Analysis of the relevance of the filtered radiative transfer equation

terms for large eddy simulation of turbulence-radiation interaction

∗ ∗ ∗
Maxime R – Pedro J. C – Carlos B.  S
* Mechanical Engineering Department, Instituto Superior Técnico – Technical University of Lisbon, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa –
Portugal

Introduction
X Turbulence -radiation interaction in the numerical simulation of reactive flows The turbulence-radiation interaction (TRI) is well established and has been investigated using Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes
methods, probability density functions approach and recently Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS).
X TRI in the frame of LES Almost no work has been done about the TRI relevance in large eddy simulation (LES) : [Desjardin and Frankel 1999, Haworth et al. 2005, Jones and Paul 2005] have coupled thermal
radiation to LES of combustion systems without subgrid-scale modelling and [Poitou et al. 2007], in an a-priori study from DNS, have tested models based on Taylor development for the emission part of radiation in a
flame.
X Present study An analysis of the relevance of the various terms of the filtered radiative transfer equation (RTE) is presented. Our approach is based on an a-priori analysis of DNS of statistical steady forced
homogeneous isotropic turbulence.

Theory and computational details

X Filtering operation In LES, the larger turbulent motions are directly represented whereas the effect of The filtered RTE integrated over the spectrum may be written as :
the smaller scale motions are modelled. In this study the low-pass filtering operation is performed using a
box filter defined such that the filtered quantity Q is equal to : dI ′′ I + κ′′ I ′′) + κ I − (κ I ′′ + κ′′ I + κ′′ I ′′)
= −κG I + κP Ib = −κG I − (κG I ′′ + κG G P b P b P b P b
Z Z Z ds
1 = −κG I + (κG I − κG I) + κ P I b + (κ P I b − κP Ib) (4)
Q= 3 Q(x, t)dx (1)
∆ ∆3
On the right of this equation, the terms in parentheses must be modelled.
where ∆ is the filter size and Q = Q + Q′′ (Q′′ is the residual quantity). X Computational Details The physical domain is a cubic box of size L, the simulations use 1923 colloca-
X The filtered radiative transfer equation The RTE in the case of an emitting-absorbing and non- tion points. The DNS are carried out using a pseudo-spectral code with an explicit 3rd order runge-Kutta
scattering medium is written as : scheme for the temporal advancement.
dIν(s) → Parameters of the turbulent flows
= −κν Iν(s) + κν Ibν (2)
ds
Filtering eq. 2 leads to : Reλ ν Sc kmaxη L11 η S F

dI ν 95.6 0.006 0.7 1.8 1.24 2.8 × 10−2 −0.49 4.63

= −κν Iν(s) + κν Ibν (3)
ds
In this study, we have focused
R on radiative quantities integrated over the spectrum like the Planck
R mean
The RTE has been solved using a ray tracing method with a CK approximation for the integration over
+∞ +∞
0
κν Ibνdν 0
κν Iνdν the spectrum. The standard radiative transfer calculation were carried out assuming that hT i = 1500K,
absorption coefficient κP = R +∞ and the incident mean absorption coefficient equal to κG = R +∞
hXCO2 i = 0.5 and hXH2Oi = 0. The turbulence intensity is equal to 20% and the optical thcikness of the
0
Ibνdν 0
Iνdν
in the case of isotropic radiation. medium τ estimated by τ = hκPiL is equal to 10.

Results and discussion

X Influence of the filter size and the turbulence intensity X Filtered RTE terms evaluations
Normalized filtered RTE absorption terms along a line of sight with a box filter of size ∆ = 8δ Normalized filtered RTE emission terms along a line of sight with a box filter of size ∆ = 8δ
→ influence of the turbulence intensity in the subgrid-scale fluctuations of the emission and absorption 1.6
κG I/ < κg I > (DNS) 1.6 κP Ib / < κP Ib > (DNS)
terms 1.4 κG I/ < κG I >
1.4
κ P Ib / < κ P Ib >

κG I/ < κG I > κP I b / < κ P I b >

We introduce the two non dimensional quantities : 1.2
(κ′′G I + κG I ′′ + κ′′G I ′′)/ < κG I >
1.2
(κ′′P I b + κP Ib′′ + κ′′P Ib′′)/ < κP Ib >
1 1

