LES for NO prediction in a propane-air turbulent flame

Formation of nitric oxide (NO) in a model cylindrical combustor is investigated by applying Large Eddy Simulation (LES) technique. Gaseous propane (C3H8) is injected through a circular nozzle attached at the centre of the combustor inlet and preheated air with temperature of 773K is supplied through the annulus surrounding of the nozzle. The non-premixed combustion process is modelled via conserved scalar approach with laminar flamelet model, while in NO formation model, the extended Zeldovich (thermal) reaction mechanism is taken into account through a transport equation for NO mass fraction. In LES the governing equations are filtered using a spatial filtering approach to separate the flow field into large scale eddies and small scale eddies. The large scale eddies are resolved explicitly while the small scale eddies are modelled via Smagorinsky model.