Large Eddy Simulation of MILD combustion using finite rate chemistry: Effect of combustion sub-grid closure

Abstract In this work, we present a detailed comparison between the conventional Partially Stirred Reactor (PaSR) combustion model and two implicit combustion models, named Quasi Laminar Finite Rate (QLFR) model and Laminar Finite Rate (LFR) model, respectively. Large Eddy Simulation (LES) is employed and the Adelaide Jet in Hot Co-flow (AJHC) burner is chosen as validation case. In the implicit combustion models, the filtered source term comes directly from the chemical term, without inclusion of turbulence effects. Results demonstrate that the two implicit models behave similarly to the conventional PaSR model, for the mean and root-mean-square of the temperature and species mass fractions, and that all models provide very satisfactory predictions, especially for the mean values. This justifies the use of implicit combustion models in low Damkohler number (Da  ≤  1.0) systems. The QLFR model allows to reduce the computational cost of about three times, compared to the LFR model. Moreover, the comparison between two 4-step global mechanisms and the KEE58 mechanism proves the importance of finite rate chemistry in MILD combustion.