Abstract
This work investigates the application of large eddy simulation (LES) to selected cases of the turbulent non-premixed Sydney swirl flames. Two research groups (Loughborough University, LU and Imperial College, IC) have simulated these cases for different parameter sets, using two different and independent LES methods. The simulations of the non-reactive turbulent flow predicted the experimental results with good agreement and both simulations captured the recirculation structures and the vortex breakdown without major difficulties. For the reactive cases, the LES predictions were less satisfactory, and using two independent simulations has helped to understand the shortcomings of each. Furthermore one of the flames (SMH2) was found to be exceptionally hard to predict, which was supported by the lower amount of turbulent kinetic energy that was resolved in this case. However, the LES has identified modes of flame instability that were similar to those observed in some of the experiments.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Al-Abdeli, Y.M.: Experiments in turbulent swirling non-premixed flames and isothermal flows. Ph.D. thesis, University of Sydney, Australia (2003)
Al-Abdeli, Y.M., Masri, A.R.: Recirculation and flowfield regimes of unconfined non-reacting swirling flows. Exp. Thermal Fluid Sci. 27, 655–665 (2003)
Al-Abdeli, Y.M., Masri, A.R.: Stability characteristics and flowfields of turbulent non-premixed swirling flames. Combust. Theory Model. 7, 731–766 (2003)
Al-Abdeli, Y.M., Masri, A.R.: Precession and recirculation in turbulent swirling isothermal jets. Combust. Sci. Tech. 176, 645–665 (2004)
Al-Abdeli, Y.M., Masri, A.R., Marquez, G.R., Starner, S.H.: Time-varying behaviour of turbulent swirling nonpremixed flames. Combust. Flame 146, 200–214 (2006)
Anacleto, P.M., Fernandes, E.C., Heitor, M.V., Shtork, S.I.: Characteristics of precessing vortex core in the LPP combustor model. In: Proc. Second Int. Sym. Turb. Shear Flow Pheno. vol. 1, pp. 133–138 (2001)
Bell, J.B., Colella, P.: A second order projection method for the incompressible navier-stokes equations. J. Comput. Phys. 85, 257–283 (1989)
Benjamin, T.B.: Theory of the vortex breakdown phenomenon. J. Fluid Mech. 14, 593–605 (1962)
Bilanin, A.J., Widnall, S.E.: Aircraft wake dissipation by sinusoidal instability and vortex breakdown. AIAA 107, 11–17 (1973)
Bilger, R.W.: The structure of turbulent non-premixed flames. Proc. Combust. Inst. 22, 475–488 (1988)
Billant, P., Chomaz, J.M., Huerre, P.: Experimental study of vortex breakdown in swirling jets. J. Fluid Mech. 376, 183–196 (1998)
Bowman, C.T., Hanson, R.K., Davidson, D.F., Gardiner, W.C. Jr., Lissianski, V., Smith, G.P., Golden, D.M., Frenklach, M., Goldenberg, M.: GRI 2.11. http://www.me.berkeley.edu/gri_mech (2006). Accessed 05 Nov 2007
Branley, N., Jones, W.P.: Large eddy simulation of a turbulent non-premixed flame. Combust. Flame 127, 1914–1934 (2001)
Buckley, P.L., Craig, R., Davis, D., Schwartzkopf, K.: The design and combustion performance of practical swirlers for integral rocket/ramjets. AIAA J. 21(5), 733–740 (1983)
Chanaud, R.C.: Observations of osillatory motion in certain swirling flows. J. Fluid Mech. 21, 1–27 (1965)
Dally, B.B., Masri, A.R.: Flow and mixing fields of turbulent bluff-body and jets flames. Combust. Theory Modeling 2, 193–219 (1998)
Deardorff, J.: Stratocumulus-capped mixed layers derived from a three dimensional model. Boundary-Layer Meteorol. 18, 495–527 (1980)
DeBruyn, S.M., Riley, J.J., Kosaly, G., Cook, A.W.: Investigation of modeling for non-premixed turbulent combustion. Flow Turbul. Combust. 60, 105–122 (1998)
