Numerical simulation of turbulent reactive flows with Open FOAM

Abstract:

In this thesis reactive flow CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulations have been done with OpenFOAM. This work belongs to a long term research program of Prof. Mashayek. The program focuses on the turbulent reacting flow in combustion devices, which apply microjets as means of active control to improve combustion performance. Nowadays many commercial CFD software packages are available. However, they do not allow one to customize the code, and a such advanced topic as turbulent combustion become difficult to handle. For this reason, normally researchers need to develop their own code. OpenFOAM is an open-source C++ toolbox. It is supplied with numerous preconfigured solvers, utilities, and libraries, so can be used like any typical simulation package. However, it is open source therefore it is possible modify the code in function of any necessity; In this thesis the capabilities of some preconfigured OpenFOAM solvers are tested. A comparison of a laminar fully premixed flame and a laminar partially premixed flame, with the study by B.Fiorina et al [2] was done. This work also presents a study of a turbulent reactive flow compared with Fuent results by Kanchi et al. [16] and experimental data Gould et al [15]. This work should be considered the first step to handle large reaction mechanisms and turbulence combustion with OpenFOAM.