Turbulence and Combustion Model Choice for Modeling Methane-air Low Swirl Burners

Abstract

Combustion plays a major role in satisfying enormous needs in our world, and burners are an essential component of industrial combustion applications. With its flame stabilization technique, low swirl burner (LSB) technology offers interesting outcomes in reducing pollutant emissions and preserving industrial facilities. Numerical simulation provides a valuable contribution to the development of such systems. However, the relevance of the simulation depends on the different models used. The present study aims to investigate two combustion models (Eddy Dissipation and Partially-Premixed) coupled with various Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) turbulence models to identify the most appropriate models for LSBs. Thus, simulation results were compared to experimental data available in the literature for various LSB burners. The influence of turbulence and combustion model choice was found to be considerable. Specifically, coupling the RANS RNG k-ε turbulence model with the Partially-Premixed combustion model to simulate reactive flow in such burners offers very satisfactory outcomes.

Keywords

• combustion models
• eddy dissipation model
• low swirl burner
• partially premixed model
• reynolds-averaged navier-stokes turbulence models