A simulation of a bluff-body stabilized turbulent premixed flame using LES-PDF

A turbulent premixed flame stabilized by a triangular cylinder as a flame-holder is simulated. The computational condition matches the Volvo experiments (Sjunnesson~{\em et al.}~1992). Propane is premixed at a fuel lean condition of $\phi = 0.65$. For this reactive simulation, LES-PDF formulation is used, similar to Yang~{\em et al.} (2012). The evolution of Lagrangian particles is simulated by solving stochastic differential equations modeling transport of the composition PDF. Mixing is modeled by the modified IEM model (Viswanathan~{\em et al.}~2011). Chemical reactions are calculated by ISAT and for the good load balancing, PURAN distribution of ISAT tables is applied (Hiremath~{\em et al.}~2012). To calculate resolved density, the two-way coupling (Popov \& Pope~2013) is applied, solving a transport equation of resolved specific volume to reduce statistical noise. A baseline calculation shows a good agreement with the experimental measurements in turbulence statistics, temperature, and minor species mass fractions. Chemical reaction does not significantly contribute to the overall computational cost, in contrast to non-premixed flame simulations (Hiremath~{\em et al.}~2013), presumably due to the restricted manifold of the purely premixed flame in the composition space.