A Turbulence Model Sensitivity Study for CH4/H2 Bluff-Body Stabilized Flames

The objective of this work is to assess the performances of different turbulence models in predicting turbulent diffusion flames in conjunction with the flamelet model.The k–ε model, the Explicit Algebraic Stress Model (EASM) and the k–ε model withvaried anisotropy parameter Cμ (LEA k–ε model)are first applied to the inert turbulent flow over a backward-facing step, demonstrating the quality of the turbulence models. Following this, theyare used to simulate the CH4/H2 bluff-body flame studied by the University of Sydney/Sandia.The numerical results are compared to experimental values of the mixture fraction, velocity field, temperature and constituent mass fractions.The comparisons show that the overall result depends on the turbulence model used, and indicate that theEASM and the LEA k–ε models perform better than the k–ε model and mimic most of the significant flow features.