Publications

Abstract not provided.

The specific problem to be addressed in this work is the secondary combustion that arises from shock-induced mixing in volumetric explosives. It has been recognized that the effects of combustion due to secondary mixing can greatly alter the expansion of gases and dispersal of high-energy explosive. Furthermore, this enhanced effect may be a tailored feature for the new energetic material systems. One approach for studying this problem is based on the use of Large Eddy Simulation (LES) techniques. In this approach, the large turbulent length scales of motion are simulated directly while the small scales of turbulent motion are explicitly treated using a subgrid scale (SGS) model. The focus of this effort is to develop a SGS model for combustion that is applicable to shock-induced combustion events using probability density function (PDF) approaches. A simplified presumed PDF combustion model is formulated and implemented in the CTH shock physics code. Two classes of problems are studied using this model. The first is an isolated piece of reactive material burning with the surrounding air. The second problem is the dispersal of highly reactive material due to a shock driven explosion event. The results from these studies show the importance of incorporating a secondary combustion modeling capability and the utility of using a PDF-based description to simulate these events.

This report describes research and development of the large eddy simulation (LES) turbulence modeling approach conducted as part of Sandia's laboratory directed research and development (LDRD) program. The emphasis of the work described here has been toward developing the capability to perform accurate and computationally affordable LES calculations of engineering problems using unstructured-grid codes, in wall-bounded geometries and for problems with coupled physics. Specific contributions documented here include (1) the implementation and testing of LES models in Sandia codes, including tests of a new conserved scalar--laminar flamelet SGS combustion model that does not assume statistical independence between the mixture fraction and the scalar dissipation rate, (2) the development and testing of statistical analysis and visualization utility software developed for Exodus II unstructured grid LES, and (3) the development and testing of a novel new LES near-wall subgrid model based on the one-dimensional Turbulence (ODT) model.

Simulations of a turbulent methanol pool fire are conducted using both Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) and Large Eddy Simulation (LES) modeling methodologies. Two simple conserved scalar flameletbased combustion models with assumed PDF are developed and implemented. The first model assumes statistical independence between mixture fraction and its variance and results in poor predictions of time-averaged temperature and velocity. The second combustion model makes use of the PDF transport equation for mixture fraction and does not employ the statistical independence assumption. Results using this model show good agreement with experimental data for both the 2D and 3D LES, indicating that the use of statistical independence between mixture fraction and its dissipation is not valid for pool fire simulations. Lastly, "finger-like" flow structures near the base of the plume, generated from stream-wise vorticity, are shown to be important mixing mechanisms for accurate prediction of time-averaged temperature and velocity.

A gridless technique for the solution of the integral form of the radiative heat flux equation for emitting and absorbing media is presented. Treatment of non-uniform absorptivity and gray boundaries is included. As part of this work, the authors have developed fast multipole techniques for extracting radiative heat flux quantities from the temperature fields of one-dimensional and three-dimensional geometries. Example calculations include those for one-dimensional radiative heat transfer through multiple flame sheets, a three-dimensional enclosure with black walls, and an axisymmetric enclosure with black walls.

Abstract not provided.

A spray-suppression model that captures the effects of liquid suppressant on a turbulent combusting flow is developed and applied to a turbulent diffusion flame with water spray suppression. The spray submodel is based on a stochastic separated flow approach that accounts for the transport and evaporation of liquid droplets. Flame extinguishment is accounted for by using a perfectly stirred reactor (PSR) submodel of turbulent combustion. PSR pre-calculations of flame extinction times are determined using CHEMKIN and are compared to local turbulent time scales of the flow to determine if local flame extinguishment has occurred. The PSR flame extinguishment and spray submodels are incorporated into Sandia's flow fire simulation code, VULCAN, and cases are run for the water spray suppression studies of McCaffrey for turbulent hydrogen-air jet diffusion flames. Predictions of flame temperature decrease and suppression efficiency are compared to experimental data as a function of water mass loading using three assumed values of drop sizes. The results show that the suppression efficiency is highly dependent on the initial droplet size for a given mass loading. A predicted optimal suppression efficiency was observed for the smallest class of droplets while the larger drops show increasing suppression efficiency with increasing mass loading for the range of mass loadings considered. Qualitative agreement to the experiment of suppression efficiency is encouraging, however quantitative agreement is limited due to the uncertainties in the boundary conditions of the experimental data for the water spray.