Vision
As more and more computational resources become available to everyday research, physics-based high-fidelity models play increasingly vital roles in turbulent combustion research. CTF@UConn is interested in the general research areas of efficient energy utilization, with emphasis on applying high-fidelity modeling techniques to fundamental laboratory-scale flames, device-relevant combustion, and fire modeling.
With recent development in computational power and experimental aparatus, the ability of experimental research and computational studies are converging. Computational analysis and experimental investigation can complement each other in many different aspects. CTF@UConn is interested in actively pursuing the interplay between experiments and computations.
As a long-term vision, the benefit of high-fidelity modeling is enhanced by simultaneous employment of uncertainty quantification (UQ) techniques. CTF@UConn is interested in efficiently incorporting uncertainty quantification into the process of physical modeling, so that negligible overhead is consumed by the UQ process.
Turbulent combustion modeling
Turbulent combustion is encountered in nearly all practical power generation devices, e.g., gas turbines, internal combustion engines, and industrial furnaces. With increasingly strigent emission control and demand for efficiency enhancement, turbulent flames that are burning in mixed modes become more and more common. Computational modeling as an efficient design and testing tool is frequently used nowadays to study the fundamental behaviors of the flames, and to help shorten the design cycle. Models that are not specific to any combustion regime are desirous and are developed in CTF@UConn. The obejctive of these projects is to develop high-fidelity efficient computational tools that can better predict local flame phenomenon (local extinction, reignition, premixe flame fronts, etc. ) that are closely related to pollutant emissions.
Multiphase combustion simulation
Multiphase transport and reactions are encountered in many practical combustion systems, such as in spray and coal combustion, in soot emission, and in flame synthesis for batch nano-material productions. Accurate predictions of the locations of different phases, heat and mass transfer for each phase, and the coupling between different phases are required to provide insights into these processes. The objective of these projects are to carry out comprehensive simulations for laboratory-scale/industrial-scale multiphase flow to provide insights into the combustion (synthesis) process so that efficiency can be enhanced and pollutants can be reduced.
Fire research
Large-scale fires (wildland fire, forest fire, warehouse fire, large fuel spill pool fire, etc.) are major causes for property and human loss. CTF@UConn is working on applying high-fidelity modeling tools to study fire propagation and heat release distribution. The role of radiative heat transfer in fire propagation and the interactions between turbulence, chemistry, soot and radiation are emphasized.
Interplay between experiments and computations
CTF@UCONN is working on using direct numerical simulation and experimental measurements to evaluate experimental procedures (spatial and temporal resolution, post-processing models, etc.). CTF@UCONN is also actively pursuing direct comparison between numerical prediction and experimental signals, in order to reduce the uncertainty involved in the signal conversion and data processing procedures.