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Abstract A flamelet tabulation method for partially premixed flames is proposed, in which partially premixed flamelets are incorporated as the archetypal flamelet elements. This method considers triple flame structures with both the partial premixing of fuel in the oxidizer side and the partial premixing of oxidizer in the fuel side, by replacing the pure-air and pure-fuel in the counterflow diffusion flame with a range of fuel-lean and -rich mixtures, respectively. The thermo-chemical quantities in the partially premixed flamelet are stored in a four-dimensional flamelet library as a function of the mixture fraction Z , describing the mixing process, the reaction progress variable Y PV , describing the progress of reactions, and the trajectory variables Y F and Y O , characterizing the partial premixings of fuel and oxidizer, respectively. The performance of the proposed partially premixed flamelet tabulation (PPFT) method is evaluated through both a priori and a posteriori tests on laminar tribrachial flames with different mixture fraction gradients. The PPFT results are compared with those from a premixed flamelet tabulation (PFT) method and a diffusion flamelet tabulation (DFT) method. It is found that the combustion-mode-sensitive species such as CO and H 2 can be accurately predicted by the PPFT method for both the low and high mixture fraction gradient flame cases, which cannot be well predicted by the PFT and DFT methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simultaneously planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) measurements of OH, CH, CH 2 O and toluene are carried out to investigate the structures of turbulent premixed methane/air jet flames in the flamelet regime and the thin-reaction zones regime. A premixed flame jet burner of an inner diameter of 1.5 mm is employed. Stoichiometric methane/air mixtures introduced as a jet are ignited and stabilized in a hot co-flow generated by a coaxial porous plug pilot flame surrounding the jet. The Reynolds number for the studied jet ranges from 960 to 11,500 with the characteristic Karlovitz number ranging from 1 to 60. The focus of this study is on the characterization of the structures and turbulent burning velocity of premixed flames in the flamelet and the thin-reaction zones regimes. The preheat zone is analyzed using the CH 2 O and toluene PLIF fields, whereas the reaction zone is analyzed using the CH and OH PLIF fields. Laser Doppler Anemometer (LDA) measurements are performed to characterize the turbulence field and it is noted that when the Reynolds/Karlovitz number increases a successive thickening of the preheat zone is observed, whereas the reaction zone, characterized by the CH layer maintains nearly the same thickness. The heat release zone, characterized by the combination of the OH and CH 2 O PLIF fields, is shown to nearly maintain the same thickness under the present experimental conditions. The flame surface wrinkle ratio is shown to be Reynolds number and Karlovitz number independent when the Reynolds number is high enough such that the smallest wrinkle scales reach to the length scales of the thin reaction layers. The global fuel consumption speed of the jet flame is analyzed using the toluene PLIF field and the OH PLIF field. A discrepancy in the two consumption velocities is found as the Karlovitz number increases. This is found to be a result of the broadening of the oxidation zone. These findings provide experimental support to the flamelet and thin-reaction zone regime hypotheses of turbulent premixed combustion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rate-ratio asymptotic (RRA) analysis is carried out to elucidate the influence of carbon monoxide on the structure and critical conditions of extinction of nonpremixed methane flames. Steady, axisymmetric, laminar flow of two counterflowing streams toward a stagnation plane is considered. One stream, called the fuel stream is made up of a mixture of methane (CH 4 ) and nitrogen (N 2 ). The other stream, called the oxidizer stream, is a mixture of oxygen (O 2 ), and N 2 . Carbon monoxide (CO) is added either to the oxidizer stream or to the fuel stream. Chemical reactions, represented by four global steps, are presumed to take place in a thin reaction zone. To the leading order the reactants, CH 4 , O 2 , and CO are completely consumed in the reaction zone. On either side of this thin reaction zone, the flow field is inert. These inert regions represent the outer structure of the flame. The outer structures provide matching conditions required for predicting the structure of the reaction zone. In the reaction zone, chemical reactions are presumed to take place in two layers—the inner layer and the oxidation layer. The scalar dissipation rate at extinction is predicted from results of the asymptotic analysis and compared with previous measurements and computational predictions using detailed chemistry. The predictions of the asymptotic analysis are found to agree well with the experimental data for CO addition to the fuel stream, and for small amounts of CO addition to the oxidizer stream. For large amounts of CO addition to the oxidizer stream, the approximations introduced in the asymptotic analysis become inaccurate. A key finding is that with increasing amounts of CO added to the oxidizer stream the scalar dissipation rate at extinction first increases and then decreases. It is attributed to changes in location of the inner layer within the reaction zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The release of inorganic elements, especially