Validation of an Eulerian Stochastic Fields Solver Coupled with Reaction–Diffusion Manifolds on LES of Methane/Air Non-premixed Flames

The Eulerian stochastic fields (ESF) combustion model can be used in LES in order to evaluate the filtered density function to describe the process of turbulence–chemistry interaction. The method is typically computationally expensive, especially if detailed chemistry mechanisms involving hydrocarbons are used. In this work, expensive computations are avoided by coupling the ESF solver with a reduced chemistry model. The reaction–diffusion manifold (REDIM) is chosen for this purpose, consisting of a passive scalar and a suitable reaction progress variable. The latter allows the use of a constant parametrization matrix when projecting the ESF equations onto the manifold. The piloted flames Sandia D–E were selected for validation using a 2D-REDIM. The results show that the combined solver is able to correctly capture the flame behavior in the investigated sections, although local extinction is underestimated by the ESF close to the injection plate. Hydrogen concentrations are strongly influenced by the transport model selected within the REDIM tabulation. A total solver performance increase by a factor of 81% is observed, compared to a full chemistry ESF simulation with 19 species. An accurate prediction of flame F instead required the extension of the REDIM table to a third variable, the scalar dissipation rate.