Large eddy simulation of vortex breakdown/flame interaction

Christophe Duwig and Laszlo Fuchs

Citation: Phys. Fluids 19, 075103 (2007); doi: 10.1063/1.2749812

View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2749812
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 PHYSICS OF FLUIDS 19, 075103 共2007兲

Large eddy simulation of vortex breakdown/flame interaction

Christophe Duwiga兲 and Laszlo Fuchs
Division of Fluid Mechanics, Department of Energy Sciences, Lund University, SE-22100 Lund, Sweden
共Received 24 October 2006; accepted 28 April 2007; published online 16 July 2007兲
The dynamics of a swirl-stabilized premixed flame is studied using large eddy simulation 共LES兲. A
filtered flamelet model is used to account for the subgrid combustion. The model provides a
consistent and robust reaction-diffusion expression for simulating the propagation of turbulent
premixed flames correctly. The numerical results were found to be relatively insensitive to small
changes in the inflow boundary conditions and to the numerical mesh employed. Furthermore, the
results were found to agree well with the available experimental data both for velocity and scalar
fields. In addition, unsteady flame features 关i.e., precessing vortex core 共PVC兲兴 were identified and
compared with experimental data. The agreement between LES results and experimental data, in
terms of flame dynamics, was also good. Increasing swirl did not affect the flame strongly but a
decrease of swirl number was shown to change the flame shape and suppress the PVC. The PVC and
flame dynamics were studied using proper orthogonal decomposition 共POD兲 allowing us to identify
and isolate the PVC from smaller-scale turbulence. The POD results indicate that the PVC
corresponds to a helical wave consisting of two counter-rotating helices. A dynamical reduced
model was also derived do describe the flame response to the PVC. © 2007 American Institute of
Physics. 关DOI: 10.1063/1.2749812兴

INTRODUCTION
Modern gas turbines 共GT兲 utilize lean premixed burners
in order to achieve low levels of NOx emissions.1,2 The
flame is kept in the combustor by a relatively strong swirling
motion of the 共lean兲 fuel/air mixture. The lean, swirling mix-
ture is highly susceptible to perturbations both in terms of
flow and flame unsteadiness as well as flame blowout.2 The
dynamics of the flame is the result of the interactions among
the fluctuations in fuel-air concentration, heat-release, mix-
ture velocity, and pressure.3–5 The main difficulty lies in the
nonlinear behavior of several of the controlling phenomena
and the interaction among them 共e.g., chemistry and turbu-
lence兲. For example, turbulent mixing instabilities may lead
to concentration and heat-release fluctuations. Such heat-
release fluctuations form an acoustic source that may en-
hance the fluctuations in equivalence ratio. Several authors5,6
showed the importance of large-scale flow structures in the
flame/flow interaction. This mechanism is of relevance for
the GT combustors as large scales play an important role in
flame stabilization 共e.g., through vortex breakdown兲.
Vortex breakdown is commonly utilized to anchor and
stabilize flames.1,2,7 This vortex breakdown is the result of
the swirling motion given to a jet. The critical level of swirl,
for attaining the vortex breakdown, depends strongly on the
burner geometry and on the radial distribution of the velocity
field.8 At vortex breakdown, a low-pressure region appears
around the axis region close to the expansion. If the swirling
motion is strong enough, the longitudinal pressure gradient
induces an axial backflow and a stagnation point. In many
combustion systems, the axial backflow consists of hot burnt
a兲
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Present address:
HTAS, Lyngby, Denmark. Telephone: ⫹46 46 222 31 84. Fax: ⫹46 46 222
47 17. Electronic mail: Christophe.Duwig@vok.1th.se
gases that provide heat to the fresh gases and can thereby
maintain the combustion at rather lean conditions.1,2,7,9 How-
ever, it adds an additional complexity since thermal expan-
sion affects the breakdown, i.e., it increases the velocity of
the backflow. For example, Selle et al.4 and Schneider et al.7
reported that the flame can suppress large-scale coherent
structures appearing during vortex breakdown while Syred8
reported an increase of the coherent structure frequency with
the fuel/air equivalence ratio. It is clearly a nonlinear two-
way coupling since the swirling motion enhances the shear-
layer instability and thereby increases the flame surface
area.6
Modeling and understanding the vortex breakdown and
its interaction with combustion is then a key issue in flame
stabilization. The main difficulty is the unsteady behavior of
this type of flow:7–10 Large structures, resulting from vortex
breakdown and the swirling shear layers, directly affect the
flame stabilization leading to heat-release fluctuations and
possibly to combustion instabilities. An example of the large-
scale unsteady motions arising during vortex breakdown is
the precessing vortex core 共PVC兲.8 Experimental7,9–12 and
numerical4,13 works have reported that vortex breakdown
might result in an off-axis precession of the central recircu-
lation zone. The recirculation zone undergoes a periodic ro-
tational and translational motion around the axis and the in-
stantaneous flow field is far from being axisymmetric.
However, time averaging the flow also maintains the geo-
metrical axisymmetry. If a flame is stabilized by the recircu-
lation zone, the vitiated gases will be engulfed into the recir-
culation zone and undergo similar precession.9 Consequently,
the PVC by itself can act as a source of excitation for the
flame front and thereby become a source of thermoacoustic
fluctuations.