K, Cl, and S, can cause severe damage to biomass conversion devices, such as slagging, fouling, or corrosion. A predictive model for the release of K-Cl-S elements can be used to enhance the design and operating conditions of biomass conversion devices. In this study, a detailed model is developed that includes 12 solid species and 13 reactions, which can represent the main pathways of the release of K-Cl-S from the particle. The model is coupled to a particle model to predict the release of potassium from different types of biomass at various operating conditions. First, the types and solubility of the potassium after pyrolysis and combustion at different temperatures are compared with the experimental data from the literature. The model predictions of the H 2 O-soluble, NH 4 AC-soluble, stable, and total potassium are comparable to the experimental data. Second, the K, Cl, and S in two types of biomass with high and low Si content are studied and compared with the experimental data. The model is used to explain different stages of potassium, sulfur, and chlorine release, which were observed in the experiments. Finally, the concentration of gas-phase potassium-containing species, i.e., atomic K, KCl, and KOH, downstream of burning biomass particles at different temperatures are investigated and compared with experimental measurement. The model can capture the release behavior of these species at different temperatures with good accuracy. The model results are summarized to create a clearer picture of the pathways of K-Cl-S-release from biomass and their interactions with other ash elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper reports on two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) direct numerical simulations (DNSs) of the auto-ignition process of a lean H2/air mixture with temperature stratification in a constant volume enclosure. Detailed chemistry and transport properties are taken into account in the simulations. The combined propagation of spontaneous ignition front and deflagration front is identified and the relation between the reaction front displacement speed and the temperature gradient is verified. The difference between 2D- and 3D-DNS is investigated by comparing the evolutions of global combustion parameters such as the averaged heat release rate, total reaction front area and the averaged displacement speed of the reaction front. The extra spatial dimension in 3D-DNS has been shown to cause a higher velocity strain rate to enhance the heat transfer process, which leads to a delayed but more rapid ignition of the mixture than the 2D-DNS cases. The 3D reaction front surfaces are examined based on the local mean and Gaussian curvatures. By introducing a cutoff Gaussian curvature two types of 3D surface elements, the small sphere fronts and the strong saddle fronts, are defined. The effect of these fronts on the combustion process is studied in terms of their contribution to the total reaction front area, fuel consumption rate and curvature-induced stretch. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In the combustion literature, contradictory results on the influence of turbulence on the local thickness of a premixed flame can be found and the present paper aims at contributing to reconcile this issue. First, different measures of local flame thickness in a turbulent flow, e.g. area-weighted and unweighted surface-averaged values of (i) |∇ c |, i.e., the absolute value of 3D gradient of the combustion progress variable c , or (ii) 1/|∇ c |, are studied and analytical relationships/inequalities between them are obtained. Second, the evolution of the different flame thickness measures is explored by numerically evaluating them, as well as various terms in relevant evolution equations derived analytically. To do so, various measures and terms are extracted from DNS data obtained from (i) a highly turbulent, constant-density, dynamically passive, single-reaction wave, (ii) moderately and highly turbulent, single-step-chemistry flames, and (iii) moderately and highly turbulent, complex-chemistry lean methane-air flames. In all those cases, all studied flame thickness measures are reduced during an early stage of premixed turbulent flame development, followed by local flame re-broadening at later stages. Analysis of various terms in the aforementioned evolution equations shows that the initial local flame thinning is controlled by turbulent strain rates. The subsequent local flame re-broadening is controlled by (i) curvature contribution to the stretch rate, which counter-balances the strain rate, (ii) spatial non-uniformities of the normal diffusion contribution to the local displacement-speed vector S d n , and (iii) dilatation, which plays an important role in moderately turbulent flames, but a minor role in highly turbulent flames. Moreover, the present study shows that differently defined measures of a local flame thickness can be substantially different. This difference should also be borne in mind when comparing data that indicate local flame thinning with data that indicate local flame broadening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract A numerical and experimental study on the devolatilization of a large biomass particle is carried out to quantify the effect of homogeneous volatile combustion on the conversion of the particle and on the temperature and species distribution at the particle vicinity. A global chemical kinetic mechanism and a detailed reaction mechanism are considered in a one dimensional numerical model that takes into account preferential diffusivity and a detailed composition of tar species. An