Lecture

12 The Level Set Approach for Turbulent Premixed Combus=on

12.-1

 A model for premixed turbulent combus7on, based on the non-reac7ng scalar G rather than on progress variable, has been developed in recent years It avoids complica7ons associated with counter-gradient diusion and, since G is non-reac7ng, there is no need for a source term closure An equa7on for G can be derived by considering an iso-scalar surface This surface divides the ow eld into two regions where G > G0 is the region of burnt gas and G < G0 is that of the unburnt mixture The choice of G0 is arbitrary and typically taken as G0 = 0

12.-2

Recapitula=on Flame front normal vector in direc7on of the unburnt gas Flame displacement speed dxf/dt A eld equa7on can now be derived by dieren7a7ng with respect to 7me This leads to
DG =0 Dt

12.-3

 Introducing and one obtains the eld equa7on

This equa7on was introduced by Williams (1985) It is known as the G-equa7on

12.-4

 G-equa7on is applicable to thin ame structures propaga7ng with a well- dened burning velocity It therefore is well-suited for the descrip7on of premixed turbulent combus7on in the corrugated amelets regime, where it is assumed that the laminar ame thickness is smaller than the smallest turbulent length scale, the Kolmogorov scale Therefore, the en7re ame structure is embedded within a locally quasi- laminar ow eld and the laminar burning velocity remains well-dened

12.-5

 The G-equa7on has no diusion term G is a scalar quan7ty which is dened at the ame surface only, while the surrounding G-eld is not yet uniquely dened This originates from the fact that the kinema7c balance is valid only for the ame surface and deni7on of remaining G-eld is (within some constraints) arbitrary G-eld typically dened to be the closest distance from the ame 12.-6

 The burning velocity sL appearing in may be modied to account for the eect of ame stretch Performing two-scale asympto7c analyses of corrugated premixed ames, Pelce and Clavin (1982), Matalon and Matkowsky (1982) derived rst order correc7on terms for small curvature and strain Expression for the modied burning velocity becomes

12.-11

 The expression for the modied burning velocity becomes

Here sL0 is the burning velocity of the unstretched ame, is the curvature and S is the strain rate Flame curvature is dened in terms of the G-eld as where has been used Flame curvature is posi7ve if ame is convex with respect to unburnt mixture 12.-12

 The strain rate imposed on the ame by velocity gradients is dened as

The Markstein length is of the same order of magnitude and propor7onal to the laminar ame thickness

The ra7o is called the Markstein number

12.-13

 For the case of a one-step reac7on with a large ac7va7on energy, constant transport proper7es and a constant heat capacity, the Markstein length with respect to the unburnt mixture reads, for example (Clavin &Williams, 1982 and Matalon & Matkowsky, 1982)

Here is the Zeldovich number, where E is the ac7va7on energy, and Le is the Lewis number of the decient reactant

12.-14

 The Lewis number is approximately unity for methane ames and larger than unity for fuel-rich hydrogen and all fuel-lean hydrocarbon ames other than methane Therefore, since the rst term on the r.h.s. of is always posi7ve, the Markstein length is posi7ve for most prac7cal applica7ons of premixed hydrocarbon combus7on, occurring typically under stoichiometric or fuel-lean condi7ons

12.-15

 Whenever the Markstein length is nega7ve, as in lean hydrogen-air mixtures, diusional-thermal instabili7es tend to increase the ame surface area This is believed to be an important factor in gas cloud explosions of hydrogen- air mixtures Although turbulence tends to dominate such local eects the combus7on of diusional-thermal instabili7es and instabili7es induced by gas expansion could lead to strong ame accelera7ons

12.-16

 Eects of curvature and strain on laminar burning velocity

Curvature Eect on Laminar Burning Velocity from Experiments and Theory Strain Eect on Laminar Burning Velocity from Numerical Simula7ons

Laminar premixed stoichiometric methane/air counterow ames Laminar premixed stoichiometric methane/air spherically expanding ames Note: sL,u sL,b/7 = 1 = 0.8

12.-16a

 Introducing into the G-equa7on, it may be wrifen as

Here is dened as the Markstein diusivity The curvature term adds a second order deriva7ve to the G-equa7on

12.-17

 This avoids the forma7on of cusps that would result from for a constant value of sL0 While the solu7on of the G-equa7on with a constant sL0 is solely determined by specifying the ini7al condi7ons, the parabolic character of requires that the boundary condi7ons for each iso-surface G must be specied

12.-18

 The G-equa7on model in the corrugated amelets regime Flame thin compared to small turbulent scales Level set describes interface between unburned and burned Flame structure embedded in the interface, but varia7ons on much smaller scale Mul7-scale model G-eld dened as distance func7on

Buschmann 1996

The Level Set Approach for the Thin Reac=on Zones Regime The equa7on is suitable for thin ame structures in the corrugated amelets regime, En7re ame structure quasi-steady Laminar burning velocity well dened However, not suitable for thin reac7on zones regime Deriva7on of level set equa7on valid in the thin reac7on zones regime 12.-19

