Direct numerical simulation of bluff-body-stabilized premixed flames

To enable high fidelity simulation of combustion phenomena in realistic devices, an embedded boundary method is implemented into direct numerical simulations (DNS) of reacting flows. One of the additional numerical issues associated with reacting flows is the stable treatment of the embedded boundaries in the presence of multicomponent species and reactions. The implemented method is validated in two test con gurations: a pre-mixed hydrogen/air flame stabilized in a backward-facing step configuration, and reactive flows around a square prism. The former is of interest in practical gas turbine combustor applications in which the thermo-acoustic instabilities are a strong concern, and the latter serves as a good model problem to capture the vortex shedding behind a bluff body. In addition, a reacting flow behind the square prism serves as a model for the study of flame stabilization in a micro-channel combustor. The present study utilizes fluid-cell reconstruction methods in order to capture important flame-to-solid wall interactions that are important in confined multicomponent reacting flows. Results show that the DNS with embedded boundaries can be extended to more complex geometries without loss of accuracy and the high fidelity simulation data can be used to develop and validate turbulence and combustion models for the design of practical combustion devices.