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075103-2 C. Duwig and L. Fuchs
The issue is therefore to model and understand the inter-
action between the flame and the vortex. It is necessary to
capture in time and analyze the 3D flame stabilization pro-
cess. Such an analysis is carried out in this paper using the
large eddy simulation 共LES兲. First, we present the different
components of the computational model, i.e., LES and the
combustion model. Second, a sensitivity analysis of the re-
sults to numerical mesh density and inflow boundary condi-
tions is presented. The analysis will assess the influence of
imperfectly known quantities 共inflow conditions兲 and not re-
solved turbulent structures upon the result. Comparisons
with experimental data are also performed in order to relate
the present results to physics. Finally, we seek to analyze the
large-scale turbulent/flame motions. Since these fluctuations
are smoothed out by time averaging, we focus on different
statistical quantities obtained through proper orthogonal de-
composition 共POD兲 of the flow and density fields. Finally,
the POD analysis is used to derive a reduced model repre-
senting the large-scale flame motions.
PREMIXED COMBUSTION MODELING FOR LES
Governing equations and momentum
equations closure
The basic partial differential equations 共PDE兲 describing
the motion of a reacting fluid are the conservation of mo-
mentum, mass, and energy. The system of equations has to
be closed with an equation of state. Since several species are
involved, one has to add one transport equation for each of
the mixture species including respective sink/source terms.
In addition, a turbulent flow is inherently unsteady and one
seeks to describe the statistical properties of the dependent
variables by using a suitable averaging method. If the basic
equations are averaged 共independently of the averaging
method兲, the equations can be written 14
⳵␳
¯
+ ⵜ · 共¯␳ũ兲 = 0,
⳵t
⳵␳
¯ ũ
+ ⵜ · 共¯␳ũũ兲 = − ⵜP̄ + ⵜ · 共− ␳uu + ¯␳ũũ + ␮ ⵜ ũ兲, 共2兲
⳵t
⳵␳
¯ Ỹ i
+ ⵜ · 共¯␳ũỸ i兲 = ⵜ · 共− ␳uY i + ¯␳ũỸ i + ␳Di ⵜ Ỹ i兲 + ␻
¯ i,
⳵t
⳵␳
¯ T̃
+ ⵜ · 共¯␳ũT̃兲 = ⵜ · 共− ␳uT + ¯␳ũT̃ + ␳DT ⵜ T̃兲 + ␻
¯ T , 共4兲
⳵t
¯␳ = 冉 冊
P
RT
, 共5兲
where u is the velocity vector, P is the pressure, T is the
temperature, ␳ is the density, ␮ is the viscosity, R is the
specific ideal gas constant, Di is the diffusivity of species i,
Y i is the mass fraction of species i, and ␻i is the reaction
term of species i. The bar denotes the averaging operation
and the tilde the density weighted averaging.
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Phys. Fluids 19, 075103 共2007兲
In LES, the averaging operation corresponds to a low
pass spatial filtering and leads to the unclosed set of PDE
presented above. The main role of the unclosed or subgrid
scale 共SGS兲 terms is to account for the interaction between
the resolved and the unresolved scales. In the momentum
equations, the SGS terms should account for the dissipative
character of turbulence on the small 共unresolved兲 scales as
well as for the transfer of energy among the resolved and
unresolved scales. Corresponding properties may be attrib-
uted to the SGS in the energy- and the species-transport
equations.
A computational grid can support only Fourier compo-
nents that have longer wavelengths than the grid size. Thus,
a dependent variable represented on a grid together with a
discrete approximation for the derivatives leads to an implicit
filtering. If no explicit SGS terms are added, the numerical
scheme should account at least for the small-scale dissipa-
tion. This is attained for any numerically stable scheme and
is referred as implicit LES 共ILES兲 and also monotonically
integrated LES 共MILES兲 in the literature.14–17 However, nu-
merical schemes that are too dissipative are highly inappro-
priate for LES since in addition to dissipation on small
scales, they may also be dissipative on the larger resolved
scales. This effect can be avoided by choosing appropriate
共higher-order兲 discretizations; for instance, Grinstein and
Fureby14 advocate the use of FTC 共flux-corrected transport兲
schemes while Margolin et al.17 recommend high-order
monotonicity preserving schemes. In the following, we use a
fifth-order weighted essentially nonoscillatory 共WENO兲
scheme18 that ensures numerical stability but does not affect
significantly the resolved scales 共i.e., low dissipation and dis-
persion characteristics兲.
Modeling of premixed combustion
Large eddy simulation has also been shown to be very
共1兲 suitable for handling unsteady coherent structures in
combustors.4,13,19,20 However, there are several open issues
related to LES and there is only a limited theoretical foun-
dation for modeling the SGS terms related to combustion.
Incorporating combustion chemistry into LES involves find-
ing a suitable reaction mechanism and solving the filtered
species and energy equations 共3兲 and 共4兲. Appropriate reac-
tion mechanisms, either detailed for simple fuels or reduced
for practical fuels, may involve tens of species and hundreds
共3兲 of reaction steps resulting in a large system of stiffly coupled
equations that remain to be solved. Another problem is that
Eqs. 共3兲 and 共4兲 contain the filtered reaction rates, which are
highly nonlinear functions of temperature and species con-
centrations. The closure of Eqs. 共3兲 and 共4兲 is still an open
issue and several alternatives have been proposed. Examples
of such approaches includes 共i兲 implicit LES,21 共ii兲 thickened
flame models 共TFM兲,22 共iii兲 linear eddy models 共LEM兲20
with embedded 1D grids, 共iv兲 flamelet models 共FM兲,19,23–27
and 共v兲 filtered density function 共FDF兲 models;28 see Ref. 14
for further details.
Based on experience and computing efficiency, we con-
centrate on the FM class of models and consider a single
scalar: the so-called progress-variable 共c兲, which is used as
075103-3 LES of a swirling flame
FIG. 1. Production terms ⌸C represented in the density-averaged c space.
the unique coordinate for describing the combustion process.
Among the different candidate closures,24,26,27 we choose the
last one. This choice is supported by Fureby,29 who compares
different premixed combustion models in the LES frame-
work. It was found that all tested closures enable reproduc-
ing the experimental data well in terms of mean and root-
mean-square 共rms兲 fields, but the closure proposed by Duwig
and Fuchs27 performed best for prediction of the pointwise
temperature probability density function 共PDF兲. In addition,
this closure was shown to be suitable for simulating turbulent
flames.27,29,30
c-equation closure
We define the progress variable as c = 共T − Tu兲 / 共Tb − Tu兲,
where Tu and Tb are the unburned- and burned-gas tempera-
ture, respectively.14 We have c = 0 in the fresh gas and c = 1 in
the burnt gas. If local variations of the fuel/air equivalence
ratio are small 共perfectly premixed combustion兲, the density
filtered c equation is derived from 共4兲 and reads
⳵␳
¯ c̃
+ ⵜ · 共¯␳ũc̃兲 = ⵜ · 共− ␳uc + ¯␳ũc̃兲 + ⵜ · 共␳Dth ⵜ c兲 + ␻c .
⳵t
共6兲
One may observe the unclosed terms on the right-hand side
共RHS兲. The first term is the subgrid scale transport term
共SGSC兲. The second term is related to the heat diffusivity and
the last term is the filtered source term ␻¯ c. Note that the
combination of these three terms results in a reaction-
transport balance leading to the flame propagation, i.e., the
flame dynamics. Following the analysis of Duwig and
Fuchs,27 the three unclosed terms of Eq. 共6兲 are modeled by
a reactive-diffusive balance ensuring correct flame propaga-
tion. The RHS of Eq. 共6兲 is modeled by a diffusion term plus
a production term ␲ as follows:
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Phys. Fluids 19, 075103 共2007兲
⳵␳
¯ c̃
+ ⵜ · 共¯␳ũc̃兲 = ␳0D0ⵜ2c̃ + ␲共c̃,D0兲. 共7兲
⳵t
Note that ␲ is defined to be the RHS of 共7兲 minus the diffu-
sion term. The ␲ term contains information related to the
nongradient subgrid transport as well as the creation 共source兲
of c. Furthermore, the ␲ term 关defined by Eq. 共7兲兴 is distrib-
uted over one to two filter lengths. Assuming that the source
of c 共i.e., the reaction layer of the premixed flame兲 is thin
compared to the grid size 共valid in the flamelet and thin
reaction zone regimes兲, Duwig and Fuchs27 suggested to
model ␲ using a Gaussian distribution in space so that ␲
= ␣ / ⌬ · 共6 / ␲兲0.5 · exp共关−6 · 共x / ⌬兲2兴, where x is the distance to
the reaction layer, ␣ is the integral burning rate, and ⌬ is
the LES filter length. The burning rate is related to the lami-
nar flame speed 共SL兲 and the subgrid flame wrinkling 共⌶兲
so that ␣ = ␳uSL⌶. Further, a nondimensional parameter
a = 共␳uSL⌶⌬兲 / ␳0D0 emerges in 共7兲. Finally, a relation x共c兲 is
needed to close Eq. 共7兲. In the limiting case of a quasiplanar
flame, the analysis of Duwig and Fuchs27 provides an expres-
sion for the term ␲⌬ / ␣ = ⌸共c , a兲 that is stored in lookup
tables.27 The closed c equation reads
⳵␳
¯ c̃ ␳uSL⌶⌬ 2 1
+ ⵜ · 共¯␳ũc̃兲 = ⵜ c̃ + ␳uSL⌶ ⌸c共c̃,a兲. 共8兲
⳵t a ⌬
Figure 1 shows the production term ⌸c mapped in a 共c , a兲
space. For high a values, ⌸c tends toward a parabolic shape
while for a ⬃ 1 its maximum shifts toward c ⬃ 0.8. For
a ⬃ 1, the filter effect on the flame front is relatively low so
that ⌸c approaches the laminar reaction rate.
Equation 共8兲 requires an estimation of the subgrid wrin-
kling factor or a subgrid flame speed SL⌶. These quantities
are widely used in the framework of combustion
modeling22–27 and several expressions or correlations have
been proposed for modeling them using the subgrid velocity
vector fluctuation u⌬. Fureby26 tested the influence of differ-
ent subgrid wrinkling correlations and concluded that their
075103-4 C. Duwig and L. Fuchs Phys. Fluids 19, 075103 共2007兲

