sponsored by the National Key Projects of Fundamental Research of China.     

A Band-Width Filtered Forcing Based Generation of Turbulent Inflow Data for Direct Numerical or Large Eddy Simulations and its Application to Primary Breakup of Liquid Jets

Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) and Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of spatially inhomogeneous flows strongly depend on turbulent inflow boundary conditions. Realistic coherent structures need to be prescribed to avoid the immediate damping of random velocity fluctuations. A new turbulent inflow data generation method based on an auxiliary simulation of forced turbulence in a box is presented. The new methodology combines the flexibility of the synthetic turbulence generation with the accuracy of precursor simulation methods. In contrast to most auxiliary simulations, the new approach provides full control over the turbulence properties and computational costs remain reasonable. The lack of physical information and artificiality attested with pseudo-turbulence methods is overcome since the inflow data stems from a solution of the Navier-Stokes equations. The generated velocity fluctuations are by construction divergence-free and exhibit the non-Gaussian characteristics of turbulence. The generated inflow data is applied to the simulation of multiphase primary breakup.     

Events of High Polymer Activity in Drag Reducing Flows

The mechanism of drag reduction in turbulent flows due to polymers has been investigated with help of a direct numerical simulation. In particular, we consider the interaction between turbulent velocity fluctuations and polymers in terms of elastic energy that can be stored in the polymer. To this end all the terms of the elastic energy budget have been computed. The most interesting term is the production of elastic energy due to turbulent fluctuations, because it describes the interaction between polymers and turbulence. Although this term appears to be small in the average, it turns out that it can reach very large values instantaneously and intermittently, and the energy transfer from polymer to turbulence is located in very well defined areas inside the channel. This implies that locally there is a strong interaction between the polymer and the turbulent flow structure, and this strong interaction is mostly seen in areas of high velocity fluctuations.     

Investigation of turbulence modification in a non-reactive two-phase flow

In a two-phase flow the influence of a dispersed phase on the turbulence properties of a continuous phase, known as turbulence modification, is investigated. An experimental approach is discussed that is suitable for studying the decay of grid-generated turbulence in a vertically orientated wind tunnel with a cross-section large enough to avoid influences from walls. Phase Doppler anemometry is used to characterize both single and two-phase flow by measuring mean axial and radial velocity components, velocity fluctuations, turbulent kinetic energy, and integral time scales. By direct comparison of results from single- and two-phase flows, the feedback of the dispersed phase on the continuous phase can be isolated. The data is used to deduce a source term for particle-induced turbulence production appropriate for a numerical simulation of the flow, based on the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. Although of special importance for a detailed understanding of turbulent two-phase combustion, additional complexity introduced by evaporation and chemical reactions is avoided by using glass beads as dispersed phase.     

AN ANALYTICAL DESIGN METHODOLOGY FOR AN ANNULAR COMBUSTOR

SUMMARY

This paper describes a computational procedure for the optimization of the performance parameters of a simulated annular combustor. This method has been applied to analyze the influence of the performance parameters and geometries on the annular combustor characteristics and provide a good understanding of combustor internal flow fields, and therefore it can be used for guiding the combustor design process. The approach is based on the solution of governing nonlinear, elliptic partial differential equations for 3-D axisymmetric recirculating turbulent reacting swirling flows and the modelling of turbulence, combustion, thermal radiation and pollutant formation. The turbulence effects are introduced via the modified two-equation κ-ε model. Turbulent combustion is modelled using the κ-ε-g model and a two-step turbulent combustion model is employed for the excess emission of carbon monoxide CO. For the evaluation of the NO pollutant formation rate, the NO pollutant formation model, which takes into account the influence of turbulence, presented here. The radiative heat transfer is handled by the heat flux model. The predictions of the combustor character-istics and performance parameters are made using the present approach.

Predictions of velocity, length of the recirculation zone, combustion efficiency and wall temperature are compared with measurements. Agreement between the predictions and experimental data is very satisfactory.     

Phase-locked analysis of velocity fluctuations in a turbulent free swirling jet after vortex breakdown

Large-scale organized vortical structures were studied experimentally in a free swirling jet of air experiencing vortex precession (PVC) at ambient conditions. Detailed measurements were performed in the region near the nozzle exit using phase-locked LDV and PIV, at a Reynolds number of Re ?? 24,400 and a swirl parameter S ?? 1.0. The investigation allowed reconstruction of the time-averaged flowfield, with the associated distribution of turbulent fluctuations, the phase-locked structure of the jet and the associated precessing vortex structure. An original joint analysis of power spectra and probability density functions of velocity data led to quantification of the PVC effect on turbulent fluctuations. This analysis showed that the PVC contribution can be properly separated from the background random turbulence, reproducing the results of phase-locked measurements. It is found that the background turbulence in the near field is substantially weaker if compared to the coherent fluctuations induced by vortex precession.     

Turbulence Statistics and Scalar Transport in Highly-Sheared Premixed Flames

This paper describes recent progress in the analysis of the nature of turbulent premixed flames stabilised behind an axisymmetric baffle which are of fundamental interest in the development of new and cleaner combustion systems. The work includes the use of laser-based diagnostics for velocity and temperature measurements, which are extended to the analysis of turbulence statistics, including the energy spectrum and typical length scales in a reacting shear layer. The results provided experimental evidence of the extension of the flamelet regime beyond the Klimov--Williams criterion. Arguments based on the shape of the weighted-joint-probability distributions of axial velocity and temperature fluctuations show that the counter-gradient nature of heat flux is associated with the preferential deceleration of products of combustion in relation to the cold reactants.     

High-order discontinuous Galerkin method for applications to multicomponent and chemically reacting flows

This article focuses on the development of a discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method for simulations of multicomponent and chemically reacting flows. Compared to aerodynamic flow applications, in which DG methods have been successfully employed, DG simulations of chem-ically reacting flows introduce challenges that arise from flow unsteadiness, combustion, heat release, compressibility effects, shocks, and variations in thermodynamic proper-ties. To address these challenges, algorithms are developed, including an entropy-bounded DG method, an entropy-residual shock indicator, and a new formulation of artificial viscosity. The performance and capabilities of the resulting DG method are demonstrated in several relevant applications, including shock/bubble interaction, turbulent combustion, and detonation. It is concluded that the developed DG method shows promising performance in application to multicompo-nent reacting flows. The paper concludes with a discussion of further research needs to enable the application of DG methods to more complex reacting flows.