Injection coupling with high amplitude transverse modes: Experimentation and simulation

High frequency combustion instabilities have technical importance in the design of liquid rocket engines. These phenomena involve a strong coupling between transverse acoustic modes and combustion. They are currently being investigated by combining experimentation and numerical simulations. On the experimental level, the coupling is examined in a model scale system featuring a multiple injector combustor (MIC) comprising five coaxial injectors fed with liquid oxygen and gaseous methane. This system is equipped with a novel VHAM actuator (Very High Amplitude Modulator) which comprises two nozzles and a rotating toothed wheel blocking the nozzles in an alternate fashion. This device was designed to obtain the highest possible levels of transverse oscillation in the MIC. After a brief review of the VHAM, this article reports cold flow experiments using this modulator. Velocity maps obtained under resonant conditions using the VHAM are examined at different instants during a cycle of oscillation. Experimental data are compared with numerical pressure and velocity fields obtained from an acoustic solver. The good agreement observed in the nozzle vicinity indicates that numerical simulations can be used to analyze the complex flow field generated by the VHAM. To cite this article: Y. Mery et al., C. R. Mecanique 337 (2009).     

Comparison of numerical methods and combustion models for LES of a ramjet

Ramjets are very sensitive to instabilities and their numerical predictions can only be addressed adequately by Large Eddy Simulation (LES). With this technique, solvers can be implicit or explicit and handle structured, unstructured or hybrid meshes, etc. Turbulence and combustion models are other sources of differences. The impact of these options is here investigated for the ONERA ramjet burner. To do so, two LES codes developed by ONERA and CERFACS compute one stable operating condition. Preliminary LES results of the two codes underline the overall robustness of LES. Mean flow features at the various critical sections are reasonably well predicted by both codes. Disagreement mainly appear in the chamber where combustion positions differ pointing to the importance of the combustion and subgrid mixing models. The two LES produce different energy containing motions. With CEDRE, a low frequency dominates while AVBP produces different ranges of low frequencies that can be linked with acoustic modes of the configuration. To cite this article: A. Roux et al., C. R. Mecanique 337 (2009).     

The structure of multidimensional strained flames under transcritical conditions

Strained flames are commonly used to study the structure of reactive layers and describe the local properties of turbulent combustion. This model is attractive because constant strain rate flames only depend on a transverse coordinate and can be treated as a one-dimensional problem. This configuration is considered in a multidimensional context in which the strained flow is obtained by two counterflowing streams of reactants. It is used to examine the structure of transcritical strained flames in which one or two reactants are injected at a high pressure exceeding the critical value while their temperature is below the critical value. Calculations are carried out in a two-dimensional domain to test numerical models developed for multidimensional simulations and test thermodynamic and transport models devised to deal with high pressure real gas effects. Multidimensional strained flame calculations carried out in this study serve to check the validity of a new version of a Navier–Stokes flow solver (AVBP) conceived to deal with transcritical combustion of interest to liquid propellant rocket applications. This article describes the basic elements of such simulations and discusses results of calculations. It is shown that the calculated multidimensional strained flames have the expected features in terms of structure and response to the imposed strain rate. To cite this article: L. Pons et al., C. R. Mecanique 337 (2009).     

Monte Carlo method of radiative transfer applied to a turbulent flame modeling with LES

Radiative transfer plays an important role in the numerical simulation of turbulent combustion. However, for the reason that combustion and radiation are characterized by different time scales and different spatial and chemical treatments, the radiation effect is often neglected or roughly modelled. The coupling of a large eddy simulation combustion solver and a radiation solver through a dedicated language, CORBA, is investigated. Two formulations of Monte Carlo method (Forward Method and Emission Reciprocity Method) employed to resolve RTE have been compared in a one-dimensional flame test case using three-dimensional calculation grids with absorbing and emitting media in order to validate the Monte Carlo radiative solver and to choose the most efficient model for coupling. Then the results obtained using two different RTE solvers (Reciprocity Monte Carlo method and Discrete Ordinate Method) applied on a three-dimensional flame holder set-up with a correlated-k distribution model describing the real gas medium spectral radiative properties are compared not only in terms of the physical behavior of the flame, but also in computational performance (storage requirement, CPU time and parallelization efficiency). To cite this article: J. Zhang et al., C. R. Mecanique 337 (2009).     