length in the present paper. Downstream of the nozzle, the

FIG. 2. Schematic of the swirl generator, premixing tube, contraction, sud-
den expansion, and combustion chamber 共Ref. 10兲. All dimensions are in
mm.
effect on the solution is relatively limited. He advocates the
use of a relatively simple power law and uses the fractal
concept. It reads
swirling jet discharges into a combustion chamber of diam-
eter 0.11 m. The sudden expansion leads to vortex break-
down providing flame stabilization. The frame consists of
three spatial directions with the streamwise direction being
denoted by X. The origin of the X axis has been chosen at the
expansion plane so that X ⬎ 0 is located in the combustion
chamber while X ⬍ 0 lies in the premixing tube 共i.e., X = 0 is
at the expansion兲.
Experimental investigations10–12 were performed using
this setup both for reacting and nonreacting cases. Anacleto
et al.10 studied extensively this swirling flame and reported
velocity as well as temperature measurements. We choose to
concentrate on a particular case exhibiting a strong PVC for
which detailed measurements are available. The operating
conditions are as follows:

⌶ = MAX 冋冉 冊 册
⌫·
兩u⌬兩
SL
D−2
,1 , 共9兲
•
•
Propane/air equivalence ratio: 0.5.
Unburnt gas temperature: Tu = 573 K.
• Bulk velocity in the nozzle: U0 ⬃ 59 m / s.
where D is the fractal dimension and ⌫ is an efficiency func- • Reynolds number: Re⬃ 81000; Mach number: M ⬃ 0.12.
tion presented by Meneveau and Poinsot.31 The fractal di- • Blade angle: 50°.
mension needs to be modeled, and following Fureby,26 we • Swirl number downstream of the swirler 共as defined in
use Ref. 10兲: S = 1.05.
2.05 2.35
D= + . 共10兲 The experimental measurements are summarized in Ref.
1 + 兩u⌬兩/SL 1 + SL/兩u⌬兩
10. They include laser Doppler anemometry 共LDA兲 measure-
Further, several authors19,24–26 use a transport equation to ments and propane mass fraction and temperature measure-
compute the SGS turbulent kinetic energy and the subgrid ments using intrusive techniques.10 The present study fo-
velocity fluctuation. Another alternative is to estimate the cuses on the interaction between the flame and the PVC.
subgrid velocity fluctuation from the resolved velocity field. Therefore, we should present the fuel mass fraction as well
As pointed out by Colin et al.,22 the velocity fluctuation as temperature fields as progress variables that can be com-
should not include thermal expansion effects. They consider pared to the simulations.
the rotational part of the resolved velocity field only and
relate the subgrid fluctuation to the smallest resolved scales.
Consequently, the subgrid velocity vector fluctuation u⌬ is
given by
NUMERICAL METHODS
u⌬ = C2⌬3ⵜ2共ⵜ ⫻ ũ兲, 共11兲
LES code
where C2 is a constant. Colin et al.22 recommend taking
C2 ⬃ 2. The present flamelet formulation has been implemented
Finally, the local filtered density is computed from the in a Cartesian finite-difference LES code solving the low-
temperature using an ideal gas law in the following way: Mach number formulation of the Navier-Stokes
equations27,32 on staggered grids. The spatial derivatives are
␳T ␳ uT u ␳ uT u discretized with a fourth-order centered scheme except for
¯␳ = ⬇ ⬇ , 共12兲
T̃ T̃ Tu + 共Tb − Tu兲c̃ the convective terms that are treated with a fifth-order
WENO scheme.18 The time integration is done by a fully
where the subscripts u and b denote the unburnt and burnt implicit scheme using a second-order upwind finite-
states, respectively. difference approximation for the time derivatives. The com-
putational grid is made of a system of locally refined grids.32
LISBON SWIRLING COMBUSTOR The local refinements are added gradually in regions with
expected 共or computed兲 large gradients.32 The implicit solver
Geometry and available experimental data
uses a multigrid procedure for enhanced efficiency. The 1D
Figure 2 shows the swirl combustor located at the laminar flame speed and burnt/unburnt gas properties are
Lisbon Technical University.10 The swirler’s blade angle can computed using the software Cantera33 together with a pro-
be adjusted to fix the tangential/axial momentum ratio. The pane oxidation scheme.34
swirling annular jet enters a contraction and discharges into a The time step used is 1.5⫻ 10−6 s chosen such that the
premixing pipe of diameter 0.05 m. The pipe ends with a inlet Courant number is ⬃0.1. The mean values have been
converging/diverging nozzle. The minimum diameter within computed over 15000 to 25000 time steps corresponding to
the nozzle is D = 0.04 m and will be used as a characteristic ⬃4 flow-through times the whole computational domain.

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075103-5 LES of a swirling flame Phys. Fluids 19, 075103 共2007兲

TABLE I. Summary of the simulations.

Run Grid Re S Utang / Uax Note

1 Medium 81000 1.05 ⬃0.9 LES ref-Base case

2 Coarse 81000 1.05 ⬃0.9 —
3 Fine 81000 1.05 ⬃0.9 —
4 Coarse 81000 ⬃0.95 ⬃0.8 LES ⫺
5 Coarse 81000 ⬃1.15 ⬃1.0 LES ⫹
6 Medium 81000 0.45 ⬃0.4 Low swirl
7 Medium 81000 1.35 ⬃1.2 High swirl