adaptive moving mesh is employed to capture the changes in the domain due to particle shrinkage. The effect of gas phase reactions on pyrolysis time, temperature and species distribution close to the particle is studied and compared to experiments. Online in situ measurements of average H 2 O mole fraction and gas temperature above a softwood pellet are conducted in a reactor using tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) while recording the particle mass loss. The results show that the volatile combustion plays an important role in the prediction of biomass conversion during the devolatilization stage. It is shown that the global reaction mechanism predicts a thin flame front in the vicinity of the particle deviating from the measured temperature and H 2 O distribution over different heights above the particle. A better agreement between numerical and experimental results is obtained using the detailed reaction mechanism, which predicts a wider reaction zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report micrometric imaging measurements of the ignition of micron-sized aluminum (Al) wires and the consequent combustion processes of single micron-sized Al droplets in hot steam and steam with oxygen. The specially designed flames were anchored on a modified burner where a small central H 2 /O 2 diffusion flame in the center jet provided a hot flow (>2330 K) for Al ignition, and the diffusion flame together with a laminar co-flow of premixed H 2 /N 2 /O 2 flame provided the vitiated flow of desired combustion environment. As soon as the horizontally arranged Al wire was moved to the center hot jet, a high-speed color camera was triggered to record the transient event of the ignition and combustion process. The high imaging quality and spatial resolution allow direct observation of the structure of the burning particles, i.e., the liquid core, the bright flame front encapsulating the center droplet, and the coalescent alumina agglomerates downstream above the burning Al droplets. A distinct thin condense sheet was observed defining the flame front in all symmetric and asymmetric combustion modes, indicating that homogeneous oxidation dominates the heat-release reactions as a diffusion flame. A color ratio RGB pyrometry was calibrated to provide temperature distribution over the burning particles. In the steam condition, the center droplet temperature in the symmetric phase was analyzed to be ∼2650 K and the temperature of the flame front ∼3400 K, while in the oxygenated environments, the droplet temperature was evaluated to be ∼2790 K, and the temperature of the flame front ∼4150 K. The transient temperature evolution of different parts of the burning elements was recorded and analyzed. To the authors' awareness, the current study represents the first structure-resolved temperature measurement of the combustion of single aluminum particles in high-temperature steam. These measurements can provide unprecedented spatiotemporally resolved information on Al combustion for improved insight into the governing mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel multi-region Eulerian model is presented to study the conversion of thermally thick biomass particles. In the present model, the particle and the surrounding fluid are treated as two separate regions that are coupled through an interface. There are some benefits for using a multi-region approach, including a more realistic radiation modeling, flexibility to define the flow boundary conditions at the surface of the particle, and also the possibility to use different governing equations for each region. Furthermore, the multi-region approach provides a solution to the stiff problem of coupling the particle to the surrounding fluid which can be used to significantly reduce the computational cost. In the current model, sub-models for drying, pyrolysis, gasification, combustion, and shrinkage are included. The local effect of shrinkage is considered through porosity change and the global effect of shrinkage is modeled using a dynamic mesh approach. The particle surface and center temperature and particle mass loss during pyrolysis and combustion are compared to different sets of experimental data. The model is used to study the shrinkage and anisotropic heat transfer on particle conversion, and also the pyrolysis in cases with and without the gas phase reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methanol (CH 3 OH) is an attractive alternative fuel that can reduce net carbon release and decrease pollutant emissions. In this study, methanol and n -dodecane spray flames were investigated using Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) and direct coupling with finite-rate chemistry. The selected ambient conditions are relevant to engines and were previously unreported for numerical methanol spray studies, i.e. high pressure (60 bar) and temperature (900 – 1200 K) with high injection pressure (1500 bar). The Engine Combustion Network (ECN) Spray A case was used to validate the n -dodecane spray flame. For methanol, a modified ECN Spray A condition was used with a high initial ambient temperature (1100 K-1200 K) to ensure fast enough ignition relevant to engine time scales. The performed homogeneous reactor (0D) simulations revealed a new phenomenon of a two-stage ignition process for methanol, confirmed by the 3D LES at high pressure, high temperature, and lean conditions. The present numerical results also show that: 1) there is a strong ambient temperature sensitivity for methanol ignition delay time (IDT) with a five-fold decrease in IDT (ID T 1100 K / ID T 1200 K = 5) and a