Numerical and analytical investigation of the indirect combustion noise in a nozzle

Analytical and numerical assessments of the indirect noise generated through a nozzle are presented. The configuration corresponds to an experimental setup operated at DLR by Bake et al. (2008) where an entropy wave is generated upstream of the nozzle by means of an electrical heating device. Both 3-D and 2-D axisymmetric simulations are performed to demonstrate that the experiment is mostly driven by linear acoustic phenomena, including pressure wave reflection at the outlet and entropy-to-acoustic conversion in the accelerated regions. Results show that the acoustic impedance downstream of the nozzle must be accounted for appropriately in order to recover the experimental pressure signal. A good agreement is also obtained with a purely analytical assessment based on the Marble and Candel compact nozzle approximation. To cite this article: M. Leyko et al., C. R. Mecanique 337 (2009).     

Massively parallel LES of azimuthal thermo-acoustic instabilities in annular gas turbines

Increasingly stringent regulations and the need to tackle rising fuel prices have placed great emphasis on the design of aeronautical gas turbines, which are unfortunately more and more prone to combustion instabilities. In the particular field of annular combustion chambers, these instabilities often take the form of azimuthal modes. To predict these modes, one must compute the full combustion chamber, which remained out of reach until very recently and the development of massively parallel computers. In this article, full annular Large Eddy Simulations (LES) of two helicopter combustors, which differ only on the swirlers' design, are performed. In both computations, LES captures self-established rotating azimuthal modes. However, the two cases exhibit different thermo-acoustic responses and the resulting limit-cycles are different. With the first design, a self-excited strong instability develops, leading to pulsating flames and local flashback. In the second case, the flames are much less affected by the azimuthal mode and remain stable, allowing an acceptable operation. Hence, this study highlights the potential of LES for discriminating injection system designs. To cite this article: P. Wolf et al., C. R. Mecanique 337 (2009).     

Coupling tabulated chemistry with Large Eddy Simulation of turbulent reactive flows

A new modeling strategy is developed to introduce tabulated chemistry methods in the LES of turbulent premixed combustion. The objective is to recover the correct laminar flame propagation speed of the filtered flame front when the subgrid scale turbulence vanishes. The filtered flame structure is mapped by 1D filtered laminar premixed flames. Closure of the filtered progress variable and the energy balance equations are carefully addressed. The methodology is applied to 1D and 2D filtered laminar flames. These computations show the capability of the model to recover the laminar flame speed and the correct chemical structure when the flame wrinkling is completely resolved. The model is then extended to turbulent combustion regimes by introducing subgrid scale wrinkling effects on the flame front propagation. Finally, the LES of a 3D turbulent premixed flame is performed. To cite this article: R. Vicquelin et al., C. R. Mecanique 337 (2009).     

Conjugate heat transfer with Large Eddy Simulation for gas turbine components

CHT (Conjugate Heat Transfer) is a main design constraint for GT (gas turbines). Most existing CHT tools are developed for chained, steady phenomena. A fully parallel environment for CHT has been developed and applied to two configurations of interest for the design of GT. A reactive Large Eddy Simulations code and a solid conduction solver exchange data via a supervisor. A flame/wall interaction is used to assess the precision and the order of the coupled solutions. A film-cooled turbine vane is then studied. Thermal conduction in the blade implies lower wall temperature than adiabatic results and CHT reproduces the experimental cooling efficiency. To cite this article: F. Duchaine et al., C. R. Mecanique 337 (2009).     

Large-Eddy Simulation of transcritical flows

The present study uses the LES code AVBP, developed at CERFACS, to simulate transcritical flows. Real gas effects are accounted for by the use of a cubic equation of state, in conjunction with appropriate viscosity and thermal conductivity coefficients. First a single nitrogen round jet at supercritical pressure injected in a gaseous reservoir is simulated. Two cases are considered, one demonstrating a transcritical injection (high density injection), the other being directly injected at supercritical temperature (lower density injection). Comparison with available measurements shows good agreement. Finally, the simulation of a reacting case from the Mascotte bench (ONERA) is performed, consisting in a single coaxial injector injecting transcritical oxygen and supercritical hydrogen in a 60 bar chamber. Mean flow characteristics are in good agreement with the experimental observations of OH^* emission, whereas temperature comparisons are more difficult to interpret. To cite this article: T. Schmitt et al., C. R. Mecanique 337 (2009).     

