PDF calculations of piloted premixed jet flames

A series of piloted premixed jet flames with strong finite-rate chemistry effects is studied using the joint velocity-turbulence frequency-composition PDF method. The numerical accuracy of the calculations is demonstrated, and the calculations are compared to experimental data. It is found that all calculations show good agreement with the measurements of mean and rms mixture fraction fields, while the reaction progress is overpredicted to varying degrees depending on the jet velocity. In the calculations of the flame with the lowest jet velocity, the species and temperature show reasonable agreement with the measurements, with the exception of a small region near the centerline where products and temperature are overpredicted and fuel and oxidizer are underpredicted. In the calculations of the flame with the highest jet velocity, however, the overprediction of products and temperature and underprediction of fuel and oxidizer is far more severe. An extensive set of sensitivity studies on inlet boundary conditions, turbulence model constants, mixing models and constants, radiation treatment, and chemical mechanisms is conducted to show that any parameter variation offers little improvement from the base case. To shed light on these discrepancies, diagnostic calculations are performed in which the chemical reactions are artificially slowed. These diagnostic calculations serve to validate the experimental data and to quantify the amount by which the base case calculations overpredict reaction progress. Improved calculations of this flame are achieved only through artificially slowing down the chemical reaction by a factor of about 10. The mixing model behavior in this combustion regime is identified as a likely cause for the observed discrepancy in reaction progress.