A Perspective on Combustion-Driven Flows With Circulation

Author(s):  
Francine Battaglia ◽  
Ronald G. Rehm ◽  
Howard R. Baum ◽  
Mohamed I. Hassan ◽  
Kozo Saito

Abstract Perhaps the most dramatic example of surprising behavior when circulation is imposed on a combustion-driven flow is the fire whirl, where the burning gases form a tall slender column. Relatively few studies have addressed the influence of circulation on the development of combustion-driven flows. Three dimensionless parameters characterize this interplay: the Froude number, the swirl number and the Reynolds number. It is surprising that for most studies, even with plausible assumptions concerning the experiments, not enough information is given to determine the values of these parameters. We will experimentally reconstruct these studies in an effort to characterize parametrically these interactions. Both buoyancy-driven and momentum-driven combustion processes will be investigated to determine the influence of circulation. Theoretical studies will occur in conjunction to provide the most complete parametric investigation.

2016 ◽  
Vol 804 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anikesh Pal ◽  
Sutanu Sarkar ◽  
Antonio Posa ◽  
Elias Balaras

Direct numerical simulations (DNS) are performed to study the behaviour of flow past a sphere in the regime of high stratification (low Froude number $Fr$). In contrast to previous results at lower Reynolds numbers, which suggest monotone suppression of turbulence with increasing stratification in flow past a sphere, it is found that, below a critical $Fr$, increasing the stratification induces unsteady vortical motion and turbulent fluctuations in the near wake. The near wake is quantified by computing the energy spectra, the turbulence energy equation, the partition of energy into horizontal and vertical components, and the buoyancy Reynolds number. These diagnostics show that the stabilizing effect of buoyancy changes flow over the sphere to flow around the sphere. This qualitative change in the flow leads to a new regime of unsteady vortex shedding in the horizontal planes and intensified horizontal shear which result in turbulence regeneration.


Author(s):  
Sunil Patil ◽  
Teddy Sedalor ◽  
Danesh Tafti ◽  
Srinath Ekkad ◽  
Yong Kim ◽  
...  

Modern dry low emissions (DLE) combustors are characterized by highly swirling and expanding flows that makes the convective heat load on the gas side difficult to predict and estimate. A coupled experimental–numerical study of swirling flow inside a DLE annular combustor model is used to determine the distribution of heat transfer on the liner walls. Three different Reynolds numbers are investigated in the range of 210,000–840,000 with a characteristic swirl number of 0.98. The maximum heat transfer coefficient enhancement ratio decreased from 6 to 3.6 as the flow Reynolds number increased from 210,000 to 840,000. This is attributed to a reduction in the normalized turbulent kinetic energy in the impinging shear layer, which is strongly dependent on the swirl number that remains constant at 0.98 for the Reynolds number range investigated. The location of peak heat transfer did not change with the increase in Reynolds number since the flow structures in the combustors did not change with Reynolds number. Results also showed that the heat transfer distributions in the annulus have slightly different characteristics for the concave and convex walls. A modified swirl number accounting for the step expansion ratio is defined to facilitate comparison between the heat transfer characteristics in the annular combustor with previous work in a can combustor. A higher modified swirl number in the annular combustor resulted in higher heat transfer augmentation and a slower decay with Reynolds number.


Author(s):  
Atsushi Maeda ◽  
Takayuki Yamagata ◽  
Nobuyuki Fujisawa

In the present paper, the inflow phenomenon in the near-field of a buoyant jet issuing from a square duct is studied by using scanning LIF and scanning PIV measurements. The scanning LIF visualization allows an insight into the critical condition of the inflow phenomenon in a wide range of Froude number and Reynolds number. While, the scanning PIV allows the quantitative information on the inflow rate through the duct exit. The experimental result shows that the critical Froude number increases with an increase in Reynolds number in the duct exit up to Reynolds number 2,000, though it is weakened at higher Reynolds number. The examination of the inflow rate indicates that the large magnitude of the inflow rate occurs in the lower Froude number and Reynolds number.


2013 ◽  
Vol 291-294 ◽  
pp. 791-794
Author(s):  
Yan Liu ◽  
Shao Feng Zhang ◽  
Jiang Tao Wang

In order to obtain the pressure drop of the horizontal liquid-solid circulation fluidization bed with Kenics static mixers, experiments were carried out in four Kenics static mixers with different aspect ratio of mixing element(AR) over a range of 30000 to 51000 to get pressure drop data. Dimension analysis revealed that the pressure drop characteristic of the Kenics static mixer can be described by three dimensionless parameters, such as the friction factor, Reynolds number, and aspect ratio of mixing element. According to the experiment data, a new dimensionless pressure drop correlation was developed. The results indicate that the value of Cf becomes constant and has no correlation with the value of Re in fixed AR. The value of Cf was increased with the increase of AR.


1995 ◽  
Vol 291 ◽  
pp. 223-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. T. Walker ◽  
C.-Y. Chen ◽  
W. W. Willmarth

