Direct numerical simulations of turbulent lean premixed combustion

Ramanan Sankaran, Evatt R. Hawkes, Jacqueline H. Chen, Tianfeng Lu, Chung K. Law

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

47 Scopus citations

Abstract

In recent years, due to the advent of high-performance computers and advanced numerical algorithms, direct numerical simulation (DNS) of combustion has emerged as a valuable computational research tool, in concert with experimentation. The role of DNS in delivering new Scientific insight into turbulent combustion is illustrated using results from a recent 3D turbulent premixed flame simulation. To understand the influence of turbulence on the flame structure, a 3D fully-resolved DNS of a spatially-developing lean methane-air turbulent Bunsen flame was performed in the thin reaction zones regime. A reduced chemical model for methane-air chemistry consisting of 13 resolved species, 4 quasi-steady state species and 73 elementary reactions was developed specifically for the current simulation. The data is analyzed to study possible influences of turbulence on the flame thickness. The results show that the average flame thickness increases, in qualitative agreement with several experimental results.

Original languageEnglish
Article number004
Pages (from-to)38-42
Number of pages5
JournalJournal of Physics: Conference Series
Volume46
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 1 2006
Externally publishedYes

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