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Large Eddy Simulation of the Sensitivity of Vortex Breakdown and Flame Stabilisation to Axial Forcing

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Abstract

The effect of axial forcing on the flame/vortex breakdown interaction is studied, with particular focus on the Precessing Vortex Core (PVC). Large Eddy Simulation (LES), together with a filtered flamelet model describing the subgrid combustion, is performed to study a lean premixed flame undergoing mass flow fluctuations in a wide range of frequencies and amplitude. In average, forcing at frequencies lower than the PVC characteristic frequency moves the recirculation zone upstream the combustor in the premixing tube, while higher frequencies do not relevantly affect the flow/flame. With the help of Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) a detailed analysis of the dynamics of the central recirculation zone (CRZ) is performed showing how the excitation at lower frequencies weakens the PVC and allows the flame to propagate upstream. Extended POD is also applied to illustrate the flow/flame interactions during the excitation cycle.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Div. of Fluid Mechanics, Dept. Energy Sciences, Lund University, Box 118, SE 22100, Lund, Sweden

    Piero Iudiciani & Christophe Duwig

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  1. Piero Iudiciani
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  2. Christophe Duwig
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Correspondence to Piero Iudiciani.

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Iudiciani, P., Duwig, C. Large Eddy Simulation of the Sensitivity of Vortex Breakdown and Flame Stabilisation to Axial Forcing. Flow Turbulence Combust 86, 639–666 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10494-011-9327-2

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