Conditional statistics of nonreacting and reacting sprays in turbulent flows by direct numerical simulation

Conditional statistics concerning evaporation and combustion of a spray are investigated in homogeneous, isotropic, and decaying two-dimensional (2D) turbulence. Randomly distributed, polydisperse droplets of n-heptane go through single-step combustion chemistry. Attention is focused on parametric effects of initial Sauter mean radius (SMR), turbulence level and droplet velocity in both reacting and non-reacting cases. A simple linear model for the conditional evaporation rate is proposed and validated against DNS data. A conventional P-probability density function (pdf) is shown to be valid with no peak occurring on the fuel side. The amplitude mapping closure (AMC) model works well for the conditional scalar dissipation rate with evaporating and reacting sprays. Parametric study shows that initial SMR and droplet velocity are major factors affecting conditional flame structures, whereas the effect of reaction is not significant except during autoignition. (C) 2006 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.