Further development of the three-region model of a premixed turbulent flame I. Turbulent diffusion dominated region 2

A study of the balance equation for turbulent kinetic energy of a premixed turbulent flame has been carried out. Various parameters constituting each term have either been measured or have been calculated from previously measured values. Propane and hydrogen were used as fuels, and the turbulence intensity of the approach flow was varied. Thus, an energy balance of turbulence in a flame has been set up. These results show that increase in both approach turbulence intensity and laminar burning velocity reduce the ratio of production/dissipation in a flame. Thus the stabilizing influence of laminar burning velocity is fully confirmed. The turbulent convection term is found to remain substantially unaltered. The advection term, on the other hand, changes from a loss to a gain in the turbulent energy of the flame. Finally, it is shown that significant differences exist between a flame and a non-reactive variable density axisymmetric jet. These conclusions make the study of turbulent flames unique in that theories that do not accommodate their special features should either be modified or abandoned.

An experimental study of the turbulent kinetic energy balance for the eddy entrainment, combustion in depth process of region 3 has been carried out. The influence of approach turbulence scale, intensity and laminar burning velocity on each term in the balance equation has been examined for propane-air and acetylene-air flames and the important role of small scale turbulent motion is highlighted. It is observed that either an increase in intensity or a reduction in scale of approach turbulence increases the magnitude of all terms except that for convection. The core region of the flame shows jet-like behaviour. The entrainment, combustion in depth process produces a very high level of fluctuating vorticity. Therefore, the dominant terms appear to be those of viscous dissipation and advection. Finally, a large increase in laminar burning velocity enhances the contribution of the advection term at the expense of a reduction in the convection term.


Author(s):  
Pratap Sathiah ◽  
Andrei N. Lipatnikov

A typical stationary premixed turbulent flame is the developing flame, as indicated by the growth of mean flame thickness with distance from flame-stabilization point. The goal of this work is to assess the importance of modeling flame development for RANS simulations of confined stationary premixed turbulent flames. For this purpose, submodels for developing turbulent diffusivity and developing turbulent burning velocity, which were early suggested by our group (FSC model) and validated for expanding spherical flames [4], have been incorporated into the so-called Zimont model of premixed turbulent combustion and have been implemented into the CFD package Fluent 6.2. The code has been run to simulate a stationary premixed turbulent flame stabilized behind a triangular bluff body in a rectangular channel using both the original and extended models. Results of these simulations show that the mean temperature and velocity fields in the flame are markedly affected by the development of turbulent diffusivity and burning velocity.


Available experimental data on the turbulent burning velocity of premixed gases are surveyed. There is discussion of the accuracy of experimental measurements and the means of ascertaining relevant turbulent parameters. Results are presented in the form of the variation of the ratio of turbulent to laminar burning velocities with the ratio of r.m.s. turbulent velocity to laminar burning velocity, for different ranges of turbulent Reynolds number. A two-eddy theory of burning is developed and the theoretical predictions of this approach, as well as those of others, are compared with experimentally measured values.


An experimental study of the influence of laminar burning velocity on the structure and propagation of duct-confined premixed turbulent flames has been carried out. Propane, acetylene and hydrogen were used as fuels to vary the laminar burning velocity in the range from 20 to 280 cm/s. These experiments fully verify the three region model (region 1: u ' < 2 S L , η > δ L ; region 2: u ' ≈ 2 S L , η ≈ δ L to η ≫ δ L ; region 3: u ' > 2 S L , η < δ L ) of turbulent flames proposed earlier by Ballal & Lefebvre. Since a large increase in the laminar burning velocity has a stabilizing influence it is possible to suppress the ‘instability’ of region 1 and the ‘eddy entrainment’ of region 3. The ‘turbulent diffusion’ mechanism then becomes solely dominant, and the flame shows a ‘jet-like’ behaviour. For such a flame (i) both the burning velocity and flame turbulence intensity are independent of scale, (ii) the equations developed by Karlovitz and Ballal for regions of stable combustion accurately predict all the experimental data on turbulent burning velocity and flame turbulence, respectively, and (iii) the laminar burning velocity remains an important parameter of flame propagation even at very high turbulence intensity. Finally the important role of shear-generated turbulence and the ability of the flame either to dampen or to generate additional turbulence has been fully confirmed.


An analysis of the balance equation for turbulent kinetic energy of an instability dominated region 1 is presented for a turbulent, premixed propane-air flame. The effects of intensity, scale and laminar burning velocity on the energy balance are also examined. Specifically, the nature of instability in a turbulent flame and its influence on the flame structure are highlighted. These results show that either increase in scale or reduction in intensity of approach turbulence increases the magnitude of all the terms in the balance equation. The core region of the flame is unaffected by a small scale instability, whereas, for a large scale instability, the ratio of turbulence production/viscous dissipation remains independent of scale. The dominant terms in the energy balance are found to be those of convection and advection when the structure of the flame turbulence consists mainly of a large scale fluctuating motion. Finally, increase in laminar burning velocity restores stability and causes transition to region 2, in which production and viscous dissipation predominate over convection and advection terms, respectively.