factor of 2.6 decrease in the flame lift-off length (FLO L 1100 K / FLO L 1200 K = 2.6) as the ambient temperature is increased from 1100 K to 1200 K, 2) methanol spray ignition takes place at a very lean mixture (ϕ M R ≈ 0.2) consistent with the 0D predicted most reactive mixture fraction (Z M R) , 3) on average, methanol sprays are significantly leaner than n -dodecane sprays at quasi-steady-state (ϕ m e o h , a v e ≈ 0.2 vs ϕ n d o d , a v e ≈ 0.7) , implying very low soot emissions, and 4) the methanol spray flames could have similar temperatures as the n -dodecane sprays depending on the initial conditions, thus a similar level of NO x emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal powder is a promising carbon-free and recyclable energy carrier. Direct combustion of the micron-sized iron particles involves complex physical and chemical processes, such as heat transfer, surface reaction, and phase change. In this work, computational modelling of these processes is investigated and validated against experiments. A single iron particle combustion and phase change model is proposed in an Eulerian–Lagrangian framework. The new phenomenological model considers five stages, i.e., solid phase oxidation, melting of iron oxides and raw iron, liquid phase oxidation, cooling of liquid iron oxides, and solidification of super-cooled liquid iron oxides. The proposed model is first validated and then adopted in simulations of micron-sized iron particle combustion in premixed CH 4 /O 2 /N 2 flames to study the effects of ambient temperature and oxygen concentration on single iron combustion. Results show that the new model is capable of replicating the melting, heterogeneous surface reaction, cooling, and solidification processes. Two-stage solidification is observed in experiments and modelled in simulations. This two-stage solidification includes a fast solidification with a significant temperature rise (∼ 150–200 K) and a thermal equilibrium solidification featuring a constant temperature and a slight particle radiant intensity decrease. In addition, a diffusion-controlled mechanism is identified during the melting process, in which the oxygen concentration dominates the melting time and the subsequent burning time. Furthermore, it is found that the reaction between iron and CH 4 /O 2 /N 2 flame products, such as CO 2 and H 2 O, plays a non-negligible role in the iron combustion process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, numerical simulations were carried out to identify the mode of ignition and ignition delay time of pulverized biomass particles in hot flue gas produced by a methane/air flame. In the experiments, it was observed that for most biomass residues the dominant combustion mode was the staged gas-phase ignition in the surrounding gas followed by surface ignition at the char surface. There were some exceptions to this general trend, e.g. wheat straw particles, which ignited at the surface of the particle under some temperature conditions. Moreover, temporally and spectrally resolved images of the single burning particles were obtained in the experiments and CH* chemiluminescence at different stages of biomass conversion was recorded. In this study, by means of a detailed numerical model for conversion of biomass particles and employing detailed gas chemistry mechanism, the ignition mode and ignition delay time of the particles are studied. The model is able to distinguish between different ignition modes of the particles in agreement with the experimental data. The underlying physics behind shifting ignition mode from homogeneous ignition to heterogeneous ignition for wheat straw are discussed. The ignition delay times for different biomass sources at different conditions are calculated and the results are in good agreement with the experimental data. Apart from the detailed model, CFD simulations are performed to assess the flow and combustion process (temperature, O 2 concentration and velocity difference between the ambient gas and the particle) around the particle. The CFD results show similar trends compared with the CH* chemiluminescence from the particle at different times during the devolatilization stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to simulate diesel spray flames across a wide range of engine-like conditions using the Eulerian Stochastic Field probability density function (ESF-PDF) model. The ESF model is coupled with the Chemistry Coordinate Mapping approach to expedite the calculation. A convergence study is carried out for a number of stochastic fields at five different conditions, covering both conventional diesel combustion and low-temperature combustion regimes. Ignition delay time, flame lift-off length as well as distributions of temperature and various combustion products are used to evaluate the performance of the model. The peak values of these properties generated using thirty-two stochastic fields are found to converge, with a maximum relative difference of 27% as compared to those from a greater number of stochastic fields. The ESF-PDF model with thirty-two stochastic fields performs reasonably well in reproducing the experimental flame development, ignition delay times and lift-off lengths. The ESF-PDF model also predicts a broader hydroxyl radical distribution which resembles the experimental observation, indicating that the turbulence–chemistry interaction is captured by the ESF-PDF model. The validated model is subsequently used to investigate the flame structures under different conditions. Analyses based on flame index and formaldehyde distribution suggest that a triple flame, which consists