POD analysis diameter 1.25D and length 4.14D discharging into a cylindri-
cal combustor of diameter 2.75D and length 8.4D. The pre-
Extracting information from the LES data is an essential
mixing pipe has a converging-diverging nozzle 共the diameter
issue for characterizing the turbulent flame and to enable one
at the contraction is 1D兲 before the sudden expansion. The
to understand the mechanisms controlling the specific prob-
flow enters the premixing pipe through an annulus of inner
lem. Traditionally, a turbulent flow is characterized by its
diameter 0.75D and outer diameter 1.25D. A conical bluff
mean and fluctuation 共rms兲 quantities, pointwise spectra, and
body is located inside the annulus. The length of the body
PDFs. An additional tool for data reduction that can be used
is ⬃0.6D. It is worth noting that the combustor is axisym-
to gain improved insight into the problem is proper orthogo-
metric but that the symmetry is not utilized in the LES com-
nal decomposition 共POD兲.35–38 The POD projects the turbu-
putations since we seek to capture spatially 3D turbulent
lent flow field on an orthonormal vector base that maximizes
structures.
the turbulent kinetic energy content for any subset of the
The combustion chamber is considered to operate in a
base. It allows an accurate description of the turbulence data
perfectly premixed mode. There are no available measure-
using only a limited number of modes.35 Given a vector Q
ments of the homogeneity of the fuel/air mixture, but since
containing the field variables and an orthonormal base ⌽, the
the fuel is injected far upstream of the flame, it is reasonable
expansion reads
to approximate the fuel/air mixture by an ideally mixed sys-
N tem. The propane/air equivalence ratio was 0.5. The fresh
Q共x,t兲 ⬇ Q 共x,t兲 = 兺 ai共t兲⌽i共x兲.
N
共13兲 gas temperature is 573 K and the outlet temperature about
i=0 1724 K. The Reynolds number based on the pipe diameter at
the contraction is Re⬃ 81 000. The swirl number down-
Note that the approximation QN of the turbulence data set Q stream of the guiding vanes was varied between S ⬃ 0.45 and
converges to Q when N goes to infinity and that i = 0 corre- 1.35. The global Karlowitz number14 is estimated to be
sponds to the averaged field. The base vectors are computed Ka⬃ 2 – 4 in the flame region. The flame lies in the so-called
so that they satisfy the eigenvalue problem,35,36 thin-reaction regime; see, e.g., Ref. 14. However, Duwig and
Fuchs27,30 showed that the present model can approximate
具Q共x,t兲 · QT共x,t兲典⌽共x兲 = ␭⌽共x兲, 共14兲
successfully a flame in the thin-reaction regime. In addition,
where the superscript T denotes the transposed of the vector the numerical results are compared with the available experi-
and 具.典 is the time-averaging operator. The eigenvalue ␭i mental data to assess their accuracy.
characterizes the turbulent kinetic energy content of the
mode i. For practical reasons, Sirovich’s method of
snapshots36,37 is used to perform the POD. It consists of
transforming the problem into an equivalent eigenvalue
problem of much smaller size. In this paper, we used the 3D
data of the density field plus the three velocity components
and some 400 snapshots for performing the POD. It has been
found that increasing the number of snapshots beyond ⬃300
does not influence the first five POD modes significantly. The
extracted POD modes can be used further to derive dynami-
cal models based on ordinary differential equations 共ODEs兲
enabling capturing the flow/flame dynamics without solving
the full PDE system 共e.g., Ref. 39兲.

Computational geometry
The geometry, corresponding to a portion of the experi- FIG. 3. Systematic error due to time averaging for density variable flows.
mental rig presented in Fig. 2, contains a premixing pipe of Streamwise evolution of the L⬁ norm of SE along radii.

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075103-6 C. Duwig and L. Fuchs Phys. Fluids 19, 075103 共2007兲

FIG. 4. Grid sensitivity of the normalized mean axial velocity: radial profiles at x / D = 0.25, 0.5, 1.25, and 2.5.

Three computational grids have been used in the present
work as presented in Table I. For the present flow, we esti-
mate the Taylor turbulent microscale to be ␭Taylor ⬃ D / 50,
which gives an idea for a suitable mesh spacing. However,
this global estimate does not assess on the grid influence
upon the results, which has to be done via a proper sensitiv-
ity analysis. Three different grids, coarse, medium, and fine,
are used, with 1.6, 1.9, and 3.4 million computational cells,
respectively. The coarse, medium, and fine grids have a mesh
size in the flame region of h ⬃ D / 40, h ⬃ D / 46, and
h ⬃ D / 52, respectively. All grids utilize the option of having
local refinements in order to have higher resolution in the
premixing pipe and in the flame region while using a coarser
mesh further downstream. Thus, the mesh spacing close to
the outlet of the domain is four times larger than in the flame
region.
Boundary conditions
The boundary conditions are essential for all computa-
tional results and in particular for LES. Swirling flows in
general are highly sensitive even to small variations in the
temporal or the spatial form of the inlet conditions; see, e.g.,
Ref. 27. One may approximate the flow using a fully devel-
oped turbulent pipe flow or any other well defined 共mean兲
velocity profile and adding to that the 共artificially generated兲
instantaneous turbulent fluctuations. In fact, due to the un-
certainty in experimental conditions, it is not very construc-
tive to strive for the exact reconstruction of the experimental
conditions. Instead, it is more important to assess the sensi-
tivity of the results to the uncertainty in the boundary condi-
tions. In the present study, we start the LES computation at
the beginning of the premixing tube. Steady inflow bound-

FIG. 5. Grid sensitivity of the normalized axial velocity fluctuation rms: radial profiles at x / D = 0.25, 0.5, 1.25, and 2.5.

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075103-7 LES of a swirling flame Phys. Fluids 19, 075103 共2007兲

FIG. 6. Grid sensitivity of the Favre-averaged progress variable: radial profiles at x / D = 0.25, 0.5, 1.25, and 2.5.

aries are enforced and the corresponding mean profiles are
obtained from a separate Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes
共RANS兲 computation computed on an extended domain. The
use of a steady inflow boundary is supported by the fact that
strong shear in the premixing pipe generates turbulence so
that the flow is strongly turbulent before it reaches the flame.
We assess the influence of the uncertainty related to the mod-
eled inflow condition on the results. This is done by chang-
ing the inflow tangential velocity 共Utang兲 by ±10% keeping
the axial velocity Uax 共i.e., the mass flow兲 constant. These
cases are referred to as LES+ and LES−.
At the outlet, all variables are assumed to have a zero
gradient with a correction 共if needed兲 to ensure global mass
conservation. Since the heat losses at the wall are not known,
solid adiabatic walls and nonslip conditions are imposed.
The impact of the adiabatic walls is expected to be low since
we investigate the flame stabilization in the central recircu-
lation zone, which is far away from the wall. No explicit
pressure boundary conditions are needed since we use a stag-
gered grid formulation with boundaries located at the cell
faces.32
The different computational cases are summarized in
Table I.
RESULTS
In the following, quantitative and qualitative results are
presented. The quantitative results presented below are
normalized using the bulk velocity at the contraction
共U0 = Ubulk = 59 m / s兲 and the pipe diameter at the contrac-
tion, i.e., D = 0.04 m. The vortex core has been visualized
using a criterion based on the second largest eigenvalue of
the second invariant of the velocity derivative tensor pro-
posed by Jeong and Hussain40 共the so-called ␭2 technique兲.
In the following figures, the vortex core corresponds to a
region where the eigenvalue is negative.

FIG. 7. Sensitivity of the normalized mean axial velocity to the inlet boundary condition: radial profiles at x / D = 0.225, 0.5, 1.125, and 3.625.

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075103-8 C. Duwig and L. Fuchs Phys. Fluids 19, 075103 共2007兲

FIG. 8. Sensitivity of the normalized axial velocity fluctuation rms to the inlet boundary condition: radial profiles at x / D = 0.225, 0.5, 1.125, and 3.625.

Before presenting the LES results and comparing them

to the experimental data, we consider some of the effects of
averaging. An important but often not recognized shortcom-
SE ⬇ 冓 冔 ␳Q
¯␳
−
具␳Q典
具¯␳典
. 共15兲

ing in the use of experimental data for comparison with nu-
merical results lies in the averaging procedure. Turbulent
flow variables are meaningful only if statistical quantities
共usually mean or rms兲 are considered. The set of equations
共1兲–共5兲 resolves density weighted filtered fields that lead to
Favre-averaged/filtered quantities after time averaging. How-
ever, experimental data have been obtained by a different
averaging technique.
The uncertainty resulting from the time-averaging proce-
dure should be estimated if the flows are subject to high-
density gradients. Denoting the time or the ensemble averag-
ing operation by 具.典, the systematic error 共SE兲 on a variable Q
is estimated as
In the present case, we used the LES data to estimate the SE.
Figure 3 shows the estimate for three quantities: mean axial
velocity, rms of the axial velocity fluctuations 共both being
normalized by the bulk velocity U0兲, and the mean progress
variable. SE is zero in most of the domain since the flame
region is relatively confined 共0 ⬍ x / D ⬍ 2兲. SE reaches a
peak at x / D ⬃ 0.5 corresponding to the location of large den-
sity fluctuations. SE might be up to ±0.18 for c and
±0.10 U0, ± / −0.04 U0 for the mean axial velocity and its
fluctuation, respectively.
Another estimate of the uncertainty is carried out by
computing the mass flux from the LDA data. This procedure
is only applicable when density is constant along the radius.

