Modeling of turbulence-combustion interactions in a high-speed gas flow

Combustion is a complex physical phenomenon that couples chemical kinetics with turbulent flow. One of the most challenging and demanding applications for turbulent combustion is high-speed airbreathing systems, where combustion occurs in supersonic gas flow. A modeling approach based on the OpenFOAM® library has been developed to solve a high-speed, multi-component mixture of a reacting, compressible gas flow. This work presents comprehensive validation of the solver (compressibleReactiveFoam) with different supersonic flows, including shocks and expansion waves. The comparisons of the simulation results with experimental/analytical data confirm the fidelity of this solver for problems involving reactive multi-component high-speed flows. Modeling turbulent combustion using large-eddy simulation coupled with a partially-stirred reacting formulation provided promising results and an understanding of the complex physics involved in supersonic combustors.