DiMare, F., Jones, W., Menzies, K.: Large eddy simulation of a model gas turbine combustor. Combust. Flame 137, 278–294 (2004)
Ranga-Dinesh, K.K.J.: Large eddy simulation of turbulent swirling flames. PhD thesis, Loughborough University, UK (2007)
Drozda, T.G., Sheikhi, M.R.H., Madnia, C.K., Givi, P.: Developments in formulation and application of the filtered density function. Flow Turbul. Combust. 78, 35–67 (2007)
El-Asrag, H., Menon, S.: Large eddy simulation of bluff body stabilised swirling non-premixed flames. Proc. Combust. Inst. 31, 1747–1754 (2007)
Escudier, M.: Confined vortex in flow machinery. Ann. Rev. Fluid Mech. 19, 27 (1987)
Escudier, M.: Vortex breakdown: observations and explanations. Prog. Aerosp. Sci. 25, 189–229 (1988)
Farokhi, S., Taghavi, R., Rice, E.J.: Effect of initial swirl distribution on the evaluation of a turbulent jet. AIAA J. 27(6), 700–706 (1988)
Forkel, H., Janicka, J.: Large eddy simulation of a turbulent hydrogen diffusion flame. Flow Turbul. Combust. 65, 163–175 (2000)
Freitag, M., Klein, M., Gregor, M., Geyer, D., Schneider, C., Dreizler, A., Janicka, J.: Mixing analysis of swirling recirculating flow using DNS and experimental data. Int. J. Heat Fluid Flow 27, 636–643 (2006)
Germano, M., Piomelli, U., Moin, P., Cabot, W.H.: A dynamic subgrid scale eddy viscosity model. Phys. Fluids 3(7), 1760–1765 (1991)
Ghosal, S., Lund, T.S., Moin, P., Akselvoll, K.: A dynamic localization model for large eddy simulations of turbulent flows. J. Fluid Mech. 286, 229–255 (1995)
Grabowski, W.J., Berger, S.A.: Solutions of the navier-stokes equations for vortex breakdown. J. Fluid. Mech. 75, 525–544 (1976)
Gupta, A.K., Lilly, D.G., Syred, N.: Swirl Flows. In: Swirl flows. Kent Engl: Abacus (1984)
Hafez, M., Ahmed, J., Kuruvila, J., Salas, M.D.: Vortex breakdown simulation. AIAA 87, 1343–1349 (1987)
Hall, M.G.: Vortex breakdown. Ann. Rev. Fluid Mech. 4, 195 (1972)
Harvey, J.K.: Some observation of the vortex breakdown phenomenon. J. Fluid Mech. 14, 585–592 (1962)
IEA: International Energy Agency. In: World energy outlook. France (2002)
James, S., Zhu, J., Anand, M.S.: Large eddy simulation of turbulent flames using filtered density function method. Proc. Combust. Inst. 31, 1737–1745 (2007)
Kalt, P.A.M., Al-Abdeli, Y.M., Masri, A.R., Barlow, R.S.: Swirling turbulent non-premixed flames of methane: flowfield and compositional structure. Proc. Combust. Inst. 29, 1913–1919 (2002)
Kempf, A.M.: Large eddy simulation of non-premixed turbulent flames. Ph.D. thesis, TU-Darmstadt, Germany (2003)
Kempf, A.M., Forkel, H., Sadiki, A., Chen, J.-Y., Janicka, J.: Large-eddy simulation of a counterflow configuration with and without combustion. Proc. Combust. Inst. 28, 35–40 (2000)
Kempf, A.M., Janicka, J., Lindstedt, R.P.: Large eddy simulation of a bluff body stabilized non-premixed flame. Combust. Flame 144, 170–189 (2006)
Kempf, A.M., Klein, M., Janicka, J.: Efficient generation of initial and inflow conditions for transient turbulent flow in arbitary geometries. Flow Turbul. Combust. 74, 67–84 (2005)
Kim, W., Menon, S., Mongia, H.: Large eddy simulation of a gas turbine combustor flow. Combust. Sci. Tech. 143, 1–25 (1999)
Kirkpatrick, M.P.: A large eddy simulation code for industrial and enviromental flows. Ph.D. thesis, University of Sydney, Australia (2002)
Klein, M., Sadiki, A., Janicka, J.: A digital filter based generation of inflow data for spatially developing direct numerical or large eddy simulation. J. Comput. Phys. 186, 652–665 (2003)
Kollmann, W., Ooi, A.S.H., Chong, M.S., Soria, J.: Direct numerical simulation of vortex breakdown in swirling jets. J. Turbulence 2(Art. No. N5), 1–17 (2001)