 Since the inner layer shown previously is responsible for maintaining the reac7on process alive, we dene the thin reac7on zone as the inner layer

The loca7on of the inner layer will be determined by the iso-scalar surface of the temperature seing T(x,t)=T0, where T0 is the inner layer temperature

12.-20

 The temperature equa7on reads where D is the thermal diusivity T the chemical source term Similar to for the scalar G, the iso-temperature surface T(x,t)=T0 sa7ses the condi7on

12.-21

 Gibson (1968) has derived an expression for the displacement speed sd of an iso-surface of non-reac7ng diusive scalars Extending this result to the reac7ve scalar T this leads to where the displacement speed sd is given by

Here the index 0 denes condi7ons immediately ahead of the thin reac7on zone 12.-22

 The normal vector on the iso-temperature surface is dened as

We now want to formulate a G-equa7on describing the loca7on of the thin reac7on zones such that the iso-surface T(x,t)=T0 coincides with the iso- surface dened by G(x,t)=G0 Then, the normal vector dened by is equal to that dened by and also points towards the unburnt mixture 12.-23

 Using and together with leads the G-equa7on

12.-24

 Peters et al. (1998) show that the diusive term appearing in the brackets in this equa7on may be split into one term accoun7ng for curvature and another for diusion normal to the iso-surface

This is consistent with the deni7on of the curvature if the iso-surface G(x,t)=G0 is replaced by the iso-surface T(x,t)=T0 and if D is assumed constant 12.-25

 Introducing into one obtains Here is to be expressed by in terms of the G-eld 12.-26

 The quan77es sn and sr are contribu7ons due to normal diusion and reac7on to the displacement speed of the thin reac7on zone and are dened as

In a steady unstretched planar laminar ame we would have

In the thin reac7on zones regime, however, the unsteady mixing and diusion of chemical species and the temperature in the regions ahead of the thin reac7on zone will inuence the local displacement speed

12.-27

 Then the sum of is a uctua7ng quan7ty that couples the G-equa7on to the solu7on of the balance equa7ons of the reac7ve scalars There is reason to expect, however, that sL,s is of the same order of magnitude as the laminar burning velocity The evalua7on of DNS-data by Peters et al. (1998) conrms this es7mate

12.-28

 In that paper it was also found that the mean values of sn and sr slightly depend on curvature This leads to a modica7on of the diusion coecient which partly takes Markstein eects into account We will ignore these modica7ons here and consider the following level set equa7on for ame structures of nite thickness

This equa7on is dened at the thin reac7on zone v, sL,s, and D are values at that posi7on

12.-29

 The G-equa7on in the thin reac7on zones regime is very similar to that for the corrugated amelets regime

Important is the dierence between and D and the disappearance of the strain term The lafer is implicitly contained in the burning velocity sL,s

12.-30

 In an analy7cal study of the response of one-dimensional constant density ames to 7me-dependent strain and curvature, Joulin (1994) has shown that in the limit of high frequency perturba7ons, the eect of strain disappears en7rely and Lewis-number eects also disappear in the curvature term such that

This analysis was based on one-step large ac7va7on energy asympto7cs with the assump7on of a single thin reac7on zone

12.-31

 It suggests that could also have been derived from for the limit of high frequency perturba7ons of the ame structure This strongly supports it as level set equa7on for ame structures of nite thickness and shows that unsteadiness of that structure is an important feature in the thin reac7on zones regime

12.-32

 The important dierence between the level set formula7on and the equa7on for the reac7ve scalar is the appearance of a burning velocity which replaces normal diusion and reac7on at the ame surface

12.-33

 It should be noted again that the level set equa7ons and are only dened at the ame surface, while is valid in the en7re eld

12.-34

 The G-equa7on model in the thin reac7on zones regime Flame broadened by turbulence, but Reac7on zone s7ll thin compared to turbulent scales and appears as interface Level set describes loca7on of reac7on zone

Level set describing thin reac7on zone

Broadened preheat zone

Burned gas

Unburned gas DNS of Premixed Combus7on, Knudsen 2010

A Common Level Set Equa=on for Both Regimes

The G-equa7on applies to dierent regimes in premixed turbulent combus7on: Corrugated amelets regime

Thin reac7on zones regime

In order to show this, we will analyze the order of magnitude of the dierent terms in the second equa7on

12.-35

 This can be done by normalizing the independent variables and the curvature in this equa7on with respect to Kolmogorov length, 7me and velocity scales

Using 2/t = one obtains

In ames, D/ is of order unity Since Kolmogorov eddies can perturb the ow as well as the G-eld, all deriva7ves, the curvature and the velocity v* are typically of order unity 12.-36

 However, since sL,s is of the same order of magnitude as sL, the deni7on shows that the ra7o sL,s/v is propor7onal to Ka-1/2. Since Ka > 1 in the thin reac7on zones regime, it follows for this regime that In the thin reac7on zones regime, the propaga7on term in the equa7on is therefore small and the curvature term will be dominant In the corrugated amelets regime, sL,s/v becomes large and propaga7on dominates 12.-37