D κ P I b − κP Ib E D κG I − κG I E 0.8

Rκ P I b = RκG I = (5) 0.8

κP Ib κG I 0.6
0.6

0.4
0.4

in order to quantify how important are the unresolved fluctuations of radiation 0.2
0.2

∆/δ 2 4 8 16 32 0

−0.2

0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
s s
L L
RκP Ib (10%) 0.0547% 0.246% 0.780% 1.84% 3.39%

RκP Ib (20%) 0.206% 0.936% 3.00% 7.12% 13.2% → As a first approximation, the SGS fluctuations can be neglected
This assumption should be taken carefully because the terms κ P Ib′′, κ′′
P bI , κG I ′′ and κ′′ I may increase
G
RκP Ib (30%) 0.312% 1.52% 5.28% 13.2% 25.0% locally.
X LES calculation without SGS models The simplest way to close eq. 3 is to suppose that there are no
RκG I (10%) 0.000968% 0.00265% 0.0208% 0.0819% 0.257% subgrid-scale fluctuations concerning radiation :

dI ν
RκG I (20%) 0.00531% 0.0265% 0.109% 0.387% 1.07% ≃ −κν I ν + κν I bν ≃ −κν(T , XCO2 , X H2O)Iν(T , XCO2 , X H2O) + κν(T , XCO2 , X H2O)Ibν(T ) (6)
ds
RκG I (30%) 0.0130% 0.0643% 0.254% 0.818% 1.99%
1.6 Filter size ∆ = 8δ κG I/hκG Ii (a priori from DNS) 1.6
Filter size ∆ = 16δ κG I/hκG Ii (a priori from DNS)
κG I/hκG Ii (LES without SGS model) κ GI/hκG Ii (LES without SGS model)
1.4 1.4
κG I/hκg Ii (DNS) κG I/ < κg I > (DNS)
→ The subgrid-scale (SGS) fluctuations are more important for the radiation emission terms than for 1.2 1.2

the absorption terms 1

1

The emission term is a local term which is more sensitive to unresolved-scale fluctuations than the 0.8
0.8

absorption term which depends on the physical properties of the medium along the optical path 0.6
0.6

considered. 0.4
0.4

0.2

→ As expected, the influence of the turbulence intensity on the SGS fluctuations is important 0
0.2

0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9

s 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
s
0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9

L L
A high turbulence intensity combined with a high filter size yields a strong increase of the SGS
fluctuations
→ κG I and κG I are almost merged for small filter size, confirming that in those cases the SGS fluctuations
can be neglected
→ However, LES calculation confirms that locally SGS fluctuations may be significant and SGS modeling
must be developed if high precision is needed or if the turbulence intensity is higher than 20%

Conclusions and perspectives

X Conclusions
The need for SGS modelling is more important for the emission part of radiation
The assumption that consists in neglecting all subgrid-scale fluctuations has proved to be accurate in various cases
X Perspectives
Extend this analysis, based on an academic physical configuration, to a realistic case of combustion problem
Propose SGS models for combustion application
Coupling thermal radiation in a LES code of a combustion system

X References
Desjardin, P.E. and Frankel, S.H. [1999], Two-dimensional LES of Soot Formation in the Near-Field of a Strongly Radiating Nonpremixed Acetylene-Air Turbulent Jet Flame, Combustion and Flame, Vol.119, No.1-2, pp 121-132
Haworth, D.C., Singh, V., Gupta, A., and Modest, M.F. [2005], LES of turbulent flows with thermal radiation and TRI, in 58th Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics Chicago, IL 20-22 November
Jones, W.P. and Paul, M.P. [2005], Combination of DOM with LES in a Gas Turbine Combustor, International Journal of Engineering Science, Vol.43, No. 5-6, pp379-397
Poitou, D., El Hafi, M. and Cuenot, B. [2007], Diagnosis of TRI in Turbulent flames and Implications for Modeling in LES, Turkish Journal of Engineering and Environment Sciences, Vol.31, No.6, pp371-381