of a rich premixed flame, a diffusion flame and a lean premixed flame, is established in the earlier stage of the combustion. As the combustion progresses, the lean premixed flame weakens and diminishes with time. Eventually, only a double-flame structure, made up of the diffusion flame and the rich premixed flame, is observed. The analyses for various ambient temperatures show that the triple-flame structure remains for a longer period of time in cases with lower ambient temperatures. The present study shows that the ESF-PDF method is a valuable alternative to Lagrangian particle PDF methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transient mixing and ignition mechanisms in a simplified pre-chamber/main-chamber system are investigated using direct numerical simulation (DNS) with detailed chemical kinetics. Full ignition and flame propagation processes in the premixed methane/air mixtures are simulated. Ignition, the progress and topology of flame evolution, and the mean burning velocity in the main chamber are analyzed in detail. Four important phases in the ignition and flame propagation processes are identified based on the flame structure development in the main chamber, the pressure and velocity evolution at typical points in both the pre-chamber and main chamber. Results show that the intermediate species OH, CH 2 O, and HO 2 are critical for flame stabilization and propagation in the main chamber due to their high reactivity. This is sorted as the chemical effect that the pre-chamber jet acts on the main chamber. The high temperature jet also brings heat and unburned fuel into the main chamber, which are sorted as thermal and enrichment effect, respectively. The heat release rate is found to be approximately proportional to the product of CH 2 O and OH mass fractions, which could be regarded as a reliable and effective marker for the heat release rate of methane/air mixtures. It is found that the mean burning velocity in the main chamber can be elevated up to 30 times under the condition investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of turbulent premixed methane/air flames approaching blow-off. The study focuses on a stable flame, and on a flame just prior to blow-off, both stabilized by the Cambridge bluff-body burner. For turbulence-chemistry interaction, a model based on transported probability density function (TPDF) in conjunction with Eulerian stochastic fields is used. Velocity, species-concentration and heat release fields were first compared against experimental data showing good agreement. The results demonstrate that simulations of such complex combustion phenomena are possible and that the model is capable of reproducing the flame and the flow characteristics under both stable and close to blow-off conditions. A blow-off sequence was then examined and the results were used to evaluate some of the theories and mechanisms responsible for flame blow-off. It was found that the local extinction in the shear-layers had only minor impact on the flame blowing off and that the blow-off is a result of a series of events starting with the flame migrating into the recirculation zone. In the end, a mechanistic explanation is proposed for this series of events leading to full extinction of the flame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of premixed turbulent methane/air jet flames in the thin reaction zone (TRZ) and distributed reaction zone (DRZ) regimes were studied using simultaneous three-scalar high-resolution imaging measurements, including HCO/OH/CH 2 O, CH/OH/CH 2 O, T/OH/CH 2 O and T/CH/OH/. These scalar fields offer a possibility of revisiting the structures of turbulent premixed flames in different combustion regimes. In particular, CH 2 O provides a measure of the preheat zone, CH/HCO a measure of the inner layer of the reaction zone, and OH a measure of the oxidation zone. Scalar correlations are analyzed on both single-shot and statistical basis, and resolvable correlated structures of ∼100 µm between scalars are captured. With increasing turbulence intensity, it is shown that the preheat zone and the inner layer of the reaction zone become gradually broadened/distributed, and the correlation between HCO and [OH] LIF ×[CH 2 O] LIF decreases. A transition from the TRZ regime to the DRZ regime is found around Karlovitz number of 70–100. The physical and chemical effects on the broadening of the flame are investigated. In the TRZ regime the inner layer marker CH and HCO remains thin in general although occasional local broadening of CH/HCO could be observed. Furthermore, there is a significant probability of finding CH and HCO at rather low temperatures even in the TRZ regime. In the DRZ regime, the broadening of CH and HCO are shown to be mainly a result of local reactions facilitated by rapid turbulent transport of radicals and intermediate reactants in the upstream of the reaction paths. Differential diffusion is expected to have an important effect in the DRZ regime, as H radicals seemingly play a more important role than OH radicals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Instantaneous structures of turbulent premixed ammonia/air flames on a piloted jet burner were investigated using simultaneous planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) and Rayleigh thermometry measurements. Two-dimensional spatial distributions of temperature were simultaneously measured with those of the NH radical and the NO pollutant, respectively. Experiments were conducted for stoichiometric flames under five jet velocities. All flames are located in the distributed reaction zone regime of the Borghi-Peters