Numerical simulation of turbulent gas flames in tubes

Area of Science:

• Fluid Dynamics
• Combustion Science
• Computational Modeling

Background:

• Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is increasingly used for gas explosion consequence prediction.
• Reliability assessments of CFD for industrial-scale scenarios require more validation.
• Limited experimental data hinders comprehensive comparison and validation of CFD models.

Purpose of the Study:

• To simulate experimental data of flame acceleration in obstacle-filled tubes.
• To assess the accuracy of the CFD code AutoReagas against experimental results.
• To investigate the influence of numerical, geometrical, and mixture parameters on simulation outcomes.

Main Methods:

• Simulations were performed using the CFD code AutoReagas.
• Experimental data from well-documented flame acceleration tests in obstacle-filled tubes were used for validation.
• Numerical predictions were systematically compared with experimental flame speeds across different regimes.

Main Results:

• CFD simulations showed satisfactory accuracy for slower turbulent deflagration regimes.
• The code's performance was fair when simulating the choking regime.
• The CFD code did not predict transitions to quasi-detonation or Chapman-Jouguet (CJ) regimes.

Conclusions:

• The AutoReagas CFD code is reliable for simulating slower turbulent deflagration and choking regimes in gas explosions.
• Further development is needed to accurately capture faster combustion regimes, such as detonations.
• Validation against experimental data is crucial for assessing CFD model reliability in industrial safety applications.