FIG. 9. Comparisons with experimental data 共LDA兲 共Ref. 10兲: normalized mean axial velocity radial profiles at x / D = 0.0, 0.225, 1.125, and 3.625.

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075103-9 LES of a swirling flame Phys. Fluids 19, 075103 共2007兲

FIG. 10. Comparisons with experimental data 共LDA兲 共Ref. 10兲: normalized mean radial velocity radial profiles at x / D = 0.0, 0.225, 1.125, and 3.625.

In the present case, temperature measurements indicate that
it is restricted to the region x / D ⬎ ⬃ 2. For instance, at the
location x / D = 3.625, the mass flow computed from the LDA
data is about 15% lower than the one reported in the original
paper.10
Sensitivity analysis
LES resolves only turbulent scales that are larger than
grid spacing. Hence it is essential to assess the effect of this
incomplete resolution not only by using high-order numeri-
cal schemes and estimating the resolved scale size, but also
by grid-sensitivity study. For the class of problems consid-
ered in this study, it is difficult to make large grid variations
and the focus has been on changing the swirling jet resolu-
tion. Figure 4 shows the mean axial velocity radial profiles in
the combustor. The differences between the three grids are
not significant and all three computations predict the same
central recirculation zone both in terms of magnitude and
size. Figure 5 shows the axial velocity fluctuation rms along
the same lines. Again the discrepancies due to the grids are
small. The situation is similar also for the more sensitive
Favre-averaged progress variable along radial lines, as
shown in Fig. 6. The difference between the predictions is
marginal, except at the location x / D ⬃ 0.5. At the centerline,
the fine grid prediction departs strongly from the others. It
predicts a thinner flame brush so that c reaches ⬃0.8 at the
centerline while it reaches only ⬃0.3 in the other cases.
However, the overall influence of the computational grid was
found to be low and all three grids predict a very similar flow
pattern 共vortex breakdown and central recirculation zone兲
and turbulence levels. Consequently, the coarsest grid can be
used to conduct sensitivity analysis of different parameters
since the sensitivity to parameters is not expected to be
higher with the finest grid.
The sensitivity to the axial/tangential momentum ratio
imposed at the computational inlet has been assessed. Fig-

FIG. 11. Comparisons with experimental data 共LDA兲 共Ref. 10兲: normalized axial velocity fluctuation rms radial profiles at x / D = 0.0, 0.225, 1.125, and 3.625.

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075103-10 C. Duwig and L. Fuchs Phys. Fluids 19, 075103 共2007兲

FIG. 12. Comparisons with experimental data 共LDA兲 共Ref. 10兲: normalized radial velocity fluctuation rms radial profiles at x / D = 0.0, 0.225, 1.125, and 3.625.

ures 7 and 8 depict the mean axial velocity and rms of the
axial velocity fluctuations along radial lines in the combustor
for the different inflow conditions. The effect of variations in
the inflow tangential velocity 共i.e., swirl兲 is found mainly in
the rms values and mostly near the inlet. In addition, the
sensitivity of the mean progress variable field to the inflow
boundary 共not presented here兲 was not found to be signifi-
cant. This behavior is expected since the increase in shear
increases turbulence production near the inlet, which mani-
fests in higher rms levels in the swirling jet shear layer. The
effect of the inlet conditions reduces further downstream as
the local generation of turbulence dominates and the contri-
bution of turbulent transport reduces. Thus, by placing the
inflow boundary condition at more than four diameters up-
stream of the expansion, the uncertainty in the inlet condi-
tions is shown to have a minor effect on the results.
Comparisons with experimental data: Case S = 1.05
LDA data9 are used for comparison with the present LES
data. Figures 9 and 10 depict mean axial and radial velocity
profiles at several axial locations. The overall agreement be-
tween the LES results and the LDA data is good and both
data sets describe the same flow patterns. The agreement
close to the expansion 共x / D ⬍ 0.5兲 is below experimental
uncertainty, showing that the LES captures the central recir-
culation zone as well as the weak outer recirculation accu-
rately. Further downstream 共locations x / D ⬃ 1.125 and
3.625兲, the LES seems to underestimate the back flow and
exhibits somewhat smaller spreading of the swirling jet.
However, the uncertainty of the velocity measurements in
this region 共estimated previously to be ⬃15%兲 suggests that
the discrepancy is less significant. Figures 11 and 12 show

FIG. 13. Comparisons with experimental data: progress variable radial profiles at x / D = 0.0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1, and 1.5. The experimental profiles are extracted
from temperature 共circle兲 and from the fuel mass fraction Xf 共triangle兲 共Ref. 10兲.

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075103-11 LES of a swirling flame Phys. Fluids 19, 075103 共2007兲

FIG. 15. Visualizations of the vortex core as ␭2 isolevel 共Ref. 40兲 共solid
gray surface兲 together with the flame surface 共isolevel c = 0.5/transparent
surface兲.

progress variable fields兲 with the LES results. The overall

agreement between the LES and the measurements is good
considering the systematic error induced by the averaging
procedure. In addition, the discrepancy between the two sets
of experimental data provides an estimate for the experimen-
tal uncertainty. However, the two experimental progress vari-
able fields agree reasonably well and show similar tends.
These trends are well captured by the LES tool. In particular,
comparing Figs. 9 and 13, it is observed that the central
recirculation zone extends upstream of the expansion plane
共x / D ⬍ 0兲 whereas the flame brush starts at x / D ⬃ 0.2. This
FIG. 14. Snapshots of the flame surface captured as isosurfaces of the is surprising since the negative velocity at the centerline is
progress variable c. Top, isolevel c = 0.6; bottom, isolevel c = 0.2. expected to drag the flame upstream of the expansion plane.
Actually, one should stress that averaged fields are only sta-
tistical representations of the flow. For instance, the averaged
the rms of the axial and radial velocity fluctuations along data are axisymmetric while the real flame is definitely not
several lines in the combustion chamber. The LES predic- symmetric, as shown in Fig. 14. In particular, the visualiza-
tions appear to overestimate, by a factor 2, the axial velocity tions of the flame surface exhibit strong large-scale wrinkling
fluctuation levels close to the expansion but capture the ra- with a helical tail of the flame rotating around the axis.
dial velocity fluctuations well. Since the mean and rms fields Figure 15 shows the flame surface as well as the vortex
are different statistical views of the same turbulent flow
fields, it is expected that an overestimation of the turbulent
levels would affect all components. As pointed out previ-
ously, the systematic error due to the averaging is large in the
flame region where both intermittency and density gradients
are important. It explains why the discrepancies between the
LDA and the LES results are observed for one component
only. Thus, further downstream, the LES predicts the axial
velocity fluctuation levels correctly. Considering the radial
velocity fluctuations, the LES results perform well capturing
both the amplitude and the spatial distribution of the fluctua-
tions. In particular, close to the expansion 共x / D ⬍ 0.5兲, both
the LES results and the LDA measurements capture a strong
peak on the axis. Fernandes et al.12 stressed that this particu-
lar peak corresponds to an off-axis motion, i.e., to the PVC.
The agreement between the LES and the LDA below the
experimental uncertainty suggests that the PVC is captured
accurately.
Next, the flame brush predicted by LES is compared to
the measurements. Figure 13 shows the mean progress vari-
able fields obtained from normalizing the temperature and FIG. 16. Power density spectrum of the turbulent kinetic energy vs Strouhal
fuel mass fraction measurements 共referred to as experimental number at the location 共x / D = 0.25, r / D = 0.5兲. The line shows a −5 / 3 slope.

