Manipulation of Large-Scale Vortical Structures and Mixing in a Coaxial Jet with Miniature Jet Actuators Toward Active Combustion Control

Manipulation of large-scale vortical structures and associated mixing in a methane-air coaxial jet is carried out by using miniature jet actuators installed on the inner surface of the annular nozzle. The periodic radial miniature jet injections are achieved with a rapid-response servo-valve. The spatio-temporal primary jet structures are investigated through phase-locked 2C-PIV (2 Component Particle Image Velocimetry) and stereoscopic-PIV. It is found that intense ring-like vortices are produced perfectly in phase with the periodic miniature jet injections regardless of the valve-driven frequency f_v examined. When the Strouhal number St_v, which is defined with f_v, is larger than unity, the ring-like vortices are densely formed and thus methane/air mixing is prompted with low periodic fluctuation. The diameter of the vortices becomes small as St_v is increased, so that the transport range of the inner methane and outer air fluids can be controlled by changing St_v. In addition, the evolution of counter-rotating vortex pair is also observed in the cross-sectional plane. These streamwise vortices are directly formed as a result of the radial miniature jet injection, which leads to entrainment of the ambient fluid near the primary jet shear layer, and they also contribute to the mixing enhancement. Moreover, it is demonstrated that coaxial jet flame characteristics such as carbon monoxide (CO) emission and flame holding can be drastically improved under different equivalence ratios by the present jet control scheme.     

Scalar Mixing and Large-Scale Coherent Structures in a Turbulent Swirling Jet

The paper presents large eddy simulations of co-annular swirling jets into an open domain. In each of the annuli a passive scalar is introduced and its transport is computed. If the exit of the pilot jet is retracted strong coherent flow structures are generated which substantially impact on the transport and mixing of the scalars. Average and instantaneous fields are discussed to address this issue. A conditional averaging technique is devised and applied to velocity and scalars. This allows to quantify the impact of the coherent structures on the mixing process.     

Large-Scale Turbulent Vortical Structures inside a Sudden Expansion Cylinder Chamber

A large eddy simulation (LES) is performed for turbulent flow around a bluff body inside a sudden expansion cylinder chamber, a configuration which resembles a premixed gas turbine combustor. To promote turbulent mixing and to accommodate flame stability, a flame holder is installed inside the combustion chamber. The Smagorinsky model and the Lagrangian dynamic subgrid-scale model are employed and tested. The calculated Reynolds number is 5,000 based on the bulk velocity and the diameter of inlet pipe. The simulation code is constructed by using a general coordinate system based on the physical contravariant velocity components. The predicted turbulent statistics are evaluated by comparing with the laser-doppler velocimetry (LDV) measurement data. The agreement of LES with the experimental data is shown to be satisfactory. Emphasis is placed on the time-dependent evolutions of turbulent vortical structures behind the flame holder. The numerical flow visualizations depict the behavior of large-scale vortices. The turbulent behavior behind the flame holder is analyzed by visualizing the sectional views of vortical structure. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

An Experimental Study of the Near-Field Mixing Characteristics of a Swirling Jet

The present experimental investigation is devoted to the mixing characteristics of a passive scalar in the near-field region of a moderately swirling jet issuing from a fully developed axially rotating pipe flow. Instantaneous streamwise and azimuthal velocity components as well as the temperature were simultaneously accessed by means of a combined X-wire and cold-wire probe. The results indicate a modification of the turbulence structures to that effect that the swirling jet spreads, mixes and evolves faster compared to its non-swirling counterpart. The high correlation between streamwise velocity and temperature fluctuations as well as the streamwise passive scalar flux are even more enhanced due to the addition of swirl, which in turn shortens the distance and hence time needed to mix the jet with the ambient air.     