Kopecky, R.M., Torrance, K.E.: Initiation and structure of axisymmetric eddies in a rotating stream. Comput. Fluids. 1, 289–300 (1973)
Krisbus, A., Leibovich, S.: Instability of strong non-linear waves in vortex flows. J. Fluid Mech. 269, 247–265 (1994)
Lambourne, N.C., Bryer, D.W.: The bursting of leading edge vortices—some observations and discussion of the phenomenon. Aeronaut. Res. Counc. 36, 3862–3870 (1961)
Leibovich, S.: The structure of vortex breakdown. Ann. Rev. Fluid Mech. 10, 221 (1978)
Leibovich, S., Ma, H.Y.: Soliton propagation on vortex cores and the hasimoto soliton. Phys. Fluids 26, 3173–3190 (1983)
Leonard, B.P.: SHARP simulation of discontinuities in highly convective steady flow. Technical Report 100240, NASA Tech. Mem. (1987)
Lessen, M., Singh, P.J., Paillet, F.: The stability of trailing line vortex. J. Fluid Mech. 63, 753–763 (1974)
Ludweig, H.: Experimentelle Nachpruefung der Stabilitaetstheorien fuer reibungsfreie Stroemungen mit schraubenlinienfoermigen Stromlinien. Flugwiss 12(8), 304–309 (1965)
Lund, T., Wu, X., Squires, K.: Generation of turbulent inflow data for spatially developing boundary layer simulations. J. Comput. Phys. 140, 233–258 (1998)
Mahesh, K., Constantinescu, G., Iaccarino, G. Apte, S., Ham, F., Moin, P.: Large eddy simulation of reacting turbulent flows in complex geometries. ASME J. Appl. Mech. 73, 374–381 (2006)
Malalasekera, W., Ranga-Dinesh, K.K.J., Ibrahim, S.S., Kirkpatrick, M.P.: Large eddy simulation of isothermal turbulent swirling jets. Combust. Sci. Tech. 179, 1481–1525 (2007)
Masri, A.R., Kalt, P.A.M., Barlow, R.S.: The compositional structure of swirl stabilised turbulent non-premixed flames. Combust. Flame 137, 1–37 (2004)
Masri, A.R., Pope, S.B., Dally, B.B.: Probability density function computation of a strongly swirling nonpremixed flame stabilized on a new burner. Proc. Combust. Inst. 28, 123–131 (2000)
Naughton, J.W., Cattafesta, L.N., Settles, G.S.: An experimental study of compressible turbulent mixing enhancement in swirling jets. J. Fluid Mech. 330, 271–305 (1997)
Navarro-Martinez, S., Kronenburg, A.: Investigation of LES-CMC modelling in a bluff-body stabilized non-premixed flame. In: Proc. European Combust. Meeting, pp. 1–6. Louvain- la-Neuve, Belgium (2005)
Oefelein, J.C.: Large eddy simulation of turbulent combustion processes in propulsion and power systems. Prog. Aero. Sci. 42, 2–37 (2006)
Pauley, L.L., Moin, P., Reynolds, W.C.: The structure of two-dimensional separation. J. Fluid Mech. 220, 397–411 (1990)
Peckham, D.H., Atkinson, S.A.: Preliminary results of low speed wind tunnel test on a gothic wing of aspect ratio 1.0. ARC CP 508 (1957)
Peters, N.: Turbulent Combustion. In: Turbulent combustion. Cambridge University Press (2000)
Pierce, C.D., Moin, P.: Progress-variable approach for large eddy simulation of non-premixed turbulent combustion. J. Fluid Mech. 504, 73–97 (2004)
Piomelli, U., Liu, J.: Large eddy simulation of rotating channel flows using a localized dynamic model. Phys. Fluids 7, 839–848 (1995)
Pitsch, H.: A C++ computer program for 0-D and 1-D laminar flame calculations. Technical report, RWTH Aachen (1998)
Pitsch, H., Steiner, H.: Large eddy simulation of a turbulent piloted methane-air diffusion flame (Sandia flame D). Phys. Fluids 12(10), 2541–2554 (2000)
Raman, V., Pitsch, H.: Large eddy simulation of bluff body stabilized non-premixed flame using a recursive filter refinement procedure. Combust. Flame 142, 329–347 (2005)
Randall, J.D., Leibovich, S.: The critical state: a trapped wave model of vortex breakdown. J. Fluid Mech. 53, 495–508 (1973)
Roux, A., Gicquel, L.Y.M., Sommerer, Y., Poinsot, T.J.: Large eddy simulation of mean and oscillating flow in a side-dump ramjet combustor. Combust. Flame 152, 154–176 (2008)
