A modified thickened flame model for simulating extinction

Abstract

For large-eddy simulation of turbulent premixed reacting flows, major challenges stem from the inability to resolve the flame in a computationally affordable manner. These challenges are most evident in combustors characterized by large domains and thin flames. In these applications, the thickened flame model may be used to extend the flame artificially to a numerically resolvable size through a thickening factor. Thicker flames exhibit suppressed wrinkling in the presence of turbulence, so an efficiency factor increases the flame speed without influencing flame thickness. In contrast to the detailed considerations of unresolved turbulent flame wrinkling, recent work shows that thickened flames do not respond correctly to resolved-scale stretch. In this work, errors in stretch-induced extinction are considered. The already established effect of thickening on extinction is illustrated, and the effect of efficiency factor is characterized in detail. Significant errors in extinction stretch rate are observed analytically and numerically in twin premixed counterflow flame simulations. In general, the original thickened flame formulation does not permit control over extinction, in contrast to its control over freely-propagating-flame thickness and speed. For reactant mixtures with a Lewis number greater than 1, a novel modification of the thickened flame formulation is presented, and through Lewis number adjustments, extinction errors are significantly reduced, while key flame thickening and speed properties of the original formulation are preserved. A test case featuring a turbulent premixed bluff-body-stabilized flame demonstrates that the extinction errors of the original formulation can lead to premature blowoff dynamics and significant statistical errors, if the grid is too coarse. The modified thickened flame model applied to the same grids addresses this issue and provides reasonable flame predictions on all grids, indicating the potential for extending this combustion model to resolutions of greater engineering relevance.