Numerical Simulation of Turbulent Non-premixed Combustion Processes for Methane and Dimethyl Ether Binary Fuels

The C_1ε = 1.6 standard k - ε equation combined with the steady flamelet model was applied to a methane/dimethyl ether swirl combustion field, and the effects of the dimethyl ether (DME) blending ratio and operating pressure on the flame behavior, including species variation, reaction zone behavior, and flame entrainment, were investigated. The results demonstrated that selected models could better reproduce the trends of the experimental measurements. The downstream reaction zone achieved better calculation accuracy than the outer shear layer of the first recirculation zone. The addition of DME accelerated the accumulation process of H₂, O, H, and OH radicals. The intermediate radical CH₂O was rapidly developed by the influence of the H extraction rate under a constant fuel volume flow rate. The reaction zone dimensions were approximately linearly and positively correlated with the DME blending ratio, whereas flame entrainment expressed a lower DME concentration dependence in the high-DME mass-dominated system. The operating pressure significantly impacted the distribution of reactive radicals in the turbulent flame; meanwhile, the flame and reaction zone length showed nonlinear inverse behavior with pressure variation, while the thickness of the reaction zone was always linearly and negatively correlated with pressure. Moreover, the peak flame entrainment rate also experienced a nonlinear decline with pressure elevation; however, the peak positions were not sensitive to pressure fluctuation. Concurrently, the response surface functions for the reaction zone dimensions were established covering the range of 0-1 for the DME blending ratio and 1-5 atm operating pressure, which could provide assistance for combustion condition optimization and combustion chamber design.