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Propagation of Spherically Expanding Turbulent Flames into Fuel Droplet-Mists

  • SI: THMT-2018
  • Published:
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Abstract

The effects of droplet diameter and the overall (liquid+gas) equivalence ratio on flame topology and propagation statistics in spherically expanding turbulent n-heptane spray flames have been analysed based on three-dimensional Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) data. It has been found that the range of both mean and Gauss curvatures of the flame surface, and the probability of finding saddle topologies increase with increasing droplet diameter and overall equivalence ratio. The presence of droplets affects the displacement speed and consumption speed statistics principally through the reaction rate of the mixture composition in the reaction zone. The magnitudes of the components of density-weighted displacement speed arising from mixture inhomogeneity and droplet evaporation remain small in comparison to the magnitudes of the reaction rate and molecular diffusion rate components. The presence of large droplets decreases the mean density-weighted displacement speed \( {S}_d^{\ast } \) and increases the probability of finding negative \( {S}_d^{\ast } \) values, except for overall fuel-lean equivalence ratios. The mean consumption speed shows an increasing trend with increasing droplet diameter for fuel-lean overall equivalence ratios, whereas the mean consumption speed decreases with increasing droplet diameter for overall stoichiometric and fuel-rich mixtures. The mean consumption speed remains greater than the mean density-weighted displacement speed for all cases considered here. An alternative flame speed, which represents the growth rate of the flame surface area, has been found to provide an approximate measure of mean consumption flame speed. By contrast, an alternative flame speed, which represents the growth rate of burned gas volume, has been found to approximate the mean density-weighted displacement speed for large droplets in the case of stoichiometric and fuel-rich overall equivalence ratios.

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Notes

  1. The maximum value of unstrained laminar burning velocity \( {S}_{b\left({\phi}_g\right)} \) is obtained for ϕg ≈ 1.1 for the present thermo-chemistry.

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Funding

The financial support of the Republic of Turkey Ministry of National Education and EPSRC (EP/K025163/1, EP/R029369/1) and the computational support of Rocket and ARCHER are gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering, Newcastle University, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, NE17RU, UK

    Gulcan Ozel Erol & Nilanjan Chakraborty

  2. Bundeswehr University Munich, Werner-Heisenberg-Weg 39, 85577, Neubiberg, Germany

    Josef Hasslberger & Markus Klein

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  1. Gulcan Ozel Erol
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Ozel Erol, G., Hasslberger, J., Klein, M. et al. Propagation of Spherically Expanding Turbulent Flames into Fuel Droplet-Mists. Flow Turbulence Combust 103, 913–941 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10494-019-00035-x

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