Large Eddy Simulation of Scalar Mixing in a Coaxial Confined Jet

The highly turbulent flow occurring inside gas-turbine combustors requires accurate simulation of scalar mixing if CFD methods are to be used with confidence in design. This has motivated the present paper, which describes the implementation of a passive scalar transport equation into an LES code, including assessment/testing of alternative discretisation schemes to avoid over/undershoots and excessive smoothing. Both second order accurate TVD and higher order accurate DRP schemes are assessed. The best performance is displayed by a DRP method, but this is only true on fine meshes; it produces similar (or larger) errors to a TVD scheme on coarser meshes, and the TVD approach has been retained for LES applications. The unsteady scalar mixing performance of the LES code is validated against published DNS data for a slightly heated channel flow. Excellent agreement between the current LES predictions and DNS data is obtained, for both velocity and scalar statistics. Finally, the developed methodology is applied to scalar transport in a confined co-axial jet mixing flow, for which experimental data are available. Agreement with statistically averaged fields for both velocity and scalar, is demonstrated to be very good, and a considerable improvement over the standard eddy viscosity RANS approach. Illustrations are presented of predicted time-resolved information e.g. time histories, and scalar pdf predictions. The LES results are shown, even using a simple Smagorinsky SGS model, to predict (correctly) lower values of the turbulent Prandtl number in the free shear regions of the flow, compared to higher values in the wall-affected regions. The ability to predict turbulent Prandtl number variations (rather than input these as in combustor RANS CFD models) is an important and promising feature of the LES approach for combustor flow simulation since it is known to be important in determining combustor exit temperature traverse.     

Effects of Small- and Large-Scale Structures in a Piloted Jet Diffusion Flame

Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA) and Planar Laser-Induced Fluorescence (PLIF) measurements have been performed in a turbulent nonpremixed jet flame. One of the features of this configuration is a central co-axial fuel jet surrounded by a turbulent annular air flow. The whole is placed within a low-speed coflowing air stream. This three-flow system with turbulent primary air differs from flow systems used for nonpremixed jet flames reported in the literature and is very useful for obtaining information on the mixing process between fuel and primary air. Next to the characterization of the velocity field, special attention has been paid to the conditional seeding of the central fuel jet and of the annular air flow. Together with visualizations of the OH radical, an important combustion intermediate which is formed during combustion, and the NO radical, which is seeded to the central jet flow, the resulting statistics reveal the properties of small- and large-scale structures in the flame.     

Flow Structure of Lifted Swirling Jet Flames

Swirling combustion is widely applied in various applications such as gas turbines, utility boilersor waste incinerators. This article contributes to the ongoing research by providing experimentaldata that are gathered in the mixing zone of a lifted swirling premixed natural gas flame. Theobjective of this paper is fivefold: (1) to introduce the lifted swirling flame featuring lowNO _x emissions (2) to provide experimental data such as major species distributions, temperature and streamlines of the flow pattern, (3) to report on velocity bias in probability density function (PDF) distributions and to present PDF sequences of velocities in medium scale swirling flows, (4) to make an assessment on the local small-scale turbulence that is present in the swirling mixinglayer and (5) to provide new experimental data for model verification and development.The PDFs are corrected in order to compensate for the velocity bias phenomenon, which is typicalfor randomly sampled LDA data. Sequences of axial PDF data are presented and measurement locationsof interest are selected to look at the PDF characteristics of the internal and externalrecirculation zones, the mixing layer and the onset of the reacting flow into detail. The mixinglayer PDFs covered a wide velocity range and revealed bimodality; even the concept ofmulti-modality is suggested and explored. Analysis showed that a sum of two Gaussian distributionscan accurately envelop the experimental PDFs. The reason for this broadband turbulence behavior isto be found in combination of precessing and flapping motion of the flow structures, and also incombustion generated instabilities of the lifted flame. As a result, the flame brush is wide (largescale motion) and the mixing (small-scale turbulence) flattens any high temperatures in thecombustion process.The multi-scale turbulence concept is subsequently used to make anassessment of the local turbulence characteristics in the mixing layer.The idea is that the PDFs capture both contributions of the flow-inherent fine grain turbulence (u _l ) which is superposed on slowlarge scale fluctuating structures. It is this u _l that will be of interest in continued research on the classification of the lifted flame into acombustion regime diagram (e.g. Borghi diagram). Finally, the bimodalitycharacter in reacting flows and the prediction of large-scale structuresmay be a challenge for LES researchers.     

