scholarly journals Large Eddy Simulation of Light-Round in an Annular Combustor With Liquid Spray Injection and Comparison With Experiments

Author(s):  
Théa Lancien ◽  
Kevin Prieur ◽  
Daniel Durox ◽  
Sébastien Candel ◽  
Ronan Vicquelin

The light-round is defined as the process by which the flame initiated by an ignition spark propagates from burner to burner in an annular combustor, eventually leading to a stable combustion. Combining experiments and numerical simulation, it was recently demonstrated that under perfectly premixed conditions, this process could be suitably described by large eddy simulation (LES) using massively parallel computations. The present investigation aims at developing light-round simulations in a configuration that is closer to that found in aero-engines by considering liquid n-heptane injection. The LES of the ignition sequence of a laboratory scale annular combustion chamber comprising sixteen swirled spray injectors is carried out with a monodisperse Eulerian approach for the description of the liquid phase. The objective is to assess this modeling approach of the two-phase reactive flow during the ignition process. The simulation results are compared in terms of flame structure and light-round duration to the corresponding experimental images of the flame front recorded by a high-speed intensified charge-coupled device camera and to the corresponding experimental delays. The dynamics of the flow is also analyzed to identify and characterize mechanisms controlling flame propagation during the light-round process.

Author(s):  
Théa Lancien ◽  
Kevin Prieur ◽  
Daniel Durox ◽  
Sébastien Candel ◽  
Ronan Vicquelin

A combined experimental and numerical study of light-round, defined as the flame propagation from burner to burner in an annular combustor, under perfectly premixed conditions has previously demonstrated the ability of large-eddy simulation (LES) to predict such ignition processes in a complex geometry using massively parallel computations. The present investigation aims at developing light-round simulations in a configuration closer to real applications by considering liquid n-heptane injection. The large-eddy simulation of the ignition sequence of a laboratory scale annular combustion chamber comprising sixteen swirled two-phase injectors is carried out with a mono-disperse Eulerian approach for the description of the liquid phase. The objective is to assess this modeling approach to describe the two-phase reactive flow during the ignition process. The simulation results are compared in terms of flame structure and light-round duration to the corresponding experimental images of the flame front recorded by a high-speed intensified CCD camera. The dynamics of the flow is also analyzed to identify and characterize mechanisms controlling flame propagation during the light-round process.


Author(s):  
Maxime Philip ◽  
Matthieu Boileau ◽  
Ronan Vicquelin ◽  
Thomas Schmitt ◽  
Daniel Durox ◽  
...  

Ignition is a problem of fundamental interest with critical practical implications. While there are many studies of ignition of single injector configurations, the transient ignition of a full annular combustor has not been extensively investigated, mainly because of the added geometrical complexity. The present investigation combines simulations and experiments on a complete annular combustor. The setup, developed at EMC2 (Energétique Moléculaire et Macroscopique Combustion) Laboratory (Mesa, AZ), features sixteen swirl injectors and quartz walls allowing direct visualization of the flame. High speed imaging is used to record the space time flame structure and study the dynamics of the light-round process. On the numerical side, massively parallel computations are carried out in the large eddy simulation (LES) framework using the filtered tabulated (F-TACLES) flamelet model. Comparisons are carried out at different instants during the light-round process between experimental data and results of calculations. It is found that the simulation results are in remarkable agreement with experiments provided that the thermal effects at the walls are considered. Further analysis indicate that the flame burning velocity and flame front geometry are close to those found in the experiment. This investigation confirms that the LES framework used for these calculations and the selected combustion model are adequate for such calculations but that further work is needed to show that ignition prediction can be used reliably over a range of operating parameters.


Author(s):  
B. Franzelli ◽  
A. Vié ◽  
B. Fiorina ◽  
N. Darabiha

Accurate characterization of swirled flames is a key point in the development of more efficient and safer aeronautical engines. The task is even more challenging for spray injection systems. On the one side, spray interacts with both turbulence and flame, eventually affecting the flame dynamics. On the other side, spray flame structure is highly complex due to equivalence ratio inhomogeneities caused by the evaporation process. Introducing detailed chemistry in numerical simulations, necessary for the prediction of flame stabilization, ignition and pollutant concentration, is then essential but extremely expensive in terms of CPU time. In this context, tabulated chemistry methods, expressly developed to account for detailed chemistry at a reduced computational cost in Large Eddy Simulation of turbulent gaseous flames, are attractive. The objective of this work is to propose a first computation of a swirled spray flame stabilized in an actual turbojet injection system using tabulated chemistry. A Large Eddy Simulation of an experimental benchmark, representative of an industrial swirl two-phase air/kerosene injection system, is performed using a standard tabulated chemistry method. The numerical results are compared to the experimental database in terms of mean and fluctuating axial velocity. The reactive two-phase flow is deeper investigated focusing on the flame structure and dynamics.


Author(s):  
Xiaofeng Yang ◽  
Saurabh Gupta ◽  
Tang-Wei Kuo ◽  
Venkatesh Gopalakrishnan

A comparative cold flow analysis between Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) and large eddy simulation (LES) cycle-averaged velocity and turbulence predictions is carried out for a single cylinder engine with a transparent combustion chamber (TCC) under motored conditions using high-speed particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements as the reference data. Simulations are done using a commercial computationally fluid dynamics (CFD) code CONVERGE with the implementation of standard k-ε and RNG k-ε turbulent models for RANS and a one-equation eddy viscosity model for LES. The following aspects are analyzed in this study: The effects of computational domain geometry (with or without intake and exhaust plenums) on mean flow and turbulence predictions for both LES and RANS simulations. And comparison of LES versus RANS simulations in terms of their capability to predict mean flow and turbulence. Both RANS and LES full and partial geometry simulations are able to capture the overall mean flow trends qualitatively; but the intake jet structure, velocity magnitudes, turbulence magnitudes, and its distribution are more accurately predicted by LES full geometry simulations. The guideline therefore for CFD engineers is that RANS partial geometry simulations (computationally least expensive) with a RNG k-ε turbulent model and one cycle or more are good enough for capturing overall qualitative flow trends for the engineering applications. However, if one is interested in getting reasonably accurate estimates of velocity magnitudes, flow structures, turbulence magnitudes, and its distribution, they must resort to LES simulations. Furthermore, to get the most accurate turbulence distributions, one must consider running LES full geometry simulations.


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