 We want to base the following analysis on an equa7on which contains only the leading order terms in both regimes Therefore we take the propaga7on term with a constant laminar burning velocity sL0 from the corrugated amelets regime and the curvature term mul7plied with the diusivity D from the thin reac7on zones regime The strain term will be neglected in both regimes

12.-38

 The leading order equa7on valid in both regimes then reads

For consistency with other eld equa7ons that will be used as a star7ng point for turbulence modeling, we have mul7plied all terms in this equa7on with . This will allow to apply Favre averaging to all equa7ons Furthermore, we have set sL0 = u sL,u constant and denoted this by paranthesis

12.-39

Modeling Premixed Turbulent Combus=on Based on the Level Set Approach

If the G-equa7on is to be used as a basis for turbulence modeling, it is convenient to ignore at rst its non-uniqueness outside the surface G(x, t) = G0. Then the G-equa7on would have similar proper7es as other eld equa7ons used in uid dynamics and scalar mixing This would allow to dene, at point x and 7me t in the ow eld, a probability density func7on P(G;x,t) for the scalar G

12.-41

 Then, the probability density of nding the ame surface G(x,t)=G0 at x and t is given by

This quan7ty can be measured, for instance, by coun7ng the number of ame crossings in a small volume V located at x over a small 7me dierence t

12.-42

 Experimental data for the pdf (Wirth et al., 1992, 1993) from a transparent spark-igni7on engine Smoke par7cles, which burnt out immediately in the ame front, were added to the unburnt mixture Thereby, the front could be visualized by a laser sheet as the borderline of the region where Mie scafering of par7cles could be detected The pdf represents the pdf of uctua7ons around the mean ame contour of several instantaneous images 12.-43

 By comparing the measured pdf with a Gaussian distribu7on, it is seen to be slightly skewed to the unburnt gas side This is due to the non-symmetric inuence of the laminar burning velocity on the shape of the ame front There are rounded leading edges towards the unburnt mixture, but sharp and narrow troughs towards the burnt gas This non-symmetry is also found in other experimental pdfs
Buschmann 1996

12.-44

 Without loss of generality, we now want to consider a one-dimensional steady turbulent ame propaga7ng in x-direc7on We will analyze its structure by introducing the ame-normal coordinate x, such that all turbulent quan77es are a func7on of this coordinate only Then, the pdf of nding the ame surface at a par7cular loca7on x within the ame brush simplies to P(G0; x), which we write as P(x) We normalize P(x) by and dene the mean ame posi7on xf as

12.-45

 The turbulent ame brush thickness can also be dened using P(x) With the deni7on of the variance a plausible deni7on is

We note that from P(x) two important proper7es of a premixed turbulent ame, namely the mean ame posi7on and the ame brush thickness can be calculated

12.-46

 Peters (1992) considered turbulent modeling of the G-equa7on in the corrugated amelets regime and derived Reynolds-averaged equa7ons for the mean and the variance of G The main sink term in the variance equa7on was dened as

This quan7ty was called kinema7c restora7on in order to emphasize the eect of local laminar ame propaga7on in restoring the G-eld and thereby the ame surface Corruga7ons produced by turbulence, which would exponen7ally increase the ame surface area with 7me of a non-diusive iso-scalar surface are restored by this kinema7c eect 12.-47

 From that analysis resulted a closure assump7on which relates the main sink term to the variance of G and the integral 7me scale where c=1.62 is a constant of order unity This expression shows that kinema7c restora7on plays a similar role in reducing uctua7ons of the ame front as scalar dissipa7on does in reducing uctua7ons of diusive scalars It was also shown by Peters (1992) that kinema7c restora7on is ac7ve at the Gibson scale, since the cut-o of the iner7al range in the scalar spectrum func7on occurs at that scale

12.-48

Equa=ons for the Mean and the Variance of G

In order to obtain a formula7on that is consistent with the well-established use of Favre averages in turbulent combus7on, we split G and the velocity vector v into Favre means and uctua7ons

Here, the Favre means are at rst viewed as uncondi7onal averages At the end, however, only the respec7ve condi7onal averages are of interest

12.-49

 The turbulent burning velocity sT0 is obtained by averaging over

By seing one nds for the sta7onary unstretched ame front

Using a number of addi7onal closure assump7ons described in Peters (2000), one nally obtains the following equa7ons for the Favre mean and variance of G:

12.-50

 It is easily seen that has the same form as and therefore shares its mathema7cal proper7es It also is valid at only The solu7on outside of that surface depends on the ansatz for the Favre mean of G that is introduced 12.-51

 In order to solve a model for the turbulent burning velocity s0T must be provided. A rst step would be to use empirical correla7ons from the literature Alterna7vely, a modeled balance equa7on for the mean gradient will be derived next According to Kerstein (1988), this quan7ty represents the ame surface area ra7o, which is propor7onal to the turbulent burning velocity 12.-52