The influence of turbulence intensity, scale and vorticity on burning velocity and flame structure is examined by using premixed propane-air mixtures supplied at atmospheric pressure to a combustion chamber 31cm long and lOcmx 10 cm cross-section. The chamber is fitted with transparent side walls to permit flame observations and schlieren photography. Control over the turbulence level is achieved by means of grids located upstream of the combustion zone. By suitable modifications to grid geometry and flow velocity, it is possible to vary turbulence intensity and scale independently within the combustion zone in such a manner that their separate effects on burning velocity and flame structure are readily distinguished. From analysis of the results obtained three distinct regions may be identified, each having different characteristics in regard to the effect of scale on turbulent burning velocity. For each region a mechanism of turbulent flame propagation is proposed which describes the separate influences on burning velocity of turbulence intensity, turbulence scale, laminar flame speed and flame thickness. The arguments presented in support of this 3-region model are substantiated by the experimental data and by the pictorial evidence on flame structure provided by the schlieren photographs. This model also sheds light on some of the characteristics which turbulent flames have in common with laminar flames when the latter are subjected to pressure and velocity fluctuations. Finally the important role of vorticity is examined and it is found that turbulent flame speed is highest when the rate of production of vorticity is equal to about half the rate of viscous dissipation.


Author(s):  
Akihiro Hayakawa ◽  
Tomohiro Takeo ◽  
Yukito Miki ◽  
Yukihide Nagano ◽  
Toshiaki Kitagawa

Spherically propagating laminar and turbulent flames were studied using iso-octane / air mixtures with and without dilution. The main purpose of this study is to clarify the influence of thermo-diffusive effects on the turbulent flames. In order to examine the thermo-diffusive effects solely by separating them from the effects of flame stretch, turbulent burning velocities were compared at constant flame stretch factors. The mean flame stretch factor acting on turbulent flame front may be represented by the turbulence Karlovitz number. Thus, turbulent explosions were carried out at fixed turbulence Karlovitz numbers. The ratio of turbulent burning velocity to unstretched laminar burning velocity increased with the equivalence ratio for non-diluted mixtures at fixed turbulence Karlovitz numbers. And this ratio for CO2 diluted mixtures was larger than N2 diluted mixtures. The Markstein number that denotes the sensitivity of the flame to thermo-diffusive effects depends on the equivalence ratio and diluents of the mixture. The ratio of turbulent burning velocity to unstretched laminar one increased with decreasing Markstein number. Especially, it changed stepwise around Markstein number of zero. However, the burning velocity ratios did not increase with increasing mixture pressure although the Markstein number decreased with pressure.


Author(s):  
Sean D. Salusbury ◽  
Ehsan Abbasi-Atibeh ◽  
Jeffrey M. Bergthorson

Differential diffusion effects in premixed combustion are studied in a counter-flow flame experiment for fuel-lean flames of three fuels with different Lewis numbers: methane, propane, and hydrogen. Previous studies of stretched laminar flames show that a maximum reference flame speed is observed for mixtures with Le ≳ 1 at lower flame-stretch values than at extinction, while the reference flame speed for Le ≪ 1 increases until extinction occurs when the flame is constrained by the stagnation point. In this work, counter-flow flame experiments are performed for these same mixtures, building upon the laminar results by using variable high-blockage turbulence-generating plates to generate turbulence intensities from the near-laminar u′/SLo=1 to the maximum u′/SLo achievable for each mixture, on the order of u′/SLo=10. Local, instantaneous reference flamelet speeds within the turbulent flame are extracted from high-speed PIV measurements. Instantaneous flame front positions are measured by Rayleigh scattering. The probability-density functions (PDFs) of instantaneous reference flamelet speeds for the Le ≳ 1 mixtures illustrate that the flamelet speeds are increasing with increasing turbulence intensity. However, at the highest turbulence intensities measured in these experiments, the probability seems to drop off at a velocity that matches experimentally-measured maximum reference flame speeds in previous work. In contrast, in the Le ≪ 1 turbulent flames, the most-probable instantaneous reference flamelet speed increases with increasing turbulence intensity and can, significantly, exceed the maximum reference flame speed measured in counter-flow laminar flames at extinction, with the PDF remaining near symmetric for the highest turbulence intensities. These results are reinforced by instantaneous flame position measurements. Flame-front location PDFs show the most probable flame location is linked both to the bulk flow velocity and to the instantaneous velocity PDFs. Furthermore, hydrogen flame-location PDFs are recognizably skewed upstream as u′/SLo increases, indicating a tendency for the Le ≪ 1 flame brush to propagate farther into the unburned reactants against a steepening average velocity gradient.


Author(s):  
Vinod Kumar Yadav ◽  
Ranjeet Singha ◽  
Abhishek Kumar Pandey ◽  
Saumya   ◽  
Ashish Kumar Singh ◽  
...  

One of the major causes of environmental pollution and ozone layer depletion is the emissions coming out of the combustion devices including industrial burners, automobile vehicles and household appliances. Most of the conventional fuels used now days have high GWP and ODP. So the greatest challenges among the combustion researchers and scientists are to develop some sustainable and non conventional sources of energy that possesses capability to replace the conventional ones. One of the important gaseous fuels in non conventional category is hydrogen, which is a cleaner fuel and reduces pollution enormously. In the present work, experimental & computational analysis of laminar burning velocity (LBV) of premixed gaseous fuels (primary focus on Hydrogen enrichment) was carried out. For experimental investigation the experimental set up available in Fuel and pollution lab of Indian Institute of Technology Delhi is used. Experiments were carried out on mixtures of methane- Air and Methane-Hydrogen-Air for wide range of equivalence ratios and compared with the computational results of PREMIX with full GRI-Mech 3.0 mechanism. Most of the experiments available in literature were carried out at 298 K. In the present work it has been tried to relate the effect of low temperatures on laminar burning velocity of mixtures. The experiments have been conducted at 1 bar pressure and around 292 Kelvin with equivalence ratio ranging from 0.8 to 1.2. Methane gas is enriched with hydrogen in varying proportions and the effect of hydrogen enrichment on its laminar burning velocity studied. The objective of the addition of hydrogen to methane was to increase its laminar burning velocity as well as to extend its lean flammability limits at lower ambient temperatures.


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