Analysis of Turbulence and Surface Growth Models on the Estimation of Soot Level in Ethylene Non-Premixed Flames

Soot prediction in a combustion system has become a subject of attention, as many factors influence its accuracy. An accurate temperature prediction will likely yield better soot predictions, since the inception, growth and destruction of the soot are affected by the temperature. This paper reported the study on the influences of turbulence closure and surface growth models on the prediction of soot levels in turbulent flames. The results demonstrated that a substantial distinction was observed in terms of temperature predictions derived using the k-ε and the Reynolds stress models, for the two ethylene flames studied here amongst the four types of surface growth rate model investigated, the assumption of the soot surface growth rate proportional to the particle number density, but independent on the surface area of soot particles, f(As) = ρNs, yields in closest agreement with the radial data. Without any adjustment to the constants in the surface growth term, other approaches where the surface growth directly proportional to the surface area and square root of surface area, f(As) = Asand f(As) = √As, result in an under-prediction of soot volume fraction. These results suggest that predictions of soot volume fraction are sensitive to the modelling of surface growth.