diagram with the Karlovitz (Ka) number ranging from 274 to 4720. The NH PLIF images are used to characterize the fuel consumption layer of the reaction zones since the formation of NH is associated with the consumption of ammonia. The NH PLIF results show that under all flame conditions investigated, the NH layer remains thin in the proximity of the burner while it becomes progressively thickened and distorted by turbulence with increasing turbulent intensity and axial distance. For flames with Ka of 274, the NH layer essentially remains thin, while at Ka of 590 or higher, significant broadening of the NH layer is observed. Probability density functions (PDFs) of the NH layer thickness show that the NH layer can be broadened by 3 – 4 times as the flames are developed downstream. The broadening of the NH layer is considered to indicate that the flames are in the distributed reaction zone regime. The boundary between the thin-reaction zone regime and the distributed reaction zone regime occurs at a much larger Ka than that in methane/air flames. The broadening of the NH layer is due to the penetration of the turbulent eddies and the merging of flame branches. The latter occurs mainly near the flame tips. NO is shown to exist in a wide region in space, across the preheat zone, reaction zone, and postflame zone. NO formation occurs mainly in the reaction zone, however, it is transported by turbulence eddies to the preheat zone and by convection to the postflame zone. The temperature measurements indicate that the preheat zone is broadened in all flames investigated. The broadening of the preheat zone is moderately sensitive to the Ka number while it is more sensitive to the integral length scale of the flames. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-eddy simulation (LES) of multiple-injection spray combustion under engine-like conditions is performed using a coupled model of an Eulerian stochastic field transported probability density function (ESF T-PDF) and a flamelet generated manifold (FGM). This coupled model allows the use of the T-PDF methods in modeling the interaction of turbulence and chemistry at affordable computational costs for engine applications. Simulation results are compared with the available experimental data for spray flames with multiple-injection and at a high level of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) under conditions relevant to internal combustion engines. It is shown that the T-PDF/FGM LES model is capable of reproducing not only global combustion characteristics, such as the pressure rise and ignition delay time but also replicating the evolution of liftoff length and the spray flame structure. The effects of pre-injection strategies are then investigated, by systematically varying the pre-injection duration and the dwell time between two injections, while keeping the total injected fuel mass constant. The LES results reveal different mechanisms by which a pre-injection can change the ignition delay time, the combustion mode and the emissions in spray flames, depending on the injection timing. It is shown that even an extremely short non-igniting pre-injection can substantially change the ignition and emissions characteristics of the main-injection. It is shown that the combustion mode of a single-injection can be altered by splitting the injection to pre- and main-injections. The current study also demonstrates that decreasing the dwell time, within the range that is examined here, at a given pre-injection, will potentially increase the soot oxidation rates while it does not significantly change the rate of soot formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eulerian stochastic fields (ESF) based transported PDF method has evolved as one of the general purpose methods for the numerical simulation of complex chemically reactive turbulent flows in which the effect of turbulence on the chemical reaction rates can be computed directly without the need of modeling. It is found that ESF method may suffer from violation of the element mass conservation law due to the stochastic Wiener process and the highly non-linear dependence of the chemical reaction rates on the stochastic fields. This paper presents a modified ESF method to remove the error in the element mass conservation. The method is evaluated in numerical simulation of two turbulent flames, (i) Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulation of a turbulent non-premixed methane/air counterflow flame under stationary burning and transient flame extinction conditions, (ii) large eddy simulation of swirling turbulent methane/air non-premixed flames under local extinction and re-ignition conditions. The original ESF method violates the element mass conservation in both flames, and the element mass error would not disappear even if a large number of stochastic fields were used. The new method yields a satisfactory prediction of the element mass conservation even with a small number of stochastic fields. The new and original methods predict similar stationary flame structures but the results under flame extinction and re-ignition conditions are rather different. