Influence of the TRI on thermal radiation in LES of turbulent flows

Maxime R∗ – Pedro J. C∗ – Carlos B.  S∗

* Mechanical Engineering Department, Instituto Superior Técnico/IDMEC – Technical University of Lisbon, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001
Lisboa – Portugal

Introduction
X Turbulence-radiation interaction in the numerical simulation of reactive flows
The turbulence-radiation interaction (TRI) is well established and has been investigated using Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes methods, probability density functions approach and recently Direct Numerical
Simulation (DNS).
X TRI modelling in LES framework
Few work has been done so far about the TRI modelling in large eddy simulation (LES) : [Poitou et al., 2007] used a-priori test to assess subgrid-scale models and tested models based on Taylor development for the
TRI emission in a flame. [Coelho 2009] has proposed TRI models based on an assumed subgrid-scale probability density function. He generated a time-series of turbulent scalar fluctuations along an optical path in
Sandia flame D and solved the filtered RTE along this path by applying one-dimensional filtering operation.
X Present study
Thermal radiation has been coupled to LES in combustion systems in various studies where the influence of the subgrid-scale fluctuations over the resolved radiative heat transfer has been neglected. This assumption
is studied here by comparing results obtained by DNS, filtered DNS, and LES without subgrid-scale model.

Theory and computational details

X The filtered RTE is neglected as well as the correlation between the absorption coefficient and the temperature/chemical
is obtained by applying the spatial filtering operation to the RTE : composition.
dI ν X Computational Details
= −κν Iν + κν Ibν
ds     The physical domain is a cubic box of size L, the simulations use 1923 collocation points. The DNS are
= −κν I ν − κν Iν − κν I ν + κν I bν + κν Ibν − κν I bν (1) carried out using a standard pseudo-spectral code with an explicit 3rd order Runge-Kutta scheme for the
    temporal advancement.
The terms in parentheses, κν Iν − κν I ν and κν Ibν − κν I bν , need to be modelled in order to close the fil-
tered RTE. They represent the effects of the unresolved-scales of the LES on the resolved monochromatic → Parameters of the flows
radiative intensity. √
hT ′2i
X without TRI Reλ ν Sc kmaxη L11 η hT i(K) hXCO2 i hT i τ = hκPiL
The simplest way to close Eq. (1) is to suppose  that the subgrid-scale fluctuations of thermal radiation
1.24 2.8 × 10−2
 
are negligible, i.e., the terms κν Iν − κν I ν and κν Ibν − κν I bν are neglected in the filtered RTE. In this 95.6 0.006 0.7 1.8 1500 0.5 20% 10
assumption, the filtered RTE may be written as
The RTE has been solved using a ray tracing method with a CK approximation. The turbulence and the
dI ν radiative heat transfer calculations are decoupled in this study.
≃ −κν I ν + κν I bν (2)
ds
In order to perform the LES, a box filtering operation is applied to the temperature and the species concen-
It is further assumed that κν ≃ κν(T , XCO2 , X H2O) and I bν ≃ Ibν(T ), i.e., the temperature self-correlation tration fields from the DNS and the new fields are used to carry out LES.

Results
→ Normalized radiative intensity profiles along a line of sight, estimated by DNS (IDNS ), by LES without → Ratio of the mean obtained by LES to the mean obtained by a-priori calculations for the blackbody
SGS models (I LES ) and by filtered DNS (I DNS ) The filter size is ∆ = 16δ. The results are displayed in intensity and the radiative emission.
the DNS and in the LES grids.
∆/δ 2 4 8 16 32

1.12 I DN S /hIDN S i in LES grid

I DN S /hIDN S i in DNS grid
hIb(T )i/hI b,DNS i 0.998 0.991 0.974 0.939 0.881
1.1
IDN S /hIDN S i
1.08
hκ P I bDNS i/hκP Ib DNS i 1.002 1.009 1.029 1.069 1.136
1.06 I LES /hIDN S i in LES grid
X hIb(T )i < hI b,DNS i
1.04 4
hT i < hT 4i : the temperature self-correlation tends to increase the filtered emission. It is the strongest
subgrid-scale correlation
1.02
X hκ P I bDNS i > hκP Ib DNS i
1
On the contrary, the absorption coefficient-temperature correlation decreases the filtered emission.
X The T self-correlation and the κν − T correlation have opposite effect.
0.98
It is better to neglect both correlations instead of modelling just one, which confirms the results of [Poitou
et al. 2007].
0.96 I LES /hIDN S i in DNS grid X The κν − Iν correlation is weak.
It confirms that the optically thin fluctuation approximation can be extended to LES context, as shown in
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 [Coelho 2009].
s/L
→ Influence of the mean temperature on the ratio hI LES i/hI DNS i
X I LES < I DNS
1
The effect of the subgrid-scale correlations, such as the temperature self-correlation, the absorption hT i = 1000K
coefficient-temperature correlation, or the absorption coefficient-radiative intensity correlation increases hT i = 1500K
the radiation intensity. 0.98
hT i = 1800K

→ Ratio of the mean obtained by LES to the mean obtained by a-priori calculations for the radiation 0.96
intensity
hI LES i/hI DN S i

0.94

∆/δ 2 4 8 16 32
0.92

hI LES i/hI DNS i 0.995 0.993 0.978 0.949 0.906 0.9

0.88
When ∆ = 16δ, the error on hI LES i is about 5%.
0.86
X I LES ,LES grid , I LES ,DNS grid 2 4 8 16 32
Changing the grid affects I LES in some points. The radiation intensity is a non-local quantity and conse- ∆/δ
quently the error due to the lack of subgrid-scale modelling spreads and changes along an optical path.
However, the global influence of the grid is quite small. X hI LES i/hI DNS i tends to 1 when hT i increases
The TRI influence decreases when the mean temperature of the system increases, i.e., when the radiative
transfer is lower. This supports the assumption consisting in neglecting the TRI in LES framework.

Conclusions
X TRI in LES : Neglecting the influence of the non-resolved scales in the filtered RTE remains a good approximation in various configurations.
X Need for subgrid-scale modelling : Some effects should be taken carefully in configurations where the turbulence intensity is important.
X Future work : Work for the coupling between LES, combustion and radiation in a turbulent diffusion flame is in progress.

X References
→ Poitou, D., El Hafi, M. and Cuenot, Diagnosis of TRI in Turbulent flames and Implications for Modeling in LES, Turkish Journal of Engineering and Environment Sciences, Vol.31, No.6, pp 371-381, 2007
→ Coelho, P.J., Approximate solutions of the filtered radiative transfer equation in large eddy simulations of turbulent reactive flows, Combustion and Flame, Vol. 156, No. 9-10 , pp 1099-1110, 2009