Eddys in jet engine combustion are the subject of a £97,700 ($167,000) three-year Imperial College London and UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) project.
The research will focus on advancing computational techniques to model eddys and their turbulent structures. The EPSRC work aims to provide better simulation techniques and computation for furnace development. The research could also improve validation for combustion engine design.
To date, analysis of turbulence has relied on Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes techniques that are averaged over time.
“With eddy simulation you have to consider large turbulent structures and the environment, in time. Modelling small structures is okay, but we want a solution that evolves in time,” says Imperial College’s mechanical engineering lecturer Andreas Kempf.
His work will involve relevant features of the flow and combustion that are simulated without the use of averages. Kempf will use large-eddy simulation, while relying on a simplified treatment for other process phenomena.
ROB COPPINGER/LONDON
Source: Flight International