Lean-Blow-Out Simulation of Natural Gas Fueled, Premixed Turbulent Jet Flame Arrays With LES and FGM-Modeling

Abstract To ensure compliance with stricter regulations on exhaust gas emissions, new industrial burner concepts are being investigated. One of these concepts is the matrix burner, consisting of an array of premixed, non-swirling jet flames. For the design of such burners, the prediction of fundamental burner properties is mandatory. One of these essential quantities is the lean blowout limit (LBO), which has already been investigated experimentally. This study investigates the possibility of numerical LBO prediction using a tabulated chemistry approach in combination with Large-Eddy-Simulation turbulence modeling. In contrast to conventional swirl burners, the numerical description of blowout events of multi jet flames has not yet been studied in detail. Lean blowout simulations have therefore been conducted for multiple nozzle variants, varying in their diameter and global dump ratio for a variety of operating conditions, showing their general applicability. A procedure to induce LBO is introduced where a stepwise increase in total mass flow is applied. LBO is determined based on the temporal progress of the mean reaction rate. A comparison with measurements shows good agreement and demonstrates that the procedure developed here is an efficient way to predict LBO values. Further investigations focused on the flame behavior when approaching LBO. The flame shape shows a drastic change from single jet flames (stable conditions) to a joint conical flame approaching LBO, which increases in length for increasing inlet velocity, showing the importance of jet interaction at LBO.