Parametric Analysis of Hydrogen Swirl Combustors with Incompletely Stirred Reactor Network Modeling

Conducting a parametric study at a wide range of operating conditions is crucial for designing reliable combustors. However, using reacting flow computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations with detailed chemistry for extensive parametric analysis is computationally expensive. Thus, the use of low-order kinetic postprocessing tools such as the Incompletely Stirred Reactor Network (ISRN) approach, which takes into account the effect of mixture inhomogeneities and turbulent mixing, can lead to fast assessments without sacrificing accuracy. The present analysis investigates an ISRN modeling strategy where a CFD solution at a reference condition informs multiple ISRN simulations at peripheral conditions, thereby supplying reliable information on the nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from conditions that have not been simulated using CFD. A CFD solution at a reference pressure, temperature, and air/fuel ratio [Formula: see text] is used as input for the ISRN approach, which then uses this reference CFD solution to explore a wide range of operating conditions at different [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and AFRs ([Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text], with [Formula: see text] being a scaling factor). The ISRN results are close to the CFD-provided NOx emissions at a wide range of pressures and temperatures using a single reference reacting flow CFD simulation. Moreover, the effect of changing the air/fuel ratio on the NOx emissions has also been reasonably predicted. The present results suggest that the ISRN approach can be used by combustor design engineers to conduct extensive parametric analyses at a wide range of operating conditions at a reasonably low overall computational cost.