Preferential and differential diffusion in RANS simulation of lean hydrogen flames with tabulated chemistry

Abstract

Lean hydrogen flames are prone to thermo-diffusive instabilities due to preferential and differential diffusion effects, posing significant challenges for their modeling in computational fluid dynamics simulations. This work extends a tabulated-chemistry (TC) model that includes preferential and differential diffusion effects to a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) framework and assesses its performance for a lean premixed $\mathrm{H_2}$-air slot burner at two Reynolds numbers ($\mathrm{Re}=5500$ and $11000$) using direct numerical simulation (DNS) as a reference. The approach is based on transport equations for the progress variable and mixture fraction derived from the species mass transport equations considering mixture-averaged diffusion and Soret effect, and incorporates turbulence--chemistry interaction via a presumed probability density function (PDF) approach. RANS simulations including preferential-differential diffusion are able to correctly reproduce the DNS flame length, heat-release distribution, and the characteristic equivalence-ratio and super-adiabatic temperature branches of the slot flame. Comparisons with (i) a unity-Lewis-number variant and (ii) a model including thermo-diffusive effects only in the flamelet table show the impact of preferential and differential diffusion on the TC model at both the thermochemical and transport levels. Finally, the impact of the turbulence closures for turbulent diffusion, scalar dissipation rate, and Reynolds stresses is assessed. The results presented in this paper demonstrate the capability of the model to include preferential and differential diffusion effects in cost-effective RANS simulations of lean hydrogen flames.