Capabilities and limitations of Large Eddy Simulation with perfectly stirred reactor assumption for engineering applications of unsteady, hydrogen combustion sequences

Abstract

This work evaluates the capabilities of Large Eddy Simulation with perfectly stirred reactor (PSR) assumption and detailed chemistry to predict unsteady, premixed, hydrogen combustion sequences. The model was benchmarked with hydrogen-air experimental tests and with numerical data of flame acceleration in an obstructed channel. Results permit to identify major shortcomings that should be addressed with this approach and to assess the uncertainties linked to the use of different sub-models. Spatial resolution was found to be critical and limits the applications of this approach due to the increase of the computational costs with the flame surface. While the influence of the detailed kinetic chemical scheme used was low, the impact of the sub-grid turbulence model used was high. Results showed that simulations provided good agreement with the experimental data when a minimum spatial resolution of 1/8 of the laminar flame thickness was imposed. This threshold permits to simulate with good results the early stages of the combustion sequence (ignition and initial flame acceleration) but limits the model applications when the flame surface increases. In-situ Adaptive Tabulation (ISAT) was an effective strategy to overcome the limitations and partially reduce the computational cost when detailed chemistry models are used together with PSR-LES.

Keywords

• perfectly stirred reactor
• implicit les
• fast combustion
• unsteady