Turbulent combustion

Experimental research has shown that a vapor cloud explosion can be described as a process of combustion-driven expansion flow with the turbulent structure of the flow acting as a positive feedback mechanism. Combustion, turbulence, and gas dynamics in this complicated process are closely interrelated. Computational research has explored the theoretical relations among burning speed, flame speed, combustion rates, geometry, and gas dynamics in gas explosions. 

The amount of explosion overpressure is determined by the flame speed of the explosion. Flame speed is a function of the turbulence created within the vapor cloud that is released and the level of fuel mixture within the combustible limits. Maximum flame velocities in test conditions are usually obtained in mixtures that contain slightly more fuel than is required for stoichiometric combustion. Turbulence is created by the confinement and congestion within the particular area. Modem open air explosion theories suggest that all onshore hydrocarbon process plants have enough congestion and confinement to produce vapor cloud explosions. Certainly confinement and congestion are available on most offshore production platforms to some degree. 

In addition to phase change and pyrolysis, mixing between fuel and oxidizer by turbulent motion and molecular diffusion is required to sustain continuous combustion. Turbulence and chemistry interaction is a key issue in virtually all practical combustion processes. The modeling and computational issues involved in these aspects have been covered well in the literature [15, 20-22]. An important factor in the selection of sub-models is computational tractability, which means that the differential or other equations needed to describe a submodel should not be so computationally intensive as to preclude their practical application in three-dimensional Navier-Stokes calculations. In virtually all practical flow field calculations, engineering approximations are required to make the computation tractable. 

Many of the unsolved problems of physics and chemistry were concerned with combustion and detonation. A really well-developed scheme of normal combustion is seldom realized in nature. The most common form of gaseous combustion - turbulent combustion - was found to be the result of the hydrodynamic instability of the combustion process in a flow. Even in the simplest system, the physical scheme of turbulent combustion is very far from being perfectly understood. Just as in the analysis of detonative combustion, it is still possible to speak only of the universal instability of the hydrodynamic process accompanying the chemical transformation of matter. Actually, "turbulence is hardly the term for the result of the manifestation of this instability - the appearance of a multifront shockwave in the detonation front. However, the derivation of a complete physical scheme of detonation (especially in relation to condensed expls) will eventually follow from further research in this field... 

K. Ramohalli, Some Fundamental Acoustic Observations in Combusting Turbulent Jets, in Combustion in Reactive Systems, vol. 76 of Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics, J. R. Bowen, N. Manson, A. K. Oppenheim, and R. I. Soloukhin, eds., New York American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1981, 295-313. 

One of the main benefits of a premixed head in comparison with a diffusive head is the low noise emission at the stack. A premixed burner is generally quieter than a diffusive burner because of the lower combustion turbulence, on the condition there is no instability in the combustion, an instability that is possible with diffusive flames too. Figure 25.7 shows the comparison between the noise at the stack of the configurations previously examined. Like gas emissions, noise measurements are influenced by the combustion chamber type. Regarding sound emissions at the stack, the mat head still exhibits lower emissions in comparison with the metal sheet head as seen in Figure 25.8. 

Unlike laminar combustion, turbulent flame velocities depend not only on fuel properties, but, to a greater extent, on the turbulence field characteristics. Therefore, quantification of the turbulent field is a necessary condition for turbulent flame velocity measurement. An informative method of turbulent combustion investigation has been proposed in [1]. A spherical container with four fans installed symmetrically along the container perimeter was used in the experiments. Conditions for w pulsating velocity controllability have been created in the central part of the container ... 

The first mechanism assumes that the blow-off occurs when the local flow velocity exceeds the maximum turbulent velocity of the flame in the pre-mixed mixture. This mechanism was proposed in [18], where the stream turbulence is considered statically using time averaging. The maximum value of the combustion turbulent velocity is the root-mean-square function of the time averaged axial component of the turbulent fluctuation velocity. 

Gross L P, Trump D D, MacDonald B G and Switzer G L 1983 10-Hz coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy apparatus for turbulent combustion studies Rev. Sc/. Instrum. 54 563-71... 

In most cases, FBCs employ some type of air injection system in the floor of the furnace both to impart turbulence into the burning fuel bed and supply combustion air. Secondary and tertiary air ports may be located above the burning fuel bed. 

The phase Doppler method utilizes the wavelength of light as the basis of measurement. Hence, performance is not vulnerable to fluctuations in light intensity. The technique has been successfully appHed to dense sprays, highly turbulent flows, and combustion systems. It is capable of making simultaneous measurements of droplet size, velocity, number density, and volume flux. 