Stabilization of non-premixed flames in supersonic reactive flows

A Lagrangian framework is set out to describe turbulent non-premixed combustion in high speed coflowing jet flows. The final aim is to provide a robust computational methodology to simulate, in various conditions, the underexpanded GH2/GO2 torch jet that is used to initiate combustion in an expander cycle engine. The proposed approach relies on an early modelling proposal of Borghi and his coworkers. The model is well suited to describe finite rate chemistry effects and its recent extension to high speed flows allows one to take the influence of viscous dissipation phenomena into account. Indeed, since the chemical source terms are highly temperature sensitive, the influence of viscous phenomena on the thermal runaway is likely to be all the more pronounced since the Mach number values are high. The validation of the extended model has been recently performed through the numerical simulation of two distinct well-documented experimental databases. Only a brief summary of this preliminary validation step is provided here. The main purpose of the present work is to proceed with the numerical simulation of geometries that bring together the essential peculiarities of the underexpanded GH2/GO2 torch. The behavior of the corresponding supersonic coflowing jet flames for various conditions is discussed in the light of computational results. To cite this article: J.-F. Izard, A. Mura, C. R. Mecanique 337 (2009).     

Direct numerical simulation and global stability analysis of three-dimensional instabilities in a lid-driven cavity

The first bifurcation in a lid-driven cavity characterized by three-dimensional Taylor–Görtler-Like instabilities is investigated for a cubical cavity with spanwise periodic boundary conditions at Re=1000. The modes predicted by a global linear stability analysis are compared to the results of a direct numerical simulation. The amplification rate, and the shape of the three-dimensional perturbation fields from the direct numerical simulation are in very good agreement with the characteristics of the steady S1 mode from the stability analysis, showing that this mode dominates the other unstable unsteady modes. To cite this article: J. Chicheportiche et al., C. R. Mecanique 336 (2008).     

Weighted Korn inequalities for thin-walled elastic structures

Appropriate weighted norms in H¹ are presented such that the Korn type inequality is asymptotically sharp with respect to relative thickness and stiffness of the elastic plates. The weights depend crucially on the geometric structure of the plates' junction. To cite this article: O.V. Izotova et al., C. R. Mecanique 334 (2006).     

Chemical kinetics modeling and LES combustion model effects on a perfectly premixed burner

Chemical kinetics modeling and coupling with turbulent combustion models for compressible Large Eddy Simulations (LES) is a critical issue. Accurate flow predictions can only be guaranteed if the coupling is well mastered. In a first attempt to qualify the effect of each model, the case of a lean premixed swirled combustor with comprehensive measures is targeted (species mass fractions and temperature fields). For the investigation, two turbulent combustion models are considered. The first model relies on a presumed PDF approach coupled to a look-up chemistry table obtained with a reduced chemical scheme. The second model makes use of the thickened flame approach using the same reduced chemical scheme but with reaction rates computed explicitly as the computation advances. Then, to estimate kinetic schemes reduction effects, the first model is compared to a third one, with the same PDF approach, but coupled to a look-up chemistry table obtained with a complete chemical scheme. All LES are very close to each other. The main difference between the different predictions relies on CO mass fractions. Although they are all able to return good outlet mass fractions, CO values inside the flame are different depending on the model used. To cite this article: G. Albouze et al., C. R. Mecanique 337 (2009).     

A DES method applied to a Backward Facing Step reactive flow

Hybrid Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes–Large Eddy Simulation is a trend which is becoming of common use in aerodynamics but has seldom been employed to simulate reactive flows. Such methods, like the Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation (DDES) presented in this article, have been created to treat near wall flows with a RANS approach while switching to LES in the separated flow region. It is indeed an affordable solution to simulate complex and unsteady compressible flows and to have access to accurate skin friction and wall thermal fluxes. In order to validate this technique in combustion, we chose a simple and well documented Backward Facing Step combustor. To account for turbulent combustion a Dynamic Thickened Flame was used. The results obtained on this case show a good agreement with the experimental database and are of the same quality as LES in the separated region for both inert and reactive flows. To cite this article: B. Sainte-Rose et al., C. R. Mecanique 337 (2009).     

