23rd International Symposium on Transport Phenomena
Auckland, New Zealand
1922 November 2012
LES Analysis of Mixture Formation and Ignitability
in an Unsteady Methane Jet
H. Kawanabe1, T. Senoo1 and M. Shioji1
1
School of Energy Science
Kyoto University, Yoshida Hon'machi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
Abstract
Flow and mixture formation of a natural-gas jet with
impingement on a cavity wall were calculated using a large eddy
simulation. The calculations were performed for varying wall
shapes and the nozzle-to-wall distance. In addition, the spark
ignitability is discussed based on the distributions of flow and
fuel concentration. The result shows that flow and shear stress
are suppressed and fuel concentration increases in a cavity and
the flammable mixture is widely distributed. Here, a distribution
of the turbulent Karlovitz number Ka is estimated based on the
velocity and equivalence ratio. When the mixture is spark-ignited
at the point of Ka<50, stable combustion is achieved.
Introduction
Direct-injection spark-ignition (DI-SI) is considered to be a
promising system for the higher output and higher thermal
efficiency for a natural gas(NG) engine, and have therefore been
widely studied[1]-[3]. However, it is difficult to start combustion
by SI in NG unsteady jet stably because NG has a narrow
flammable range. Therefore, in order to achieve measures for
stable ignition and combustion control, fundamental researches
by using constant volume vessel has also been widely studied,
and investigated about the case of igniting in jet after the injection
end and the case of very low injection pressure[4]-[6]. However
DI-SI is used in the practical engine, high injection pressure is
needed because fuel-air has to be mixed quickly. And a cause of
difficulties of stable combustion have to be clarified in detail.
In order to stable combustion by the spark ignition in a methane
unsteady jet, authors have applied impinging jet on a bluff-body
or cavity wall. The results show that the stable combustion is
achieved with the ignition in the wake flow from the bluff-body
or at edge of the cavity. In these regions, the fluid motion and
shear flow would be suppressed and flammable mixture would
be formed properly. However, the details have not fully clarified.
Here, in order to investigate the mixture formation in detail, it is
useful to use a large eddy simulation technique, which is able to
predict the unsteady fluid motion and nonhomogeneous mixture.
In the present study, flow and mixture formation processes of a
high-speed unsteady methane-jet at a cavity wall are calculated
using a large eddy simulation in order to investigate the fluid
motion and distribution of flammable mixture by simulating the
previous experiment[7]. And the effects of the wall shape and
the distance between the nozzle exit and wall are investigated.
In addition, distributions of the turbulent Karlovitz number
are estimated from the calculation result. The result shows the
ignition probability is well described by the Karlovitz number.
Numerical Scheme and Methods
Methods
Development of a fuel jet and its mixture formation in a constant
volume vessel are calculated. The shape of the calculation
domain is a rectangular pipe with parallel walls with a cavity
wall. Figure 1 shows the schematic of calculation area with the
constant volume vessel, which was used for previous experiment
work. The distance between the nozzle of gas injector and the
wall represents xw. The width and depth of the cavity represent W
and D, respectively. Figure 2 shows a calculation area in a three-
dimensional x-y-z coordinate system. The calculation domain was
subdivided into 2.6106 graded cell grids that are concentrated
around the jet axis and near wall region.
Gas Injector Gas Injector
Calc. Area
xw
xw
xs
Cavity
r Wall
Electrode
D
44mm
Figure 1 Schmatic of calculation area
In this study, the fuel is assumed to be methane. The vessel is
filled with air, which is set to the pressure of pa = 1MPa and
the temperature of Ta = 300K. Then, methane is injected at the
pressures of p j = 8 MPa from a single-hole nozzle with the
diameter of d0 = 0.4mm , located on the center axis of the upper
face. Here, the inlet condition is set by use of the pseudo nozzle
to ambient pressure is defined as the diameter of the pseudo-
nozzle dn, which can be calculated from injection pressure pj and
ambient pressure pa, assuming that the velocity at the nozzle exit
uj is equal to the speed of sound at pj and that the velocity at the
pseudo nozzle un is equal to the speed of sound at pa.
+1

concept [8]. Due to the large pressure gradient in the vicinity p 2 2( 1) (1),
dn = d0 Cd j
of the nozzle exit, the diameter of the jet expands quickly just pa +1
downstream of the nozzle exit, such that adiabatic expansion
from the nozzle condition to the ambient condition may occur
in this region. Here, the jet diameter after a notional expansion

