Thomas Howarth
Improved turbulent combustion models using numerical simulation.
Email: t.howarth2@ncl.ac.uk
Supervisors
Project description
Hydrogen combustion in rocket engines under unconventional conditions is not well-understood. Various instabilities (thermodiffusive, hydrodynamic and thermoacoustic) pose significant challenges for design.
Thus, we need to use numerical simulation to develop and validate turbulent combustion models. These models must be reliable for industrial use.
We will construct a database of high-fidelity three-dimensional Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS). We will consider the turbulent mixing of direct injection of hydrogen fuel into a sub-sonic cross-flow. We will also investigate subsequent downstream lean combustion under relevant conditions.
We will calculate these at various scales, from local computers right up to national supercomputer level. We will analyse this data and compare it to existing models used in Large Eddy Simulations (LES) and Reynolds Average Navier Stokes (RANS). This will guide the development of new models as appropriate. We will implement and test these new models in a CFD software framework. We will validate them against the DNS database used to construct the models.
This project is fully funded by EPSRC in conjunction with Reaction Engines under the Industrial CASE studentship scheme. This allows access to industry specialists and facilities not necessarily available in a purely academic setting.
Interests
Computational fluid dynamics, turbulence, combustion, Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS), Large Eddy Simulation (LES).
Qualifications
- MMath Mathematics, University of Warwick.