Tutorial: Partially Premixed Combustion in a Co-axial Combustor

Introduction
The purpose of this tutorial is to provide guidelines and recommendations for setting up and solving a reacting ow using the partially premixed combustion model. This tutorial demonstrates how to do the following: Create a probability density function (PDF) le for a combustion system. Dene ANSYS FLUENT inputs for PDF chemistry modeling. Use the partially premixed model to simulate the combustion system. Solve the case with appropriate solver settings. Postprocess the results to investigate the premixed and non-premixed properties.

Prerequisites
This tutorial is written with the assumption that you have completed Tutorial 1 from the ANSYS FLUENT 13.0 Tutorial Guide, and that you are familiar with the ANSYS FLUENT navigation pane and menu structure. Some steps in the setup and solution procedure will not be shown explicitly. In this tutorial, you will use the partially premixed combustion model. The partially premixed model is based on both non-premixed (mixture-fraction based) and premixed (reaction progress variable based) combustion models. If you have not used these models before, it would be helpful to rst refer to ANSYS FLUENT 13.0 Users Guide.

Problem Description
The coaxial combustor considered is shown in the following gure. A swirler at the center of the combustor introduces the lean methane/air mixture (equivalence ratio=0.8) with an axial velocity of 50 m/s and swirl velocity of 30 m/s. Pure air at an axial velocity of 10 m/s is introduced from the outer tube to stabilize the ame. The major species involved in the combustion process are CH4 , O2 , CO2 , CO, H2 O, and N2 . The key to the premixed combustion model is the prediction of the turbulent ame speed, the turbulent ame speed normal to the mean surface of the ame. The turbulent ame speed is inuenced by the following: 1

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Tutorial: Partially Premixed Combustion in a Co-axial Combustor

Figure 1: Schematic Figure

Laminar ame speed, which is, in turn, determined by the fuel concentration, temperature, and molecular diusion properties, as well as the detailed chemical kinetics Flame front wrinkling and stretching by large eddies, and ame thickening by small eddies Numerous turbulent ame speed models have been derived. In ANSYS FLUENT, the two most widely used models have been implemented: 1. The Zimont Turbulent Flame Speed Model (for details refer to section 9.4.1 of the ANSYS FLUENT13.0 Theory Guide). 2. The Peters Turbulent Flame Speed Model (for details refer to section 9.4.2 of the ANSYS FLUENT13.0 Theory Guide).

Preparation
1. Copy the le, par-premixed.msh.gz to your working folder. 2. Use FLUENT Launcher to start the (2D) version of ANSYS FLUENT. For more information about FLUENT Launcher see Section 1.1.2 Starting ANSYS FLUENT Using FLUENT Launcher in the ANSYS FLUENT 13.0 Users Guide. Note: The Display Options are enabled by default. Therefore, after you read in the mesh, it will be displayed in the embedded graphics window.

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Tutorial: Partially Premixed Combustion in a Co-axial Combustor

Setup and Solution

Step 1: Mesh 1. Read the mesh le, par-premixed.msh.gz.

Figure 2: Mesh

Step 2: General Settings General 1. Check the mesh. General Check 2. Scale the mesh to inches. General Scale...

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Tutorial: Partially Premixed Combustion in a Co-axial Combustor

(a) Select in from the Mesh Was Created In drop-down list. (b) Click Scale. (c) Close the Scale Mesh dialog box. 3. Reorder the mesh to speed up the computations. Mesh Reorder Domain Perform this step twice to get a bandwidth reduction of the order of 1.00. 4. Retain the selection of Pressure-Based in the Type list. 5. Select Axisymmetric Swirl in the 2D Space list. Step 3: Models Models 1. Select the Standard k-epsilon (2 eqn) turbulence model. Models Viscous Edit...

2. Select Partially Premixed Combustion in the Model list. Models Species Edit...

Note: You can choose to skip the following steps and directly read the pdf le, par-premixed.pdf.gz provided with the solution les. File Read PDF... (a) Click the Chemistry tab. i. Retain the default selection of Equilibrium and Adiabatic. ii. Enter 1 for Fuel Stream Rich Flammability Limit. (b) Click the Boundary tab.

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Tutorial: Partially Premixed Combustion in a Co-axial Combustor

i. Ensure Mass Fraction is selected from the Specify Species in group box. ii. Enter the composition of Fuel and Oxid for Species as shown in the following table: Species ch4 n2 o2 Fuel 0.0453 0.7283 0.2264 Oxid 0 0.767 0.233

iii. Enter 300 K for Fuel and 650 K for Oxid. (c) Click the Table tab. i. Retain the default settings. ii. Click Calculate PDF Table. iii. Examine the relationship between Mean Temperature and Mean Mixture Fraction by clicking on Display PDF Table.... (d) Click the Premixed tab and examine the properties of Unburnt Mixture and Laminar Flame Speed.