折叠式柔性结构振动主动控制的研究

建立了具有刚性运动基的折叠式柔性结构振动主动控制实验系统，采用带实时预测误差修正的预测控制算法进行了这类结构振动主动控制的实验研究。实验结果表明，在实验建模的基础上设计预测控制器对折叠式柔性结构进行振动主动控制，能够有效地抑制柔性结构的振动和提高刚性基姿态定向精度。     

简单周期结构波传播主动控制研究

研究了在梁结构插入压电材料的周期结构波传播的一般规律。以梁的弯曲波传播方程的解析解为基础，进一步分析了简单周期结构的波传播的一些固有特性。并在此基础上，以压电材料作为作动器，采用主动控制方法研究了调整结构传播波的带通、带阻的频率范围可行性和有效性。     

基于主动流动控制的射流矢量偏转技术

本文介绍了一种基于主动流动控制技术的射流矢量偏转新方法和控制思路。通过在主射流出口两侧加装斜置扩张固壁板来降低射流两侧与固壁边界间的流体压力,将射流偏转由"不敏感-难控"转变成"敏感-易控",再在固壁板布置自行研制的斜出口合成射流激励器对主射流进行比例偏转控制。实验结果表明,射流最大偏转角可达15°。此外还研究了激励位置角度、激励频率、激励电压不同工作参数对射流矢量偏转控制的影响,实现了主射流偏转角的比例控制。当合成射流与主射流动量比为1∶43时,主射流偏转角可达13°,合成射流激励器消耗的能量为1.5W,初步实现了以小的能量消耗获取高的控制效益。     

Spatial Direct Numerical Simulation of the Large Vortical Structures in Forced Plumes

Direct numerical simulation (DNS) of forced plumes arising frominput of both momentum and buoyancy into an ambient fluid is presented.The large vortical structures in the near field of thermal and reactiveplumes are investigated. Boundary conditions associated with the spatialDNS of open-boundary buoyant flows that are compatible with the modernnon-dissipative, high-order, finite-difference schemes have beendeveloped. The governing equations for flow and combustion at the plumecenterline are put into a special form to circumvent the singularity atthe axis associated with the cylindrical coordinates. Mixing is found tobe stronger in the planar thermal plume than in the axisymmetric case.An explanation is provided based on the vorticity budget. Axisymmetricreactive plumes with a one-step reaction governed by the Arrheniuskinetics have also been studied. The unsteady effects of chemical heatrelease and combustion-induced buoyancy on the flow structures areinvestigated. Budgets of the vorticity transport are examined to revealthe mechanisms leading to the formation and evolution of large vorticalstructures in forced plumes. It is found that volumetric expansion dueto chemical heat release tends to destroy vorticity, whilecombustion-induced buoyancy under the gravitational effect generatesvorticity. The gravitational term in the vorticity transport equation isfound to be the main mechanism for the buoyant flow instability and thedevelopment of counter-rotating vortices in reactive plumes.     

Temporal Evolution of Vortical Structures in the Wall Region of Turbulent Channel Flow

Hairpin-like vortical structures that form in the wall region of turbulent channel flow are investigated. The analysis is performed by following a procedure in which the Navier-Stokes equations are first integrated by means of a computational code based on a mixed spectral-finite difference technique in the case of the flow in a plane channel. A DNS turbulent-flow database, representing the turbulent statistically steady state of the velocity field through 10 viscous time units, is computed and the vortex-detection method of the imaginary part of the complex eigenvalue pair of the velocity-gradient tensor is applied to the velocity field. As a result, hairpin-like vortical structures are educed. Flow visualizations are provided of the processes of evolution that characterize hairpin vortices in the wall region of turbulent channel flow. The relationship is investigated between vortex dynamics and 2nd- and 4th- quadrant events, showing that ejections and sweeps play a fundamental role in the way the morphological evolution of a hairpin vortex develops with time.     

Organizational Modes of Large-Scale Vortices in an Axisymmetric Turbulent Jet

Large vortices occurring in the axial plane of a self-similar axisymmetric turbulent jet are educed by spatially filtering PIV data. First, the instantaneous PIV frame is convolved with a Gaussian kernel to obtain a smooth (low-pass) field. Next, the low-pass field is Galilean transformed to expose the large vortices residing near the edges of the jet. Large vortices tend to organize themselves in preferred modes; evidence of ring and helical modes is revealed by Galilean transformation of the low-pass filtered field. Both modes seem to occur prominently in jets, with the helical mode being the more frequent. The overall diameter of both ring and helical modes is comparable with the local jet width. The low-pass field occasionally exhibits arrowhead shaped structures with large entrainment at their downstream tips. Stochastic estimates computed from the Galilean-transformed low-pass filtered field indicate that jet meander and a sweep-in of ambient fluid are sufficient to reconstruct large vortices. The frequency of occurrence of modes agrees with previously quoted results. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

