scholarly journals Large-Eddy Simulation of Soot Formation in a Model Gas Turbine Combustor

Author(s):  
Heeseok Koo ◽  
Malik Hassanaly ◽  
Venkat Raman ◽  
Michael E. Mueller ◽  
Klaus Peter Geigle

The computational modeling of soot in aircraft engines is a formidable challenge, not only due to the multiscale interactions with the turbulent combustion process but the equally complex physical and chemical processes that drive the conversion of gas-phase fuel molecules into solid-phase particles. In particular, soot formation is highly sensitive to the gas-phase composition and temporal fluctuations in a turbulent background flow. In this work, a large-eddy simulation (LES) framework is used to study the soot formation in a model aircraft combustor with swirl-based fuel and air injection. Two different configurations are simulated: one with and one without secondary oxidation jets. Specific attention is paid to the LES numerical implementation such that the discrete solver minimizes the dissipation of kinetic energy. Simulation of the model combustor shows that the LES approach captures the two recirculation zones necessary for flame stabilization very accurately. Further, the model reasonably predicts the temperature profiles inside the combustor. The model also captures variation in soot volume fraction with global equivalence ratio. The structure of the soot field suggests that when secondary oxidation jets are present, the inner recirculation region becomes fuel lean, and soot generation is completely suppressed. Further, the soot field is highly intermittent suggesting that a very restrictive set of gas-phase conditions promotes soot generation.

Author(s):  
Heeseok Koo ◽  
Malik Hassanaly ◽  
Venkat Raman ◽  
Michael E. Mueller ◽  
Klaus Peter Geigle

The computational modeling of soot in aircraft engines is a formidable challenge, not only due to the multi-scale interactions with the turbulent combustion process but the equally complex physical and chemical processes that drive the conversion of gas-phase fuel molecules into solid-phase particles. In particular, soot formation is highly sensitive to the gas-phase composition and temporal fluctuations in a turbulent background flow. In this work, a large eddy simulation (LES) framework is used to study soot formation in a model aircraft combustor with swirl-based fuel and air injection. Two different configurations are simulated: one with and one without secondary oxidation jets. Specific attention is paid to the LES numerical implementation such that the discrete solver minimizes the dissipation of kinetic energy. Simulation of the model combustor shows that the LES approach captures the two recirculation zones necessary for flame stabilization very accurately. Further, the model reasonably predicts the temperature profiles inside the combustor. The model also captures variation in soot volume fraction with global equivalence ratio. The structure of the soot field suggests that when secondary oxidation jets are present, the inner recirculation region becomes fuel lean and soot generation is completely suppressed. Further, the soot field is highly intermittent suggesting that a very restrictive set of gas phase conditions promote soot generation.


2020 ◽  
pp. 146808742091034
Author(s):  
Jann Koch ◽  
Christian Schürch ◽  
Yuri M Wright ◽  
Konstantinos Boulouchos

Fuels based on admixtures of methane/natural gas and hydrogen are a promising way to reduce CO2 emissions of spark ignition engines and increase their efficiency. A lot of work was conducted experimentally, whereas only limited numerical work is available in the context of three-dimensional modelling of the full engine cycle. This work addresses this fact by proposing a reactive computational fluid dynamics modelling framework to consider the effects of hydrogen addition on the combustion process. Part I of this two-part study focuses on the modelling and crucial considerations in order to predict the mean cycle based on the G-equation combustion model using the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations. There, the effect of increased burning speed was globally captured by increasing the flame speed coefficient A, appearing in the considered flame speed closure. The proposed simplified modelling of the early flame stage proved to be robust for the conducted hydrogen variation from 0 to 50 vol% H2 for stoichiometric and lean operation. Scope of this work, Part II, are cyclic fluctuations and the hydrogen influence thereon using large eddy simulation and the proposed modelling framework. The model is probed towards its capabilities to predict the fluctuation of the combustion process for 0 and 50 vol% H2 and correlations influencing the observed peak pressure of the individual cycle are presented. It is shown that the considered approach is capable to reproduce the cyclic fluctuations of the combustion process under the influence of hydrogen addition as well as lean operation. The importance of the early flame phase with respect to arising fluctuations is highlighted as well as the contribution of the resolved scales in terms of the flame front wrinkling.


