Time‐dependentcomputations of turbulent bluff‐body diffusion flames close to extinction

A two dimensional time‐dependent Navier Stokes formulation that encompasses aspects from both the LES formalism and the conventional k‐ε approaches was employed to calculate a range of reacting bluff‐body flows exhibiting high or low level large scale structure activity. Extensive regions of local flame extinction found in these bluff‐body flame configurations were treated with a partial equilibrium/two‐scalar exponential PDF combustion submodel combined with a local extinction criterion based on a comparison of the turbulent Damkohler number against the ratio of the scalar scale to the reaction zone thickness. A dual‐mode description, burning/ non‐burning, of combustion provided the local gas state. Comparisons between calculations and measurements indicated the ability of the method to capture all the experimentally observed variations in the momentum and reactive scalar mixing fields over a range of operating conditions from the lean to the rich blow‐out limit.