大型柔性结构振动主动控制的实验研究

本文采用压电陶瓷作为传感器和执行器,对二维柔性板的振动抑制进行了实验研究。指出了在实际系统中采用同位控制存在的问题,并提出了改进的方法,对二维柔性板的振动抑制实验。证实了同位控制的问题,验证了改进方法的有效性。     

The Effect of Splitting Timing on Mixing in a Jet with Double Injections

We present large-eddy simulation (LES) of a high-pressure gas jet that is injecting into a quiescent inert environment. The injection is through a nozzle with a diameter of 1.35 mm. Four injection strategies are considered in which the results of a single continuous injection case are compared with those of double injection cases with different injection splitting timing. In all double injection cases, the injection pulsing interval is kept the same, and the total injected mass is equal to that of the single injection case. On the other hand, the splitting timing is varied to investigate the effects of various injection splitting strategies on the mixture formation and the penetration length of the jet. Results show that the jet penetration length is not so sensitive to the splitting timing whereas the mixing quality can significantly change as a result of shifting the onset of injection splitting toward the end of injection. Especially, it is found that by adopting a post-injection strategy where a single injection splits into the main injection and late small injection near the end of injection period the mixing between the injected gas and ambient air is significantly improved. This trend is not as obvious when the injection splitting timing shifts toward the beginning or even in the middle of injection period. The increase of entrainment in the tail of each injection is one of the underlying physics in the mixing improvement in double injection cases. In addition to that, splitting a single injection into two smaller injections increases the surrounding area of the jet and also stretches it along the axial direction. It can potentially increase the mixing of injected gas with the ambient air.     

Mixing Characteristics of a Flapping Jet from a Self-Exciting Nozzle

Experimental results of the mixing characteristics of a low-frequency flapping jet from a self-exciting nozzle are presented. The simple fluidic device used to generate the flapping motion is also described. The nozzle contains no external trigger and, unlike the flip-flop nozzle of Viets, contains no external feedback path. Both conventional and conditional averaging schemes are employed to characterise the turbulent mixing characteristics of the jet using data obtained from hot-wire anemometry. Flow-visualisation is used to characterise the flapping motion. It is revealed that the dynamic flapping motion enhances the large-scale mixing of the jet while concurrently suppressing the generation of the fine-scale turbulence. The results also indicate that high turbulence intensities, initiated by the flapping motion, are sustained even in the far-field flow region. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Computational Modelling of Turbulent Mixing in Confined Swirling Environment Under Constant and Variable Density Conditions

A high-intensity swirling flow in a model combustor subjected to large density variations has been examined computationally. The focus is on the Favre-averaged Navier–Stokes computations of the momentum and scalar transport employing turbulence models based on the differential second-moment closure (SMC) strategy. An updated version of the basic, high-Reynolds number SMC model accounting for a quadratic expansion of both the pressure–strain and dissipation tensors and a near-wall SMC model were used for predicting the mean velocity and turbulence fields. The accompanied mixing between the annular swirling air flow and the central non-swirling helium jet was studied by applying three scalar flux models differing mainly in the model formulation for the pressure-scalar gradient correlation. The computed axial and circumferential velocities agree fairly well with the reference experiment [So et al., NASA Contractor Report 3832, 1984; Ahmed and So, Exp. Fluids 4 (1986) 107], reproducing important features of such a weakly supercritical flow configuration (tendency of the flow core to separate). Although the length at which the mixing was completed was reproduced in reasonable agreement with the experimental results, the mixing activity in terms of the spreading rate of the shear/mixing layer, that is its thickness, was somewhat more intensive. Prior to these investigations, the model applied was validated by computing the transport of the passive scalar in the non-swirling (Johnson and Bennet, Report NASA CR-165574, UTRC Report R81-915540-9, 1981) and swirling (Roback and Johnson, NASA Contractor Report 168252, 1983) flow in a model combustor.     

旋流喷嘴中空旋转射流近区域流动的研究

从理论上分析了旋流喷嘴喷出的中空射流近区域的液膜的运动,在只考虑液膜表面张力的作用下,应用质量守恒和动量定理,建立了描述液膜运动的非线性常微分（积分）方程组,该方程组可以用数值方法方便地求解,结果表明,液体离开旋流喷嘴后在自由空间形成的液膜呈葫芦形状,其速度和液膜厚度等都周期性地变化。本结果是在液厝受拓动失称碎成液滴前的最基本运动状态,可以在射流的近区域内实验观察到,也是进一步从理论液膜破碎雾化过