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Published September 2015 | public
Journal Article

Differential diffusion effects, distributed burning, and local extinctions in high Karlovitz premixed flames

Abstract

Direct numerical simulations of premixed n-heptane/air flames at different Karlovitz numbers are performed using detailed chemistry. Differential diffusion effects are systematically isolated by performing simulations with both non-unity and unity Lewis numbers. Different unburnt temperatures and turbulence intensities are used and their effects on the flame structure and chemical source terms are investigated. As the unburnt gases are preheated, the viscosity ratio across the flame is reduced and the Karlovitz number at the reaction zone is increased. The increase in turbulence intensity suppresses differential diffusion effects on the flame structure (i.e. species dependence on temperature). However, differential diffusion effects on the chemical source terms are still noticeable even at the highest Karlovitz number simulated. Simulations with differential diffusion effects exhibit lower mean fuel consumption and heat release rates than their unity Lewis number counterparts. However, the difference is reduced as the reaction zone Karlovitz number is increased. Transition to distributed burning is characterized by a broadening of the reaction zone resulting from enhanced turbulent mixing. Local extinctions in the burning rate are observed only in non-unity Lewis number simulations and their probability decreases at high Karlovitz numbers. These results highlight the importance of using the reaction zone Karlovitz number to investigate the effect of turbulence on the chemical source terms and to compare flames at different unburnt temperatures.

Additional Information

© 2015 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. Received 24 April 2015, Revised 31 May 2015, Accepted 1 June 2015, Available online 16 June 2015. The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-12-1-0472 and FA9550-12-1-0144) under supervision of Dr. Chiping Li and Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Nature et Techonologies for financial support. This research used resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE Office of Science User Facility supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. This work used the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE), which is supported by National Science Foundation Grant No. ACI-1053575.

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 23, 2023