The effect of flame structure on soot formation and transport in turbulent nonpremixed flames using direct numerical simulation

Direct numerical simulations of a two-dimensional, nonpremixed, sooting ethylene flame are performed to examine the effects of soot–flame interactions and transport in an unsteady configuration. A 15-step, 19-species (with 10 quasi-steady species) chemical mechanism was used for gas chemistry, with a two-moment, four-step, semiempirical soot model. Flame curvature is shown to result in flames that move, relative to the fluid, either toward or away from rich soot formation regions, resulting in soot being essentially convected into or away from the flame. This relative motion of flame and soot results in a wide spread of soot in the mixture fraction coordinate. In regions where the center of curvature of the flame is in the fuel stream, the flame motion is toward the fuel and soot is located near the flame at high temperature and hence has higher reaction rates and radiative heat fluxes. Soot–flame breakthrough is also observed in these regions. Fluid convection and flame displacement velocity relative to fluid convection are of similar magnitudes while thermophoretic diffusion is 5–10 times lower. These results emphasize the importance of both unsteady and multidimensional effects on soot formation and transport in turbulent flames.