Results of an experimental study of the interaction of a turbulent jet with a free surface when the jet issues parallel to the free surface are presented. Three different jets, with different exit velocities and jet-exit diameters, all located two jet-exit diameters below the free surface were studied. At this depth the jet flow, in each case, is fully turbulent before significant interaction with the free surface occurs. The effects of the Froude number (Fr) and the Reynolds number (Re) were investigated by varying the jet-exit velocity and jet-exit diameter. Froude-number effects were identified by increasing the Froude number from Fr = 1 to 8 at Re = 12700. Reynolds-number effects were identified by increasing the Reynolds number from Re = 12700 to 102000 at Fr = 1. Qualitative features of the subsurface flow and free-surface disturbances were examined using flow visualization. Measurements of all six Reynolds stresses and the three mean velocity components were obtained in two planes 16 and 32 jet diameters downstream using a three-component laser velocimeter. For all the jets, the interaction of vorticity tangential to the surface with its ‘image’ above the surface contributes to an outward flow near the free surface. This interaction is also shown to be directly related to the observed decrease in the surface-normal velocity fluctuations and the corresponding increase in the tangential velocity fluctuations near the free surface. At high Froude number, the larger surface disturbances diminish the interaction of the tangential vorticity with its image, resulting in a smaller outward flow and less energy transfer from the surface-normal to tangential velocity fluctuations near the surface. Energy is transferred instead to free-surface disturbances (waves) with the result that the turbulence kinetic energy is 20% lower and the Reynolds stresses are reduced. At high Reynolds number, the rate of evolution of the interaction of the jet with the free surface was reduced as shown by comparison of the rate of change with distance downstream of the local Reynolds and Froude numbers. In addition, the decay of tangential vorticity near the surface is slower than for low Reynolds number so that vortex filaments have time to undergo multiple reconnections to the free surface before they eventually decay.


Author(s):  
Sunil Patil ◽  
Santosh Abraham ◽  
Danesh Tafti ◽  
Srinath Ekkad ◽  
Yong Kim ◽  
...  

Experiments and numerical computations are performed to investigate the convective heat transfer characteristics of a gas turbine can combustor under cold flow conditions in a Reynolds number range between 50,000 and 500,000 with a characteristic swirl number of 0.7. It is observed that the flow field in the combustor is characterized by an expanding swirling flow which impinges on the liner wall close to the inlet of the combustor. The impinging shear layer is responsible for the peak location of heat transfer augmentation. It is observed that as Reynolds number increases from 50,000 to 500,000, the peak heat transfer augmentation ratio (compared to fully-developed pipe flow) reduces from 10.5 to 2.75. This is attributed to the reduction in normalized turbulent kinetic energy in the impinging shear layer which is strongly dependent on the swirl number that remains constant at 0.7 with Reynolds number. Additionally, the peak location does not change with Reynolds number since the flow structure in the combustor is also a function of the swirl number. The size of the corner recirculation zone near the combustor liner remains the same for all Reynolds numbers and hence the location of shear layer impingement and peak augmentation does not change.


2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Junlian Yin ◽  
Jingjing Li ◽  
Yanfei Ma ◽  
Hua Li ◽  
Wei Liu ◽  
...  

The gas–liquid separator is a key component in the gas removal system in thorium molten salt reactor (TMSR). In this paper, an experimental study focusing on the gas core formation in the gas–liquid separator was carried out. We observed that formation of the air core depends primarily on the back pressure in the separator. Gas core formation was visualized for a range of back pressures, swirl numbers, and Reynolds numbers. Analysis of flow patterns indicated that gas core formation may be defined as four stages: “air core with suction,” “tadpole-shaped core,” “cloudy core,” and “rod core.” When rod core is achieved, gas bubbles will be separated completely and that particular back pressure is defined as critical back pressure. The critical back pressure depends on swirl number and Reynolds number. The trends how the critical back pressures vary with the Reynolds number and the swirl number were analyzed.


Author(s):  
Arun Kaushal ◽  
Gurpreet Singh ◽  
Subhash Chander ◽  
Anjan Ray

An experimental study has been conducted to determine the heat transfer characteristics for low Reynolds number turbulent swirling LPG/Air flames impinging on a flat surface. Effect of variation of Reynolds number (3000–7000), dimensionless separation distance (H/d = 1 to 6) and equivalence ratio (φ = 0.8 to 2) on heat transfer characteristics has been determined at constant swirl number of 4. Further, experiments were also conducted to investigate the effect of swirl number on heat transfer characteristics at Re = 7000, φ = 1.0 and H/d = 5. It has been concluded that the major drawback of flame impingement i.e., non-uniformity in the heating can be resolved by using swirling flames in place of non-swirling flames. With increase in Reynolds number the flame becomes longer and broader. Also, at higher Re the flame becomes noisy and violent because of the enhanced turbulences in the flame. A dip in the temperature was observed at the stagnation point at all Re and this dip was more significant at higher Re. At small separation distances (H/d = 1 and 2) and at large Reynolds numbers (Re = 7000) heating is comparatively more non-uniform because of close proximity of the visible reaction zone to the plate resulting in intense heating in the stagnation region. High average heat fluxes were obtained at low separation distances and at larger Reynolds numbers.


2002 ◽  
Vol 124 (3) ◽  
pp. 516-524 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Jiang ◽  
Y. Hao ◽  
Y.-X. Tao

To improve the understanding of convective melting of packed solid particles in a fluid, an experimental investigation is conducted to study the melting characteristics of a packed bed by unmasking the buoyancy forces due to the density difference between the melt and solid particles. A close-loop apparatus, named the particle-melting-in-flow (PMF) module, is designed to allow a steady-state liquid flow at a specified temperature. The module is installed onboard NASA’s KC-135 reduced gravity aircraft using ice particles of desired sizes and water as the test media. Experimentally determined melting rates are presented as a function of upstream flow velocity, temperature and initial average particle size of the packed bed. It is found that the melting rate is influenced mainly by the ratio of the Reynolds number (Re, based on the initial particle diameter) to the square of the Froude number (Fr), and the Stefan number (Ste). In general, the dimensionless melting rate decreases as Re/Fr2 increases and increases as Ste increases. With the absence of gravity, i.e., as the Froude number approaches infinity, a maximum melting rate can be achieved. The increase in the melting rate proportional to the Stefan number also becomes more pronounced under the zero gravity condition. The trend of average and local Nusselt number of the melting packed bed under microgravity, as a function of Reynolds number and Prandtl number, is discussed and compared with the case of nonmelting packed bed.


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