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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Manifold methods for methane combustion

Conference ·
OSTI ID:269460
;  [1]
  1. Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)
Great progresses have been made in combustion research, especially, the computation of laminar flames and the probability density function (PDF) method in turbulent combustion. For one-dimensional laminar flames, by considering the transport mechanism, the detailed chemical kinetic mechanism and the interactions between these two basic processes, today it is a routine matter to calculate flame velocities, extinction, ignition, temperature, and species distributions from the governing equations. Results are in good agreement with those obtained for experiments. However, for turbulent combustion, because of the complexities of turbulent flow, chemical reactions, and the interaction between them, in the foreseeable future, it is impossible to calculate the combustion flow field by directly integrating the basic governing equations. So averaging and modeling are necessary in turbulent combustion studies. Averaging, on one hand, simplifies turbulent combustion calculations, on the other hand, it introduces the infamous closure problems, especially the closure problem with chemical reaction terms. Since in PDF calculations of turbulent combustion, the averages of the chemical reaction terms can be calculated, PDF methods overcome the closure problem with the reaction terms. It has been shown that the PDF method is a most promising method to calculate turbulent combustion. PDF methods have been successfully employed to calculate laboratory turbulent flames: they can predict phenomena such as super equilibrium radical levels, and local extinction. Because of these advantages, PDF methods are becoming used increasingly in industry combustor codes.
Research Organization:
USDOE Morgantown Energy Technology Center, WV (United States); USDOE Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Washington, DC (United States). Office of Industrial Technologies
OSTI ID:
269460
Report Number(s):
DOE/METC--96/1023-Vol.2; CONF-9510109--Vol.2; ON: DE96000562
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English