Implications of Using Scalar Forcing to Sustain Reactant Mixture Stratification in Direct Numerical Simulations of Turbulent Combustion

Abstract

A recently proposed scalar forcing scheme that maintains the mixture fraction mean, root-mean-square and probability density function in the unburned gas can lead to a statistically quasi-stationary state in direct numerical simulations of turbulent stratified combustion when combined with velocity forcing. Scalar forcing alongside turbulence forcing leads to greater values of turbulent burning velocity and flame surface area in comparison to unforced simulations for globally fuel-lean mixtures. The sustained unburned gas mixture inhomogeneity changes the percentage shares of back- and front-supported flame elements in comparison to unforced simulations, and this effect is particularly apparent for high turbulence intensities. Scalar forcing does not significantly affect the heat release rates due to different modes of combustion and the micro-mixing rate within the flame characterised by scalar dissipation rate of the reaction progress variable. Thus, scalar forcing has a significant potential for enabling detailed parametric studies as well as providing well-converged time-averaged statistics for stratified-mixture combustion using Direct Numerical Simulations in canonical configurations.

Keywords

• scalar forcing
• scalar mixing
• stratified combustion
• mixture fraction
• direct numerical simulation