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075103-12 C. Duwig and L. Fuchs Phys. Fluids 19, 075103 共2007兲

FIG. 17. Effect of swirl on the normalized mean axial velocity: radial profiles at x / D = −3.6, −2, 0, and 1.

core. The vortex core is aligned with the centerline in the
premixing tube but undergoes a strong off-axis rotation close
to the expansion where vortex breakdown occurs. This mo-
tion is referred to as PVC and includes a strong precession of
the central recirculation zone. The recirculation zone con-
taining burnt gases is not located instantaneously on the axis
and therefore the flame is not allowed to propagate upstream.
It is worth noting that the averaged field offers a poor de-
scription of the PVC and therefore RANS-based techniques
fail to predict this type of feature. Figure 16 shows a power
density spectrum sampled in the PVC region. The spectrum
exhibits a typical −5 / 3 slope and a well defined peak at the
Strouhal number St= f · D / U0 ⬃ 0.6. The corresponding fre-
quency f ⬃ 880 Hz is in good agreement with the LDA
measurements10 f ⬃ 800 Hz and well in line with PVC fre-
quencies that are reported in the literature, e.g., Ref. 4.
Note that unlike previous studies,7,9,13 we 共as well as
Ref. 10兲 do not witness a strong effect of combustion on the
PVC in this particular configuration. The reason is that the
PVC initiates upstream from the expansion as pointed out by
Syred.9 As a consequence, the rms of the velocity fluctua-
tions 共Figs. 11 and 12兲 shows large values at x / D ⬃ 0 and
upstream. Since the flame does not penetrate the premixing
tube 共it starts at x / D ⬃ 0.25兲, the initiation of the PVC is not
affected by thermal expansion. Further characterization of
the PVC is performed below using POD. Figure 16 also in-
dicates the presence of a smaller peak at St⬃ 0.4.
Swirl number modulation
The PVC plays an essential role in terms of flame sta-
bility. Hence it is important to study the sensitivity of the
PVC and flame stabilization to the value of the swirl number.
Two additional flow cases with different values of swirl num-
bers have been computed. These cases are referred to as the
low and the high swirl cases, corresponding to swirl numbers
of ⬃0.45 and ⬃1.35 共compared to S = 1.05 for the base case兲,
respectively. Figures 17 and 18 show the averaged radial
and tangential velocity profiles both in the premixing tube
共x / D ⬍ 0兲 and in the combustor 共x / D ⬎ 0兲. Close to the com-
putational inlet 共x / D ⬃ −3.6兲, the differences are small for
the three cases. The tangential velocity scales with the swirl
number. At x / D ⬃ 2, the high swirl and base cases are very
similar and the profiles match. The axial flow is distributed

FIG. 18. Effect of swirl on the normalized mean tangential velocity: radial profiles at x / D = −3.6, −2, 0, and 1.

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075103-13 LES of a swirling flame Phys. Fluids 19, 075103 共2007兲

FIG. 19. Effect of swirl on the Favre-averaged progress variable: radial profiles at x / D = 0.25, 0.5, 1, and 2.

toward the large radius with a low-velocity region at the axis. at x / D ⬃ 0.5 where the progress variable at the centerline
The low swirl case is still characterized by lower tangential increases with swirl. The low swirl case resembles a short jet
velocity and the axial mass flow is distributed relatively uni- flame due to the swirling motion and the low-velocity region
formly along the radius. Further downstream, vortex break- along the axis. Visualization of the instantaneous flame front
down occurs in the high swirl and base cases as described in and vortex core is presented in Fig. 20 共the low swirl case兲.
the preceding section. The low swirl case exhibits instead a
straight-jet-like behavior with a small low- 共but positive兲 ve-
locity region around the axis. Figure 19 shows the progress
variable profiles along lines in the combustor. The high swirl
and base cases are again similar with a noticeable difference

FIG. 20. Visualizations of the vortex core and flame surface in the low swirl
case: Top: flame surface 共isolevel c = 0.6兲. Bottom: ␭2 isolevel 共Ref. 40兲 FIG. 21. Power density spectra of the turbulent kinetic energy vs Strouhal
共solid gray surface兲 together with the flame surface 共isolevel number at the location 共x / D = 0.25, r / D = 0.5兲. Bottom: high-swirl case. Top:
c = 0.5/transparent surface兲. low-swirl case.

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075103-14 C. Duwig and L. Fuchs Phys. Fluids 19, 075103 共2007兲

TABLE II. Characteristics of the POD modes.

Normalized Fraction of the turbulent kinetic

Mode number eigenvalue of the energy contained in the N first
N mode N modes

0 0.80048 0.00000
1 0.01470 0.07369
2 0.01454 0.14655
3 0.00576 0.17541
4 0.00529 0.20190
5 0.00404 0.22216
6 0.00377 0.24104
7 0.00367 0.25945
8 0.00346 0.27678
9 0.00340 0.29383
10 0.00319 0.30980
11 0.00317 0.32568
12 0.00305 0.34098
13 0.00294 0.35571
14 0.00286 0.37005
15 0.00265 0.38333

The instantaneous flame front has a plug-type shape; the

front is wrinkled but no recirculation is visible. The vortex
core is aligned with the centerline and enters 2D into the
combustion chamber. The vortex core undergoes a low am-
plitude 共compared to the PVC兲 spiraling motion along the
axis, indicating the presence of coherent motions. Figure 21
shows the power density spectra for the low and high swirl
cases. The high swirl case is characterized by a strong well
defined peak at St⬃ 0.55. This case is very similar to the
base case in terms of combustor aerodynamics. The low swirl
number case, on the other hand, does not exhibit any strong
off-axis motion and its power density spectrum is relatively
flat. Since the sampling location is not on the axis, it might
not capture the small spiraling motion seen in Fig. 20.
Our results suggest that a well defined off-axis motion
共PVC兲 appears at some critical swirl number when the cen-
tral recirculation zone is well developed and penetrates into
the premixing pipe. Anacleto et al.10 pointed out that the
vortex breakdown occurred at S ⬃ 0.5. They also noted that
the Strouhal number decreases with increasing swirl number
up to S ⬃ 0.9 and decreases when increasing S further. It
follows from our analysis that the range 0.5⬍ S ⬍ 0.9 corre-
sponds to a recirculation zone starting downstream of the
expansion plane. As S increases, the recirculation moves up-
stream and enters the premixing pipe for S ⬎ 0.9. The PVC
occurs in the expansion region of the premixing pipe and the
recirculation is prevented from moving upstream by the con-
traction. The expansion region of the premixing pipe con-
strains the annular jet opening angle explaining why an in-
crease in swirl number has a small effect on the flame
stabilization.
It has to be added that the critical swirl number is not
universal in any way. The onset of PVC depends on the
geometrical details and the radial distribution of the azi-
muthal and axial velocity distributions. Thus, the “critical”
value also depends on the definition used to define the swirl
FIG. 22. 共Color online兲 Visualizations of the vortex core as ␭2 共Ref. 40兲
isolevel: Modes 1 共top兲 and 2 共bottom兲.
number itself. Our low swirl case does not show a well de-
fined PVC but is relatively close to the critical swirl level as
the axial velocity at the centerline drops significantly at the
expansion 共see Fig. 17兲.
POD analysis of the PVC
As pointed out above, averaged quantities are inadequate
to characterize the turbulent flow and the flame under con-
sideration. In order to understand the PVC, one seeks to iso-
late the strong coherent motion from the turbulent fluctua-
tions. One way is to use proper orthogonal decomposition
共POD兲 in order to sort out the different structures. Table II
shows the eigenvalues of the first 16 modes. One may note
that mode 0 共averaged field兲 contains about 80% of the total
kinetic energy. Modes 1 and 2 each contain ⬃7% of the
turbulent kinetic energy. The higher 共i.e., nonspiraling兲
modes contain less turbulent kinetic energy. However, it is
observed that the 15 first modes only contain 38% of the
total turbulent kinetic energy. The slow convergence of the
POD series limits the possibilities of efficient reconstructions
of the turbulent field from the POD modes. Here we inves-
tigate the PVC and therefore we are interested in a relatively
small fraction of the turbulent kinetic energy only. Actually,
the POD analysis shows that only modes 1 and 2 are relevant