Ruith, M.R., Chen, P., Meiburg, E., Maxworthy, T.: Three dimensional vortex breakdown in swirling jets and wakes : direct numerical simulation. J. Fluid Mech. 486, 331–378 (2003)
Sankaran, V., Menon, S.: LES of spray combustion in swirling flows. J. Turbulence 3, 11–23 (2002)
Sarpkaya, T.: Vortex breakdown in swirling conical flow. AIAA 9, 1792–1799 (1971)
Schmitt, L.: Numerische Simulation turbulenter Grenzschichten (Large-Eddy-Simulation) Teil 1, Bericht 82/2. Ph.D. thesis, Lehrstuhl fuer Strömungsmechanik, Technische Universität München, Germany (1982)
Schumann, U., Sweet, R.: A direct method for the solution of Poisson’s equation with neumann boundary conditions on a staggered grid of arbitrary size. J. Comp. Phys. 20, 171–182 (1976)
Shi, X.: Numerical simulation of vortex breakdown. In: Proc. Collo. on VB, vol. 25, pp. 69–80. Sonderforschungsbereich (1985)
Sick, V., Hildenbrand, F., Lindstedt, R.P.: Quantitative laser based measurements and detailed chemical kinetic modeling of nitric oxide concentrations in methane air counterflow diffusion flames. Proc. Combust. Inst. 27, 1401–1409 (1998)
Smagorinsky, J.: General circulation experiments with the primitive equations, the basic experiment. Mon. Weath. Rev. 91, 99–164 (1963)
Spall, R.E., Gatski, T.B.: A numerical simulation of vortex breakdown. ASME F. Uns. Flow. Sep. 52, 25–33 (1987)
Squire, H.B.: Analysis of the Vortex Breakdown Phenomenon. Acadamic Verlag, 306 (1962)
Stein, O., Kempf, A.M.: doi:10.1016/j.proci.2006.07.255. Appendix A: Supplementary data, File: mmc1.mpg
Stein, O., Kempf, A.M.: LES of the Sydney swirl flame series: a study of vortex breakdown in isothermal and reacting flows. In: Proc. Combust. Inst. vol. 31, pp. 1755–1763 (2007)
Stein, O., Kempf, A.M., Janicka, J.: LES of the Sydney swirl flame series: An initial investigation of the fluid dynamics. Combust. Sci. Tech. 179, 173–189 (2007)
Syred, N., Beer, J.M.: The damping of precessing vortex cores by combustion in swirl generators. Ast. Acta 17, 783–801 (1972)
TNF: TNF8 Sydney swirl and bluff body flames. Experimental data download site. www.aeromech.usyd.edu/thermofluids (2006)
VanDoorne, C.W.H.: Stereoscopic PIV on transition in pipe flow. Ph.D. thesis, TU Delft, Netherlands (2004)
VanKan, J.: A second order accurate pressure correction scheme for viscous incompressible flow. J. Sci. Stat. Comput. 7, 870–891 (1986)
Wang, P., Bai, X.S.: Large eddy simulation of turbulent swirling flows in a dump combustor: a sensitivity study. Int. J. Numer. Methods. Flu. 47, 99–120 (2005)
Wang, S., Yang, V., Hsiao, G., Hsieh, S.-Y., Mongia, H.C.: Large-eddy simulations of gas-turbine injector flow dynamics. J. Fluid Mech. 583, 99–122 (2007)
Weber, R., Visser, B.M., Boysan, F.: Assessment of turbulent modelling for engineering prediction of swirling vortices in the near zone. Int. J. Heat Fluid Flow 11, 225–240 (1990)
Zhou, G., Davidson, L., Olsson, E.: Transonic inviscid/turbulent airflow flow simulations using a pressure based method with higher order schemes. In: Deshpande, S.M., Desai, S.S., Narsimha, R. (eds.) Proceedings of the 14th ICNMFD, Lecture Notes in Physics, vol. 453, pp. 372–377. Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1995)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kempf, A., Malalasekera, W., Ranga-Dinesh, K.K.J. et al. Large Eddy Simulations of Swirling Non-premixed Flames With Flamelet Models: A Comparison of Numerical Methods. Flow Turbulence Combust 81, 523–561 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10494-008-9147-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10494-008-9147-1