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simultaneous planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) measurements of a series of reactive scalars and Rayleigh scattering measurements of temperature, i.e. CH/CH 2 O/OH, HCO/CH 2 O/OH and T /CH 2 O/OH, and laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) measurements are carried out to characterize the flame/turbulence interaction in various regimes of turbulent combustion, including the laminar flamelet regime, the thin reaction zone (TRZ) regime, and the distributed reaction zone (DRZ) regime. A series of turbulent premixed methane/air jet flames with different jet speeds and equivalence ratios are studied. The jet Reynolds number ranges from 6000 to 40,000 and the Karlovitz number ( Ka ) of the studied flames varies from 25 to 1470. It is shown that in the TRZ regime CH/HCO layer remain thin but the layer of CH 2 O and temperature gradient are broadened owing to the rapid turbulence transport. In the DRZ regime the CH and HCO layers are also broadened owing to the rapid transport of reactive species such as OH radicals from the high temperature regions where these radicals are formed to the low temperature region. In the DRZ regime CH and HCO are found to coexist with OH or CH 2 O owing to the rapid turbulence eddy interaction, which differs fundamentally from that in the TRZ regime and the laminar flamelet regime. For the present investigated flames, the temperature range for the distributed reaction to occur is found to be between 1100 K and 1500 K. It is shown that the structures of flames in different regimes can affect the turbulence field differently. In the DRZ regime the temperature gradient is lower than that in the laminar flamelet and the TRZ regimes, which results in a lower peak of turbulence intensity owing to the retarded velocity gradient across the flames and thereby a lower rate of turbulence production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simultaneous two-species imaging using single-shot planar laser-induced fluorescence have been performed to record high quality image pairs of CH/OH, CH/CH 2 O and OH/CH 2 O to visualize the flame front structures in swirl-stabilized lean premixed methane/air flames. The results show that the investigated flames exhibit various flame front structures distinctly in space, which covers: (1) the corrugated flamelet at the leading front; (2) the thin reaction-zone layer with distorted preheat zone in the shear-layer downstream; and (3) quenching, re-ignition and distributed reactions further downstream. The large variation of the flame characteristics in space stems from the entrainment of ambient cold air to the flame that results in flame quenching at the trailing edge of the flame. Thereafter, the unburned fuel/air mixture in the downstream region mixes with the entrained air and the hot combustion products from the upstream leading flame front, leading to reignition with distributed reactions. The current results provide a direct experimental evidence that distributed reactions can be a common combustion mode along with the results (Ref. [1], Zhou et al., 2015) recently reported in the highly turbulent premixed jet flames. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a joint experimental and large eddy simulation (LES) study of lean premixed low swirl stabilized methane/air flames at different Reynolds numbers (Re ∼ 20,000–100,000). The aims are to investigate the sensitivity of the structures and dynamics of low swirl flames to the inflow boundary conditions and to evaluate the capability of an LES flamelet model in predicting the stabilization and local extinction of the flames. Chemiluminescence measurements are carried out for Re = 20,000–50,000 and further detailed oxygen concentration and temperature fields are measured using rotational coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy (RCARS) for Re = 20,000 and 30,000 along the centerline of the burner and at various radial positions at different heights above the burner. The data are used first for validation of the combustion LES model employed in the numerical simulations, and then the RCARS and LES results are used to delineate the effect of ambient air entrainment on the flame structure at various burner exit velocities. A three-scalar flamelet model based on a level-set G-equation shows excellent predictions of the lift-off positions and the structures of the flames, including quenching at the trailing edge of the flame. The results show that the flame lift-off height varies only slightly when the burner exit velocity is increased, which is consistent with a shear-layer flame stabilization mechanism reported previously. The volume of the flame decreases substantially with increasing burner exit velocity at relatively low Reynolds numbers, as a result of flame quenching at the trailing edge of the flame caused by entrainment of the ambient air into the fuel/air stream and the flame itself. At high Reynolds numbers the flame structures become fairly self-similar with the flame volume nearly independent of the Reynolds number. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A particle-based transported probability density function (PDF) method with a novel chemistry acceleration technique is developed in this work. The technique is based on the chemistry coordinate mapping (CCM) approach that was proposed in our previous works for accelerating direct numerical simulations (DNS) of partially premixed combustion. The method is first validated using Sandia flames D and F. It is shown that PDF-CCM results converge toward those obtained without CCM as phase-space resolution increases. PDF-CCM is then applied to simulate methane/air lifted jet flames in vitiated coflow reported in experiments by Cabra et al. (2005). It is shown that combustion is initiated in the form of auto-ignition in very fuel-lean gases where the gas velocity is low (the residence time is long) and the gas temperature is high (the ignition delay time is short). The ignition delay of the mixture below the liftoff position scales well with the liftoff height at