Air Supply. Oxygen in excess of stoichiometric requirements for complete combustion is needed because incineration processes are not 100% efficient and excess air is needed to absorb a portion of the combustion heat to control the operating temperature. In general, units that have higher degrees of turbulence such as Hquid injection incinerators require less excess air (20 to 60%) while units with less mixing such as hearth incinerators require... 

New flash roasters dry on the bottom hearth the ore is introduced in two opposed burners for increased turbulence (24). Such roasters with combustion chambers of 8—9 m high are capable of dead roasting (sulfide removal to <0.5%) over 300 t of zinc concentrates per day with 10% sulfur dioxide in the off-gas. 

The vapor cloud of evaporated droplets bums like a diffusion flame in the turbulent state rather than as individual droplets. In the core of the spray, where droplets are evaporating, a rich mixture exists and soot formation occurs. Surrounding this core is a rich mixture zone where CO production is high and a flame front exists. Air entrainment completes the combustion, oxidizing CO to CO2 and burning the soot. Soot bumup releases radiant energy and controls flame emissivity. The relatively slow rate of soot burning compared with the rate of oxidation of CO and unbumed hydrocarbons leads to smoke formation. This model of a diffusion-controlled primary flame zone makes it possible to relate fuel chemistry to the behavior of fuels in combustors (7). 

The development of combustion theory has led to the appearance of several specialized asymptotic concepts and mathematical methods. An extremely strong temperature dependence for the reaction rate is typical of the theory. This makes direct numerical solution of the equations difficult but at the same time accurate. The basic concept of combustion theory, the idea of a flame moving at a constant velocity independent of the ignition conditions and determined solely by the properties and state of the fuel mixture, is the product of the asymptotic approach (18,19). Theoretical understanding of turbulent combustion involves combining the theory of turbulence and the kinetics of chemical reactions (19—23). 

The balanced equation for turbulent kinetic energy in a reacting turbulent flow contains the terms that represent production as a result of mean flow shear, which can be influenced by combustion, and the terms that represent mean flow dilations, which can remove turbulent energy as a result of combustion. Some of the discrepancies between turbulent flame propagation speeds might be explained in terms of the balance between these competing effects. 

To analy2e premixed turbulent flames theoretically, two processes should be considered (/) the effects of combustion on the turbulence, and (2) the effects of turbulence on the average chemical reaction rates. In a turbulent flame, the peak time-averaged reaction rate can be orders of magnitude smaller than the corresponding rates in a laminar flame. The reason for this is the existence of turbulence-induced fluctuations in composition, temperature, density, and heat release rate within the flame, which are caused by large eddy stmctures and wrinkled laminar flame fronts. 

A unified statistical model for premixed turbulent combustion and its subsequent application to predict the speed of propagation and the stmcture of plane turbulent combustion waves is available (29—32). 

The physics and modeling of turbulent flows are affected by combustion through the production of density variations, buoyancy effects, dilation due to heat release, molecular transport, and instabiUty (1,2,3,5,8). Consequently, the conservation equations need to be modified to take these effects into account. This modification is achieved by the use of statistical quantities in the conservation equations. For example, because of the variations and fluctuations in the density that occur in turbulent combustion flows, density weighted mean values, or Favre mean values, are used for velocity components, mass fractions, enthalpy, and temperature. The turbulent diffusion flame can also be treated in terms of a probabiUty distribution function (pdf), the shape of which is assumed to be known a priori (1). 

In general, comprehensive, multidimensional modeling of turbulent combustion is recognized as being difficult because of the problems associated with solving the differential equations and the complexities involved in describing the interactions between chemical reactions and turbulence. A number of computational models are available commercially that can do such work. These include FLUENT, FLOW-3D, and PCGC-2. 

In modem Hquid-fuel combustion equipment the fuel is usually injected into a high velocity turbulent gas flow. Consequently, the complex turbulent flow and spray stmcture make the analysis of heterogeneous flows difficult and a detailed analysis requires the use of numerical methods (9). 

V. R. Ku2netsov and V. A. Sabel nikov, Turbulence and Combustion, Hemisphere Publishing Corp., Washington, D.C., 1990. 

R. M. C. So, H. C. Mongia, and J. H. Whitelaw, Turbulent Reactive Flow Calculations, special issue of Combustion Science and Technology, Gordon and Breach Science Pubhshers, Inc., Montreux, Swit2erland, 1988. 

F. A. WiUiams, in W. Bartok and A. F. Sarofim, eds.. Turbulent ReactingFlows In Fossil Fuel Combustion A S ource Book, John Wiley Sons, Inc., New York, 1991. 

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