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Tutorial: Partially Premixed Combustion in a Co-axial Combustor

(e) Write the pdf le, par-premixed.pdf.gz. File Write PDF... (f) Ensure that zimont is selected from the Flame Speed Model drop-down list in the Turbulent Flame Speed Model group box. (g) Click OK to close the Species Model dialog box. Step 4: Materials Materials ANSYS FLUENT will automatically select pdf-mixture under Mixture Materials, and the mixture species as dened in the pdf. The Density will be set as pdf and the Laminar Flame Speed as prepdf-polynomial. Step 5: Boundary Conditions Boundary Conditions 1. Set the boundary conditions for air inlet. Boundary Conditions air Edit...

(a) Select Components from the Velocity Specication Method drop-down list. 6

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Tutorial: Partially Premixed Combustion in a Co-axial Combustor

(b) Enter 10 m/s for Axial-Velocity. (c) Select Intensity and Hydraulic Diameter from the Specication Method drop-down list. (d) Enter 0.0254 m for Hydraulic Diameter. (e) Click OK to close the Velocity Inlet dialog box. Note: The Progress Variable (c) = 0 species reactant mixture, but since you have specied the Mean Mixture Fraction (f) as 0, this will be treated as a non-combustible mixture. You can use either values of c (0 or 1). The air inlet results should not vary. 2. Set the boundary conditions for air-fuel inlet. Boundary Conditions air-fuel Edit...

(a) Select Components from the Velocity Specication Method drop-down list. (b) Enter 50 m/s for Axial-Velocity and 30 m/s for Swirl-Velocity. (c) Select Intensity and Hydraulic Diameter from the Specication Method drop-down list. (d) Enter 0.0254 m for Hydraulic Diameter. (e) Click the Species tab and enter 1 for Mean Mixture Fraction.

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Tutorial: Partially Premixed Combustion in a Co-axial Combustor

3. Set the boundary conditions for outlet. Boundary Conditions outlet Edit...

(a) Select Intensity and Hydraulic Diameter from the Specication Method drop-down list. (b) Enter 0.13 m for Backow Hydraulic Diameter. (c) Click the Species tab and enter 1 for Backow Progress Variable. Step 6: First Order Solution 1. Solve for Flow, Swirl Velocity, and Turbulence equations. Solution Controls Equations...

2. Initialize the solution. Solution Initialization (a) Select all zones from the Compute from drop-down list. (b) Enter 1 for Progress Variable. (c) Click Initialize. 3. Save the case le, zimont-partially-premixed.cas.gz. File Write Case... 4. Start the calculation by requesting 1000 iterations. Run Calculation Calculate The solution converges in approximately 420 iterations (Figure 3). 5. Save the data le, par-premixed.dat.gz File Write Data...

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Tutorial: Partially Premixed Combustion in a Co-axial Combustor

Figure 3: Scaled Residuals

6. Dene a region with the following values: Adapt Region...

Input Coordinates X Min (m) X Max (m) Y Min (m) Y Max (m)

Value 0.10 0.14 0 0.03

(a) Click Mark and close the Region Adaption dialog box. 9

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Tutorial: Partially Premixed Combustion in a Co-axial Combustor

7. Patch a region close to fuel-air inlet. Solution Initialization Patch...

(a) Select Progress Variable from the Variable list. (b) Retain the default Value of 0. (c) Select the marked region hexahedron-r0 from the Registers To Patch selection list. (d) Click Patch. (e) Close the Patch dialog box. 8. Solve for all the equations. Solution Controls Equations... 9. Request for an additional 500 iterations. Run Calculation Calculate The solution converges in approximately 410 additional iterations, (Figure 4.) 10. Save the case and data les, zimont-partially-premixed-1st.cas.gz. File Write Case & Data...

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Tutorial: Partially Premixed Combustion in a Co-axial Combustor

Figure 4: Scaled Residuals

Step 7: Second Order Solution 1. Change the solution methods for following parameters: Solution Methods Parameter Pressure Momentum Swirl Velocity Turbulence Kinetic Energy Turbulence Dissipation Rate Progress Variable Mean Mixture Fraction Mixture Fraction Variance Value Second Second Second Second Second Second Second Second

Order Order Order Order Order Order Order Order

Upwind Upwind Upwind Upwind Upwind Upwind Upwind

2. Request for an additional 500 iterations. Run Calculation Calculate The solution converges in approximately 50 additional iterations, (Figure 5). 3. Save the case and data le, zimont-partially-premixed-2nd.cas.gz. File Write Case & Data...