Author(s):  
Florent Lacombe ◽  
Yoann Méry

This article focuses on combustion instabilities (CI) driven by entropy fluctuations which is of great importance in practical devices. A simplified geometry is introduced. It keeps the essential features of an aeronautical combustion chamber (swirler, dilution holes, and outlet nozzle), while it is simplified sufficiently to ease the analysis (rectangular vane, one row of holes of the same diameter, no diffuser at the inlet of the chamber, and circular nozzle at the outlet). A large eddy simulation (LES) is carried out on this geometry and the limit cycle of a strong CI involving the convection of an entropy spot is obtained. The behavior of the instability is analyzed using phenomenological description and classical signal analysis. One shows that the system can be better described by considering two reacting zones: a rich mainly premixed flame is located downstream of the swirler and an overall lean diffusion flame is stabilized next to the dilution holes. In a second step, dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) is used to visualize, analyze, and model the complex phasing between different processes affecting the reacting zones. Using these data, a zero-dimensional (0D) modeling of the premixed flame and of the diffusion flame is proposed. These models provide an extended understanding of the combustion process in an aeronautical combustor and could be used or adapted to address mixed acoustic-entropy CI in an acoustic code.


Fuel ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 313 ◽  
pp. 122735
Author(s):  
Jiun Cai Ong ◽  
Min Zhang ◽  
Morten Skov Jensen ◽  
Jens Honoré Walther

Author(s):  
Jean Lamouroux ◽  
Stéphane Richard ◽  
Quentin Malé ◽  
Gabriel Staffelbach ◽  
Antoine Dauptain ◽  
...  

Nowadays, models predicting soot emissions are, neither able to describe correctly fine effects of technological changes on sooting trends nor sufficiently validated at relevant operating conditions to match design office quantification needs. Yet, phenomenological descriptions of soot formation, containing key ingredients for soot modeling exist in the literature, such as the well-known Leung et al. model (Combust Flame 1991). This approach indeed includes contributions of nucleation, surface growth, coagulation, oxidation and thermophoretic transport of soot. When blindly applied to aeronautical combustors for different operating conditions, this model fails to hierarchize operating points compared to experimental measurements. The objective of this work is to propose an extension of the Leung model, including an identification of its constants over a wide range of condition relevant of gas turbines operation. Today, the identification process can hardly be based on laboratory flames since few detailed experimental data are available for heavy-fuels at high pressure. Thus, it is decided to directly target smoke number values measured at the engine exhaust for a variety of combustors and operating conditions from idling to take-off. A Large Eddy Simulation approach is retained for its intrinsic ability to reproduce finely unsteady behavior, mixing and intermittency. In this framework, The Leung model for soot is coupled to the TFLES model for combustion. It is shown that pressure-sensitive laws for the modelling constant of the soot surface chemistry are sufficient to reproduce engine emissions. Grid convergence is carried out to verify the robustness of the proposed approach. Several cases are then computed blindly to assess the prediction capabilities of the extended model. This study paves the way for the systematic use of a high fidelity tool solution in design office constraints for combustion chamber development.


Author(s):  
Florent Lacombe ◽  
Yoann Mery

This article focuses on Combustion Instabilities (CI) driven by entropy fluctuations which is of great importance in practical devices. A simplified geometry is introduced. It keeps the essential features of an aeronautical combustion chamber (swirler, dilution holes, outlet nozzle) while it is simplified sufficiently to ease the analysis (rectangular vane, one row of holes of the same diameter, no diffuser at the inlet of the chamber, circular nozzle at the outlet). A Large Eddy Simulation (LES) is carried out on this geometry and the limit cycle of a strong CI involving the convection of an entropy spot is obtained. The behavior of the instability is analyzed using phenomenological description and classical signal analysis. One shows that the system can be better described by considering two reacting zones: a rich mainly premixed flame is located downstream of the swirler and an overall lean diffusion flame is stabilized next to the dilution holes. In a second step, Dynamic Mode Decomposition (DMD) is used to visualize, analyze and model the complex phasing between the different processes affecting the reacting zones. Using these data, a 0D modeling of the premixed flame and of the diffusion flame is proposed. These models provides an extended understanding of the combustion process in an aeronautical combustor and could be used or adapted to address mixed acoustic-entropy CI in an acoustic code.


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