Table 1 Calculation conditions

Ambient Pres.: pa [MPa] 1.0

Ambient Temp.: Ta [K] 300

Nozzle Diam.: d0 [mm] 0.4

Inj. Pres.: pj [MPa] 8

Wall Position: xw [mm] 15, 25

Wall Shape: Wall (W, D) [mm] Wall (20, 9), Wall (20, 3.5)

Calc. Region: (x y z) [mm] (18.5 44 44) ~ (34 44 44)

Grid Number: (nx ny nz) (102 207 99) ~ (143 207 99) Figure 2 Grid system for calculation

t=0.4ms 0.9ms 1.2ms 2.0ms 5.0ms

~
u 50

[m/s]
5 mm

|u|
~
25

f 0.2
f

0.1

~
|S| 20
104 [1/s]

10
|S|
~

Figure 3 Change of distributions of velocity vector u , mixture fraction f and local stress S
 t = 5ms 5mm
1.2<
0.5<<1.2
7ms
10ms
15ms
(a) Wall(209), xw=25mm (b) Wall(209), xw=15mm
Figure 4 Distributions of flamable mixture for various wall conditions
where Cd is the coefficient of discharge, set here to Cd = 0.86.
Based on this assumption, the pseudo nozzle diameter is assumed
to be 0.80mm when pj = 8MPa, pa = 1MPa and d0 = 0.40mm, and
un in methane at 1MPa is assumed to be 451.1m/s.
Schemes
The LES computation technique used here is based on spatial
Favre-filtered continuous Navier-Stokes and scalar transport
equations. These equations are computed numerically by the
finite volume method. The x-axis coincides with the jet axis
and the component of velocity in this direction is u. The y and
z components of velocity are defined as v and w, respectively.
The sub-grid scale stress is given by the Smagorinsky model.
The model constant CS is fixed to 0.11 [9]. The gradient diffusion
model and the diffusion coefficient are given by e/Sct. Here, e is
the turbulent viscosity and Sct is the turbulent Schmidt number;
Sc and Sct are assumed to be unity [9]. A staggered system is
employed. A second-order central difference scheme is applied
(c) Wall(203.5), xw=25mm (d) Wall(203.5), xw=15mm
to the convection and diffusion terms of the momentum equation
and the diffusion term of the mass transport equation. For the
convection term of the mass transport equation, the QUICK
scheme is applied. A third-order Adams-Bashforth method is used
for the temporal integration and the time-step is determined so
that the maximum Courant number does not exceed 0.14. The
HSMAC method is applied for pressure correction.
Slip walls are assumed for the side boundaries (y, z = 10 mm).
The non-slip boundaries are assumed for the cavity walls. Here,
fine grid are used for the near wall regions, and Lilly's function
is applied to reduce the SGS viscosity near wall field. The SGS
viscosity is calculated based on a modified filter size f, described
as follows;
f = min ( l yw , ) (2)
Here, l = 0.42 and yw represents the distance from the wall.
 Results and Discussions

By means of the numerical procedures described above, the

Figure 5 Changes of SL and L agains
methane jet development and mixture formation are calculated.
Figure 3 shows the typical result of the temporal changes for the
grid-averaged distributions of velocity u , fuel mass fraction f,
shear stress S . The jet is developing with entraining surrounding
air. After the impinging at the cavity wall, the flow curls up along
the wall, then after t = 5.0ms, the mixture is entrained by the
main jet flow again. Eventually, the mixture, for the concentration
of f = 0.05, distributes along the cavity wall. Here, f = 0.05 is
approximately the equivalence ratio of unity. Also, the values of
u and S are relatively low along the walls.
In order to achieve the stable ignition combustion, it is necessary
to become the flammable mixture at the ignition point. Figure
4 shows the distributions of the flammable mixture, which is
defined by equivalence ratio between 0.5 and 1.2[11]. A black
hatching region represents the flammable mixture and a grey

t = 5ms 5mm

Ig Ig

7ms

Ig Ig

10ms

Ig Ig

0 50 100 ~
Ka
15ms

Ig Ig

(a) Wall(209), xw=25mm (b) Wall(209), xw=15mm (c) Wall(203.5), xw=25mm (d) Wall(203.5), xw=15mm

