A General Solver Framework for Radiative Heat Transfer Models in Combustion Systems

ABSTRACT:Modern combustion systems such as gas-turbine combustors and rocket engines are characterized by high operating pressures and temperatures due to increased power density. Thermal radiation has significant impact on both, the heat fluxes at the wall and physical phenomena controlling the combustion process. The objective of this SBIR project is to develop a general, computationally efficient, high-accuracy numerical tool for modeling radiation in combustion systems. In Phase I, a detailed review of various radiative transfer equation (RTE) solution methods and radiative property models was conducted. The Phase I effort concluded with selection of RTE solvers including the photon Monte Carlo, variants of the higher-order spherical harmonics method and the discrete ordinates method for further development. Radiative property models based on the Full-spectrum k-distribution showed the maximum potential to achieve high spectral accuracy at a fraction of cost of the corresponding line-by-line calculations. In Phase II, modules for spectral properties and RTE solvers will be developed and coupled with CFD codes of interest to the Air Force. The radiation modeling framework will be verified and validated using benchmark PMC solutions. The software tools will be delivered to the Air Force at the end of Phase II for integration into the design and analysis workflow.BENEFIT:The radiation transfer modeling tool developed in this SBIR project will have significant military as well as commercial applications. It will be directly relevant to the research conducted by the Air Force on hypersonic and high speed boundary layer flows, as well as gas turbine and rocket engine combustion. This tool will also be valuable to other agencies such as NASA, Navy and DOE. In addition, the module could be used for simulating large scale fires and for atmospheric radiation calculations. Further, the radiation codes can be used as a design tool to develop next-generation re-entry and other space vehicles (such as the NASA Multi-Purpose Crew Exploration Vehicle), and the components of future hypersonic vehicles such as Army Advanced Hypersonic weapon (AHW) and Air Force/DARPA follow up to HTV-2 unmanned hypersonic glider. The codes can also be used for plasma flow control in subsonic and supersonic aerospace applications. Finally, the tool will have wide appeal to rocket engine manufacturers (e.g., ATK, Pratt & Whitney, and Aerojet) and to universities developing rocket engine technology (e.g., Purdue, Penn State, and University of Alabama in Huntsville).