Abstract In this study, the highly nonlinear and multi-scale flame-turbulence interactions prevalent in turbulent premixed flames are examined by using direct numerical simulation (DNS) datasets to understand the effects of increase in pressure and changes in the characteristic scale ratios at high pressure. Such flames are characterized by length-scale ratio (ratio of integral length scale and laminar thermal flame thickness) and velocity-scale ratio (ratio of turbulence intensity and laminar flame speed). A canonical test configuration corresponding to an initially laminar methane/air lean premixed flame interacting with decaying isotropic turbulence is considered. We consider five cases with the initial Karlovitz number of 18, 37, 126, and 260 to examine the effects of an increase in pressure from 1 to 10 atm with fixed turbulence characteristics and at a fixed Karlovitz number, and the changes to characteristic scale ratios at the pressure of 10 atm. The increase in pressure for fixed turbulence characteristics leads to enhanced flame broadening and wrinkling due to an increase in the range of energetic scales of motion. This further manifests into affecting the spatial and state-space variation of thermo-chemical quantities, single point statistics, and the relationship of heat-release rate to the flame curvature and tangential strain rate. Although these results can be inferred in terms of an increase in Karlovitz number, the effect of an increase in pressure at a fixed Karlovitz number shows differences in the spatial and state-space variations of thermo-chemical quantities and the relationship of the heat release rate with the curvature and tangential strain rate. This is due to a higher turbulent kinetic energy associated with the wide range of scales of motion at atmospheric pressure. In particular, the magnitude of the correlation of the heat release rate with the curvature and the tangential strain rate tend to decrease and increase, respectively, with an increase in pressure. Furthermore, the statistics of the flame-turbulence interactions at high pressure also show sensitivity to the changes in the characteristic length- and velocity-scale ratios. The results from this study highlight the need to accurately account for the effects of pressure and characteristic scales for improved modeling of such flames.
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Isolating effects of Darrieus–Landau instability on the morphology and propagation of turbulent premixed flames
The objective of this work is to provide physical insight into the mechanisms governing flame–turbulence interactions and explore the impact of the ubiquitous Darrieus–Landau instability on the propagation. It is based on the hydrodynamic theory of premixed flames that considers the flame thickness much smaller than all other fluidynamical length scales. In this asymptotic limit, the flame is thus confined to a surface whilst the diffusion and reaction processes occurring inside the flame zone are accounted for by two parameters: the unburned-to-burned density ratio and the Markstein length. The robust model, which is free of phenomenology and turbulence modelling assumptions, makes transparent the mutual interactions between the flame and the fluid flow, and permits examining trends in flame and flow characteristics while varying the turbulence intensity and mixture properties. It is used in this study to examine the morphological changes of the flame surface that result from the intertwined effects of the turbulence and instability, as demonstrated by the local displacement and curvature of the flame front, the extent of wrinkling and folding of the flame surface, and the overall flame brush thickness. It also provides a direct evaluation of the turbulent flame speed and its dependence on the mean flame curvature and on the hydrodynamic strain that it experiences. Also discussed are the effects of the flame on the flow by examining the various mechanisms of enstrophy and scalar gradient production/destruction, the degree of anisotropy created in the burned gas, and the restructuring of the vortical motion beyond the flame.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1911530
- PAR ID:
- 10385571
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Fluid Mechanics
- Volume:
- 940
- ISSN:
- 0022-1120
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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