different coflow temperature conditions. The combustion process above the liftoff height can develop into different modes depending on the coflow temperature. For high-temperature coflow, a premixed-burned combustion is formed above the liftoff height, which involves fuel-lean to fuel-rich burning modes; a triple-flame structure eventually is formed a few nozzle diameters above the liftoff position. For low-temperature coflow, the ignition delay and the liftoff height are sufficiently large to allow premixing between fuel and oxidizer before the onset of high-temperature combustion; in this case, a lean-to-stoichiometric premixed burn combustion is established downstream of the liftoff height, and no obvious triple-flame structure is formed at this condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on numerical and experimental studies of a lean premixed low swirl stabilized methane/air flame. The burner is made up of a central perforated plate and an annular swirler. A premixed methane/air mixture at an equivalence ratio of 0.62 is injected to an ambient co-flow of air through the burner under atmospheric pressure and room temperature condition with a Reynolds number of 30,000. Stereoscopic Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and simultaneous OH/acetone Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence (PLIF) are used to characterize the flame front and the turbulence field downstream of the burner. The flame is stabilized in the low speed central region and in the inner shear-layer vortices, where ambient air dilution to the flame is found to eventually quench the reactions downstream. Rotational Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Spectroscopy (RCARS) measurements are carried out to characterize the temperature field and the relative oxygen mole fraction field, which enables quantification of the air dilution to the flame. The experimental data provides a challenging test case for numerical simulation models owing to the stratification of the mixture and quenching of the flame. Large eddy simulations are carried out using a three-scalar level-set G-equation flamelet model, which is shown to capture the basic flame characteristics and quenching at the trailing edge of the flame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents experimental studies of the structures and burning velocities of premixed ammonia/air jet flames at high Karlovitz (Ka) number conditions. Simultaneous planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) imaging of imidogen (NH) and hydroxyl (OH) radicals was performed to investigate the local flame structure and Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA) measurements were employed for extracting complement relevant turbulent quantities from the flow field. All the selected cases are located in the regime of distributed reaction zones (DRZ) in the Borghi-Peters diagram, with a maximum Karlovitz (Ka) number and turbulent intensity (u ′ /S L) up to 1008 and 240, respectively. The OH- and NH-PLIF data were used to determine the flame surface density, flame-surface area ratio, and turbulent burning velocity (S T). The main findings include: (a) The NH layer remains thin and continuous over the investigated range of turbulent intensity and Karlovitz number, and the thickness keeps constant statistically without any significant broadening by turbulent eddies; (b) Spatial correlations of the NH and OH radicals show that overlap of NH and OH layers always exists in a thin region where OH has a weaker signal intensity; (c) The ratio of turbulent to laminar burning velocity (S T /S L) shows a nearly linear increase with turbulent intensity, while the ratio of wrinkled flame surface area to that of ensemble-averaged flame surface area increases only slightly with turbulent intensities. The slower increase of wrinkled flame surface area with turbulent intensity can be attributed to under-resolution in the current state-of-the-art PLIF experiments, the neglection of 3D flame wrinkles in 2D experiments, and the increase in flame stretch factor at high turbulent intensities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A three-dimensional reactive multi-phase particle-in-cell (MP-PIC) model is employed to investigate biomass combustion and gasification in fluidized bed furnaces. The MP-PIC model considered here is based on a coarse grain method (CGM) which clusters fuel and sand particles into parcels. CGM is computationally efficient, however, it can cause numerical instability if the clustered parcels are passing through small computational cells, resulting in over-loading of solid particles in the cells. To overcome this problem, in this study, a distribution kernel method (DKM) is proposed and implemented in an open-source CFD code, OpenFOAM. In DKM, a redistribution procedure is employed to spread the solid volume and source terms of the particles in the parcel to the domain in which the particles are clustered. The numerical stiffness problem caused by the CGM clustering can be remedied by this method. Validation of the model was performed using data from different lab-scale reactors. The model was shown to be able to capture the transient heat transfer process in a lab-scale bubbling fluidized bed reactor under varying fluidization velocities and loads of sand. Then, the model was used to study the combustion/gasification process in a bubbling fluidized bed reactor under varying ambient temperatures, equivalent air ratios, and steam-to-biomass ratios. The performance of DKM was shown to improve the accuracy and the robustness of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]