Lecture 1: Introduction

16.0 Release

CFX Combustion and Radiation

Training
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April 24, 2015

What is combustion ?
Combustion:
Defined as an Exothermic Chemical Reaction of a fuel
(For example CH4) with an oxidant (For example O2) to
form products.

Modes of Combustion:

Flame Mode: Thin Zone of intense chemical reaction

called flame exists.

Non-Flame Mode: Volumetric Combustion Process.

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Applications for Combustion Modeling

Wide range of reacting flows:
Furnaces
Boilers
Process heaters
Gas turbines
Rocket engines
Predictions of:
Flow field and mixing characteristics
Temperature field
Species concentrations
Particulates and pollutants
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Combustion Phenomenology
Chemistry
stoichiometry
chemical kinetics
Heat transfer
conduction, convection,
radiation
buoyancy
Mass transfer
Turbulence
turbulence-chemistry
interaction
Compressibility
Particle transport

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Thermo-chemistry : Common Terms

Mass fraction (Yk) : Mass of Species k / Total mass

Mole fraction (Xk): Moles of species k / Total Moles

N
1
Y
Gas Molecular Weight (W): k
W k 1 Wk

; Wk is the species molecular weight

Mole fraction (Xk) = (W/Wk) Yk

Gas density(): PW / RT ; P = Gas Pressure, T=Temperature
Species Enthalpy (Sensible + Chemical):h k

0
C
dT

h
f ,k
pk

Tref
N

Gas Enthalpy:
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h h k Yk
k 1

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Combustion Types
Stoichiometric
Surface

Air

Air

Fuel

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Fuel
+ Air

Fuel
+Air

Fuel + Air

Non-Premixed

Premixed
Flame Front

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Partially Premixed

Fuel + Air

Premixed

Combustion Process
Combustion depends directly on Mixing and Chemistry. The relative speed
of chemical reaction to mixing is crucial.

Fast Reactions: reaction progress is limited by turbulent mixing.

Slow Reactions: reaction progress is limited by chemical kinetics.
Damkhler Number (Da) represents the ratio of the characteristic turbulent
mixing time to the characteristic chemical reaction time and determines
modelling approach:
Da = Mixing Time Scale / Chemical Time Scale

For Da >> 1, Chemical reaction rates are fast: mixing limited rate
For Da << 1, Chemical reaction rates are slow: Chemistry limits rate

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April 24, 2015

Numerical Modeling of Combustion

Fuel, Oxidant and Products of a combustion process are
scalar variables and are tracked as Mass Fractions of a
Multi-Component Fluid.
Each Mass Fraction is computed from a generic advectiondiffusion transport equation with source terms to account
for consumption or production of species.

Y
Y
i ) R
i ( u Y ) (
j i x
eff x
f
t
x
j
j
j
where Rf is the source term representing the generation or
consumption of reactant or product. The source term is model and
reaction dependent.
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Chemical Kinetics: Reaction Source Term

The k th species mass fraction transport equation is:

Yk
t

u i Yk
x i

x i

Yk
D k

x i

Rk

Nomenclature: chemical species, denoted Sk , react as:

N

'
k 1

Example:

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Sk

"
k 1

Sk

CH 4 2O2 CO2 2H2O

Forward and backward

Stoichiometric coefficients
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S1 CH 4
'1 1
"1 0

S2 O 2
'2 2
"2 0

S3 CO 2
'3 0
"3 1

S4 H 2 O
'4 0
"4 2

Chemical Kinetics
The calculated reaction rate is proportional to the products of the
reactant concentrations raised to the power of their respective
reaction orders, or exponents
k th species reaction rate (for a single reaction):
Ek

k RT
Rk M k ( "k 'k ) Ak T e

k , k

k
k

Ek
R
Ak
Cj
Kk
Rk

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N k'
C j

j 1

reactant and product stoichiometric coefficients

rate exponent for reactant j and product j in reaction k
temperature exponent of reaction k
activation energy
universal gas constant
pre-exponential factor
molar concentration of species j
equilibrium constant
rate of production or consumption of species i in reaction k

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Why do we need Combustion Modeling?

Governing reacting Navier-Stokes equations are accurate,
but DNS is prohibitive ...
Turbulence

Large range of time and length scales

Modeling done by time (or Reynolds) averaging
Introduces terms (the Reynolds stresses) which must be modeled

Chemistry

Realistic chemical mechanisms have tens of species, hundreds of reactions, and

stiff kinetics (widely disparate time scales)
Determined for a limited number of fuels

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Reynolds (Time) Averaged Species Equation

u
Y

u"i Y"k

k
i k
x i
t
x i
{unsteady term}
(zero for

convection

convection

by mean

by turbulent

velocity

velocity fluctuations

steady flows)

x i

Yk
D k
R k
x i

molecular
diffusion

mean
chemical
source term

Yk , Dk , Rk are the k th species mass fraction, diffusion coefficient and

chemical source term respectively

Turbulent flux term modeled by mean gradient diffusion as
u"i Y" k t /Sct Yk / xi , which is consistent in the k-e context

Gas phase combustion modeling focuses on

Rk

Arguably more difficult to model than the Reynolds stresses for turbulence
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Turbulence Chemistry Interaction

Arrhenius reaction rate terms are highly nonlinear

Rk AT C j j exp E RT

Cannot neglect the effects of turbulence fluctuations on

chemical production rates

Rk Rk ( T )

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Combustion Models in ANSYS CFX

Combustion Models in ANSYS CFX-16:
- Eddy Dissipation Model (EDM Model)

Da >> 1

- Finite Rate Chemistry Model (FRC Model) Da << 1

- Combined Model (EDM+FRC Model)
- PDF Flamelet
- Pre-mixed/Partially Premixed Model : Burning Velocity Model
- Extended Coherent Flame Model
- NOx Model
- Oil Combustion Model
- Coal Combustion Model

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