Validation Simulations of a Bluff-Body Stabilised Flame Combustion Process

Abstract

Experimental measurements of the temperature and chemical species mass concentrations are compared with predictions made by a commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) package. The bluff body burner considered for this study is included in the library of test flames of the International Workshop on Measurement and Computation of Turbulent Non-premixed Flames (TNF). The unmixed bluff-body stabilised flame burner, which is representative of industrial designs, using a fuel of 1:1 volume ratio of methane and hydrogen was chosen. Four k-ε based turbulence models are examined. Four combustion models; the Eddy Break-Up model, the Adiabatic and Non-adiabatic Presumed Probability Density Function (PPDF) model, and the Laminar Flamelet model are studied. The benefits of the Laminar Flamelet model are illustrated with excellent results being obtained when it is used in conjunction with the Chen k-ε turbulence model. A detailed analysis comparing the merits of each of the modelling approaches is presented.