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075103-15 LES of a swirling flame Phys. Fluids 19, 075103 共2007兲

FIG. 23. Vector plots of the modes 1 共top兲 and 2 共bottom兲: longitudinal cut
at a symmetry plane.

to study the PVC. Higher modes have characteristic frequen-

cies 共not presented here兲 that do not match St⬃ 0.6 or any of
its harmonics.
Figure 22 shows a visualization of the vortex core for
mode 1 and 2. Both modes consist of two spiraling vortices.
Modes 1 and 2 are orthogonal by construction such that they
are almost identical but shifted by a rotation around the axis
of ␲ / 2. Figure 23 shows a longitudinal cut representing the
vector plots of modes 1 and 2, where the vortices are local-
ized in the shear layer around the central recirculation zone.
The combination of modes 1 and 2 results in the propagation FIG. 24. Vector plots of the modes 1 共top兲 and 2 共bottom兲: cross section at
of the vortices toward the outlet of the combustor. Figure 24 x / D = 0.35.
shows vector plots of modes 1 and 2 in a cross-sectional
plane, showing that both modes consist of two counter-
rotating vortices. Figure 22 shows a 3D picture of the corre-
sponding vortices but does not give any information about
where x, ␪, and t represent the axial coordinate, the polar
the rotation sign. These findings are well in line with Wang
angle, and the time, respectively. k, m are the axial and an-
and Yang38 POD analysis of an isothermal PVC. Figure 25
gular dimensionless wave numbers while ␻ is the dimension-
shows that time coefficients are presented in Fourier space.
less frequency. From Figs. 23–25, one obtains that for m =
The two modes exhibit a strong and clear peak at the PVC
+ 1, k = 2␲ · 0.96 and ␻ = 2␲ · 0.6. Furthermore, the dimension-
frequency 共St⬃ 0.6兲. The phase angle between the two
less axial phase velocity, cx = ␻ / k ⬃ 0.6, is computed corre-
modes is ␲ / 2, indicating that the modes and time coeffi-
sponding to the speed at which the vortices move toward the
cients are orthogonal both in space and time. In addition, the
outlet in an axial plane 共e.g., Fig. 23兲. The angular phase
combination of modes 1 and 2 characterizes the PVC as a
velocity corresponding to the rotation of the double helix is
double helix 共with counter-rotating branches兲 rotating around
found to be c␪ = ␻ / m ⬃ 1.2␲.
the axis.
Figure 26 shows the central recirculation zone dynamics
Fernandes et al.12 described the PVC as a helical wave,
during one PVC cycle obtained by reconstruction using the
i.e., a harmonic oscillation. It can be characterized by a phase
POD modes 0, 1, and 2. The dynamics consists of a large
function of the form
off-axis rotation so that isolevels characterizing the recircu-

冉 冊
lation bubble take a spiral form. Note that the recirculation
x t · U0 zone stabilizes the flame; a similar dynamics for the flame
␸共x, ␪,t兲 = ␸1 k · +m·␪−␻· , 共16兲
D D front is expected.

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075103-16 C. Duwig and L. Fuchs Phys. Fluids 19, 075103 共2007兲

FIG. 25. Fourier analysis of the POD time coefficients ai共t兲. Top: power
density spectra 共PDS兲 vs St for mode 1. Center: power density spectra vs St
for mode 2. Bottom: temporal phase angle ␾ between modes 1 and 2 vs St.

Study and derivation of a reduced model representing

the flame dynamics
Consider the flow variables vector Q described as FIG. 26. Reconstruction of the PVC using modes 0, 1, and 2 at different

冋 册
phase angle during one cycle. Visualization of the central recirculation zone
¯␳ 共isolevel U / U0 = −0.1兲.
Q共x,t兲 = , 共17兲
␶ · ⵜ␳u
N
where the parameter ␶ 共with units of seconds兲 is introduced ␶ · ⵜ␳u共x,t兲 ⬇ 共␶ · ⵜ␳u兲 共x,t兲 = 兺 ai共t兲⌽i␶·ⵜ␳u共x兲.
N
共19兲
such that Q will be expressed in units of kg/ m3. Practically, i=1
we choose ␶ so that the terms of the Q vector will be of the
same order of magnitude: here ␶ = D / U0. Figure 27 shows the contribution of each mode to the
We apply the POD on Q in order to get the POD vectors overall density fluctuation. Modes 1 and 2 clearly dominate
for the variables in 共17兲, over the others and have almost the same contributions
⬃8%. Mode 3 contributes some ⬃3% while modes 4 and 5
N have the same contribution of about 2%. The five first modes
¯␳共x,t兲 ⬇ ¯␳N共x,t兲 = 兺 ai共t兲⌽i␳共x兲, 共18兲 together represent only ⬃23% of the total density fluctua-
i=1 tion. Consequently, the higher modes have a global contribu-

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075103-17 LES of a swirling flame Phys. Fluids 19, 075103 共2007兲

FIG. 27. Contribution to the density fluctuation for each of the POD modes.