Full coverage film cooling using compound angle

An experimental and numerical study is carried out on a cooling film issuing from a multiperforated wall of a simplified combustor. The objectives of this work are to achieve a better understanding of the dynamics of the film and to construct an experimental database on a simplified geometry in order to test numerical models. A parametric study of film cooling efficiency based on the direction of the cooling air injection is presented and shows that a swirling injection greatly enhances the cooling efficiency. As accounting for multiperforated walls in numerical simulations cannot be done at the jets scale because of computing resources, in this article are presented RANS computations performed using a uniform boundary condition to provide the injection of coolant. Two injection models are applied on this boundary and numerical results are compared to experimental data in the recovery region. The standard model is shown to be totally inappropriate while the multiperforation model delivers promising results although some weaknesses appear very close to the wall. To cite this article: B. Michel et al., C. R. Mecanique 337 (2009).     

Continuous thermodynamics for droplet vaporization: Comparison between Gamma-PDF model and QMoM

The Continuous Thermodynamics Model (CTM) (Cotterman et al., 1985) is a suitable method to reduce computational cost of multi-component vaporization models. The droplet composition is described by a probability density function (PDF) rather than tens of components in the classical Discrete Component Model (DCM). In the first CTM method developed for this application, the PDF was assumed to be a Γ-function (Hallett, 2000), but some problems had appeared in the case of vapor condensation at the droplet surface (Harstadt et al., 2003). The method put forward in this article, the Quadrature Method of Moments (QMoM), enables one to avoid any assumption on the PDF mathematical form. Following Lage who has developed this method for phase equilibria (Lage, 2007), this article widens the scope of QMoM to the modelling of multi-component droplet vaporization. The different CTM approaches are presented in the first part and the results obtained for a vapor condensation test case are then compared and analysed to illustrate improvements made by QMoM. To cite this article: C. Laurent et al., C. R. Mecanique 337 (2009).     

Eulerian and Lagrangian Large-Eddy Simulations of an evaporating two-phase flow

Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) of an evaporating two-phase flow in an experimental burner are performed using two different solvers, CDP from CTR-Stanford and AVBP from CERFACS, on the same grid and for the same operating conditions. Results are evaluated by comparison with experimental data. The CDP code uses a Lagrangian particle tracking method (EL) while the code AVBP can be coupled either with a mesoscopic Eulerian approach (EE) or with a Lagrangian method (EL). After a validation of the purely gaseous flow in the burner, liquid-phase dynamics, droplet dispersion and fuel evaporation are qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated for three two-phase flow simulations. They are respectively referred as: CDP-EL, AVBP-EE and AVBP-EL. The results of the three simulations show reasonable agreement with experiments for the two-phase flow case. To cite this article: J.M. Senoner et al., C. R. Mecanique 337 (2009).     

Extended three-dimensional digital image correlation (X3D-DIC)

A correlation algorithm is proposed to measure full three-dimensional displacement fields in a three-dimensional domain. The chosen kinematic basis for this measurement is based on continuous finite-element shape functions. It is furthermore proposed to account for the presence of strong discontinuities, similarly to extended finite element schemes, with a suited enrichment of the kinematics with discontinuities supported by a (crack) surface. An optimization of the surface geometry is proposed based on correlation residuals. The procedure is applied to analyze one loading cycle of a fatigue-cracked nodular graphite cast iron sample by using computed tomography pictures. Subvoxel crack openings are revealed and measured. To cite this article: J. Réthoré et al., C. R. Mecanique 336 (2008).     

Dynamics of premixed confined swirling flames

Considerable effort is currently being extended to examine the fundamental mechanisms of combustion instabilities and develop methods allowing predictions of these phenomena. One central aspect of this problem is the dynamical response of the flame to incoming perturbations. This question is examined in the present article, which specifically considers the response of premixed swirling flames to perturbations imposed on the upstream side of the flame in the feeding manifold. The flame response is characterized by measuring the unsteady heat release induced by imposed velocity perturbations. A flame describing function is defined by taking the ratio of the relative heat release rate fluctuation to the relative velocity fluctuation. This quantity is determined for a range of frequencies and for different levels of incoming velocity perturbations. The flame dynamics is also documented by calculating conditional phase averages of the light emission from the flame and taking the Abel transform of these average images to obtain the flame geometry at various instants during the cycle of oscillation. These data can be useful to the determination of possible regimes of instability. To cite this article: P. Palies et al., C. R. Mecanique 337 (2009).