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Tutorial: Partially Premixed Combustion in a Co-axial Combustor

Figure 5: Scaled Residuals

Step 9: Postprocessing 1. Display velocity vectors, (Figure 6). Graphics and Animations Vectors Set Up...

(a) Enter 10 for Scale Factor and 3 for Skip Value.

Figure 6: Velocity Vectors (b) Close the Vectors dialog box.

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Tutorial: Partially Premixed Combustion in a Co-axial Combustor

2. Display lled contours of stream function, (Figure 7). Graphics and Animations Contours Set Up...

(a) Select Velocity... and Stream Function from the Contours Of drop-down lists.

Figure 7: Contours of Stream Function

3. Display lled contours of mean progress variable, (Figure 8). (a) Select Premixed Combustion... and Progress Variable from the Contours Of dropdown lists.

Figure 8: Contours of Progress Variable

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Tutorial: Partially Premixed Combustion in a Co-axial Combustor

4. Display lled contours of static temperature, (Figure 9). (a) Select Temperature... and Static Temperature from the Contours Of drop-down lists.

Figure 9: Contours of Static Temperature

5. Display contours of species mass fractions. (a) Select Species... and Mass fraction of h2o from the Contours of drop-down list and click Display (Figure 10).

Figure 10: Mass Fraction of H2 O

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Tutorial: Partially Premixed Combustion in a Co-axial Combustor

(b) Select Mass fraction of ch4 from the Contours Of drop-down list and click Display (Figure 11).

Figure 11: Mass Fraction of CH4 (c) Select Mass fraction of co2 from the Contours Of drop-down list and click Display (Figure 12).

Figure 12: Mass Fraction of CO2

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Tutorial: Partially Premixed Combustion in a Co-axial Combustor

(d) Select Mass fraction of co from the Contours Of drop-down list and click Display (Figure 13).

Figure 13: Mass Fraction of CO 6. Display lled contours of turbulent ame speed. (a) Select Premixed Combustion... and Turbulent Flame Speed from the Contours Of drop-down lists.

Figure 14: Contours of Turbulent Flame Speed 7. Close the Contours dialog box.

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Tutorial: Partially Premixed Combustion in a Co-axial Combustor

Step 10: Peters Turbulent Flame Speed Model 1. Select the Peters turbulent ame speed model. Models Species Edit...

(a) Select peters from the Flame Speed Model drop-down list in the Turbulent Flame Speed Model group box. (b) Click OK to close the Species Model dialog box. 2. Start simulation by requesting for 100 iterations. Run Calculation Calculate The solution will converge in one iteration as the initial change in solution is very small. 3. Request an additional 100 iterations. Run Calculation Calculate Solution converges in approximately 60 iterations. 4. Save the case and data le, peters-partially-premixed-2nd.cas.gz. File Write Case & Data...

Figure 15: Scaled Residuals

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Tutorial: Partially Premixed Combustion in a Co-axial Combustor

Step 10: Comparison Between the Two Turbulent Flame Speed Models 1. Display lled contours of mean progress variable and compare it with the zimont model Figure 8.

Figure 16: Contours of Progress Variable With Peters Model

2. Similarly display lled contours of turbulent ame speed and comapre it with the zimont model Figure 14.

Figure 17: Contours of Turbulent Flame Speed

The results are dierent because of the dierent turbulent ame speed models.

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Results
The partially premixed model in ANSYS FLUENT can be used to simulate a combustion system, where the combustion process is neither purely premixed nor purely non-premixed. Both premixed and non-premixed properties can be investigated using the postprocessing results.

Summary
This tutorial demonstrated the application of the partially premixed model, based on both non-premixed (mixture-fraction based) and premixed (mean progress variable based) models. Turbulent ame speed modeling is a complex topic and numerous models have been developed. It is not possible to say that one model is better than another, in general. However, one model may be more appropriate for a given application, while another model is better for another application. Carefully evaluate results obtained with both models to decide which model you will use. If you wish to implement another turbulent ame speed, you can do so by using a DEFINE TURB PREMIX SOURCE user dened function. (For more information, see section 2.3.30 of the ANSYS FLUENT13.0 UDF Manual).

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