Figure 6 Distributions of Ka for various wall conditions

 L urms
Ka = (3)
(a) Wall(209), SL g
xw=25mm,
(x, y)=(20, 7.5)[mm]
g and urms represent Talor's micro scale and the standard deviation
of fluctuation velocity. Next, Ka is estimated by obtained data by
the LES calculation. The ratio of urms and g is described by the
local dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy and kinematic
(b) Wall(209),
xw=25mm, viscosity based on the assumption of the isotropic turbulent
(x, y)=(20, 6)[mm]
flow[12].
2
u
rms = (4)
g 15
(c) Wall(209),
xw=25mm,
Most of the dissipation of the turbulent kinetic energy occurs in
(x, y)=(20, 9)[mm] the sub-grid scale region, if the Reynold's number is enough high
and the calculation filter for the LES is enough big compared
with the micro-scale of flow, a following equation is led.
= GS + SGS SGS (5)
(d) Wall(209), Here, when local equilibrium of the turbulent kinetic energy, is
xw=15mm,
(x, y)=(10, 7.5)[mm] expressed by the Smagorinsky model.
2 3
SGS = (CS ) S (6)

CS represents the Smagorinsky constant. When the equations of

(e) Wall(203.5),
xw=25mm,
(x, y)=(20, 7.5)[mm]
(f) Wall(203.5),
xw=15mm,
(x, y)=(10, 7.5)[mm]
Figure 7 Relation between Ka and
hatching region corresponds the richer mixture. The flammable
mixture is formed from the bottom of the cavity wall, then it
widely distributes by following with the vortex flow in the cavity.
Based on the experimental data by the previous study, the stable
ignition is achieved by igniting at the cavity edge. The flame
propagates into the vortex region because of the flammable
mixture existence. In the case of the (c) shallow cavity and xw =
25mm, the flammable mixture is quickly formed, which enables
early timing of stable ignition. However for the (d) shallow
cavity and xw = 15mm case, the mixture in the cavity becomes
over rich so that the stable ignition is not achieved in the previous
experimental data.
Generally, ignition probability would be affected by the local
concentration of the fuel and fluid motion at the ignition point.
Flame development just after the ignition depends on the local
burning velocity and stretch of the flame due to the gradient
of velocity. Here, the ignition probability is estimated by the
turbulent Karlovitz number Ka. Ka is defined using the laminar
burning velocity SL and the flame thickness L as follows;
(4), (5) and (6) are substituted in the equation (3), Ka will be
calculated as follows;
32
L CS S
Ka = (7)
SL 15
SL and L changes with the temperature , pressure and equivalence
ratio, so that SL and L are calculated by the PREMIX code of the
CHEMKIN package Ver 3.7 with GRI-Mech 3.0. The pressure
and temperature of the calculation condition are set to 1.0MPa
and 300K, respectively. The results of SL and L are shown in
Figure 5.
Firstly, the spatial distributions of Ka are shown in Figure 6.
The calculation condition for this figure corresponds to that for
Figure 3. Also, Ka is displayed only in the flammable mixture
region. The flammable mixture is formed after jet impinging on
the cavigty wall. After that, Ka becomes relatively low (Ka<50)
in the center of vortex generated in the cavity. When the mixture
of low Ka is spark-ignited, the combustion would stably progress
in the experimental result. On the other hand, when the mixture is
ignited in the early timing at the edge of cavity, combustion does
not occur due to higher Ka. Furthermore, temporal changes of
Ka at the ignition point in the expeiment are shown in Figure 7.
The ignition probability measured by the previous experimental
work is also displayed in the figure. For all condition, Ka
becomes higher just after the injection start, then decreases with
large fluctuation. Here, the decrease of Ka and the increase of
are the same timing, then reaches unity when Ka decreases
below 50 for these conditions. For the case (c), the ignition point
is located at the outer edge of the vortex. The value of Ka keeps
relatively high and becomes small. On the other hand for the
cases of (a) and (b), Ka becomes small after t = 10ms and stable
ignition achieved in this period. Based on these data, the ignition
stability could be estimated by the turbulent Karlovitz number.
Conclusions
Flow and mixture formation of a natural-gas jet with
impingement on a cavity wall were calculated using a large eddy
simulation. The calculations were performed for varying wall
shapes and the nozzle-to-wall distance. In addition, the spark
ignitability is discussed based on the distributions of flow and
fuel concentration. The result shows that flow and shear stress
are suppressed and fuel concentration increases in a cavity and
the flammable mixture is widely distributed. Here, a distribution
of the turbulent Karlovitz number Ka is estimated based on the
velocity and equivalence ratio. When the mixture is spark-ignited
at the point of Ka<50, stable combustion is achieved.
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