tion of ⬃77% but this contribution can be attributed to a

very large range of modes and frequencies. As for the POD
analysis of the velocity field, we focus on the modes that are
related to the PVC. Figure 28 shows the first five modes
represented as density isosurfaces. Modes 1 and 2 are rather
similar. Both consist of a pair of central pockets surrounded
by helixes. It should be noted that modes 1 and 2 are or-
thogonal and shifted by a rotation around the axis by ␲ / 2.
Modes 1 and 2 are each antisymmetric as one can see by
rotation of an angle of ␲ around the axis. Consequently,
the corresponding angular dimensionless wave number is
m = + 1 for both modes 1 and 2. One should stress that these
two modes are very similar to the modes extracted from the
POD on the velocity field.
Unlike the previous modes, mode 3 is seemingly axi-
symmetric, it does not belong to a pair and corresponds to a
longitudinal motion of the flame. Modes 4 and 5 are again a
pair of modes and are similar to each other both in term of
contribution and shape. Again it is noted that these modes are
shifted by a rotation around the axis of ␲ / 2. These modes
are invariant if rotated by an angle of ␲ around the axis and
the corresponding angular dimensionless wave number is
m = + 2. Figure 29 shows the time coefficients represented in
Fourier space. Modes 1 and 2 are exhibiting a strong and
clear peak at St⬃ 0.6 which corresponds the PVC frequency.
Mode 3 shows two peaks around St⬃ 0.1 and St⬃ 0.2, indi-
cating a slow longitudinal motion of the flame which is in-
dependent from the PVC. As depicted in Fig. 21, both the
low and medium swirl cases exhibit peaks at relatively low
frequency, suggesting the slow longitudinal motion of the
flame originates in the premixing pipe. In this particular case,
the slow longitudinal motion has low amplitude. It does not
enter in resonance with the modes of the cavity since the first FIG. 28. Isodensity level visualizations of the five first POD modes: light
longitudinal acoustic mode of the cavity is at St⬃ 0.45. surface ⬃ + 0.1共␳u − ␳b兲, dark surface ⬃−0.1共␳u − ␳b兲. Modes 1 to 5 from top
Modes 4 and 5 exhibits the same well defined peaks at to bottom.
St⬃ 1.2 indicating that they correspond to a harmonic of the
mode pair 1 and 2. The angular phase velocity corresponding phase velocity. These modes represent ⬃20% of the total
to the rotation of the modes 1, 2, 4, and 5 is c␪ ⬃ 1.2␲. The density fluctuation. Actually, 80% of these fluctuations are
effect of the PVC or helical wave on the flame is therefore concentrated in modes 1 and 2. It should also be noted that
represented as the sum of four modes with the same angular the first tangential resonant mode of the combustor is at St

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075103-18 C. Duwig and L. Fuchs Phys. Fluids 19, 075103 共2007兲

TABLE III. Coefficients in Eq. 共20兲.

bi,j / c j i=1 i=2

j=1 −0.11 −3.71

j=2 2.9 −0.27

dynamics. Using the POD modes presented in the previous

paragraphs, the N time coefficients ai are computed enabling
to solve a system of N ODE 关Eq. 共20兲兴. In the present case,
we consider only the two dominant modes, i.e., mode 1 and
2. Equation 共20兲 gives

da1 da2
c1 · ␶ = − a1b1,1 − a2b2,1, c2 · ␶
dt dt
= − a1b1,2 − a2b2,2 . 共21兲

The discriminant of the equation system 共21兲 is

D2 = 共b1,1 / c1 − b2,2 / c2兲2 + 4b1,2 / c2 · b2,1 / c1.. In the case
D2 ⬍ 0, it gives a general solution,

a1共t兲 = A exp − ␣ 冉 冊冋 冉 t
␶
t
· sin ␻ + B
␶
冊册 , 共22兲

where A and B are constants. The damping coefficient is

␣ = −1 / 2共b1,1 / c1 + b2,2 / c2兲 and the frequency is given by
␻ = 冑−共b1,2 / c2 · b2,1 / c1兲 − 1 / 4共b1,1 / c1 − b2,2 / c2兲2. An arbitrary
time t = 0 is chosen so that a1共t = 0兲 = 0, i.e., B = 0. The ampli-
tude A is obtained by projecting the POD vector ⌽␳1 on the
data set.
The system is further simplified by making use of the
symmetries. For instance, we notice that modes 1 and 2 are
identical but shifted in space by an angle of ␲ / 2. Thus, one
obtains that c1 = c2 and b1,1 = b2,2. In addition, the modes are
found to be antisymmetric by rotation of an angle ␲ leading
FIG. 29. Fourier analysis of the POD time coefficients ai共t兲, PDS vs St.
Modes 1 to 5 from top to bottom. to b1,2 = −b2,1.
From Eq. 共22兲, it is shown that having self-sustained
oscillations 共such as the PVC兲 requires D2 ⬍ 0 and
b1,1 = b2,2 = 0. In addition, the nondimensional oscillation
⬃ 2.9 and therefore it does not enter in resonance with the
PVC. The strongest density fluctuation can be attributed to frequency St is given by St= 冑−共b1,2 / 2␲ · c2 · b2,1 / 2␲ · c1兲
combustor aerodynamics. = 兩b2,1兩 / 2␲ · c1.
We seek to describe the effect of the PVC on the flame We might assess the numerical uncertainty linked to the
as a dynamic system. We insert Eqs. 共18兲 and 共19兲 into the prediction of the ci and bi,j coefficients that are presented in
continuity equation 共1兲, use the orthogonality of the base Table III. First, the coefficients do not exactly satisfy the
vectors, and find the following ODE after projection on the symmetry conditions. The uncertainty is approximately 25%.
POD vector ⌽␳ j: From Table III, the damping coefficient is estimated to be
N
␣ ⬃ 0.19 and the characteristic frequency St⬃ 0.53. The un-
da j ␳ ␳ da j 1 certainty of the characteristic frequency is approximately
关⌽ j ,⌽ j 兴 = c j = − 兺 ai关⌽i␶·ⵜ␳u,⌽␳j 兴
dt dt ␶ i=1 12%. The damping coefficient significantly affects the simu-
lation after about 2 – 3 cycles. The present estimation of the
N
1 uncertainty is relatively high and can be explained by the
= − 兺 aibi,j , 共20兲 limited number of snapshots used for performing the POD.
␶ i=1
However, increasing significantly the number of snapshots
where 关,兴 denotes the scalar product between two vectors. 共ideally one would need statistically independent snapshots兲
Equation 共20兲 describes the dynamical system, i.e., the PVC is not feasible for practical reasons.

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075103-19 LES of a swirling flame
SUMMARY
The present paper presents a numerical study of a swirl-
ing flame. The results show that the numerical predictions
only depend weakly on the 共uncertainty in the兲 inflow bound-
ary conditions and on grid refinement. Comparisons of the
present numerical results with experimental data was shown
to be limited by uncertainty regarding the averaging proce-
dure as well as by uncertainties related to the experimental
techniques. Given these limitations, our results indicate
clearly that large eddy simulation supplemented by a filtered
flamelet model captures the flow and the flame well. In par-
ticular, the behavior of the PVC is captured accurately both
in terms of precessing frequency and radial velocity fluctua-
tion amplitude along the centerline.
The numerical results indicate that the PVC is sensitive
to the swirl and disappears if the swirl number is reduced
below S ⬃ 0.45. We also found that the complex swirling
flames dynamics are inadequately represented by averaged
fields that limit the understanding of the flow physics. In
particular, the PVC induces a nontrivial flame dynamics. As
a consequence, the averaged flame front does not stabilize
close to the averaged stagnation point. Instead, the flame
stabilizes further downstream within the averaged central re-
circulation zone. It follows that the PVC is initiated upstream
of the flame and does not affect the precessing frequency
significantly compared to the nonreacting case.
Performing a POD analysis on the LES data allows iso-
lating and identifying large-scale coherent structures. The
POD analysis complements averaged data fields with statis-
tical quantities 共i.e., POD modes兲 leading to an accurate rep-
resentation of the flow dynamics. In the present study, a he-
lical wave corresponding to the PVC is identified and
represented by a pair of POD modes or counter-rotating he-
lical vortices. It has also been demonstrated that POD can be
applied to the flame front 共density field兲 in order to study the
flame dynamics. The effect of the PVC on the flame can be
described using two pairs of modes and an axial mode. The
second pair is a harmonic of the first pair 共double frequency兲
with the same angular phase velocity corresponding to the
helical wave. The POD has also been used to represent the
flame motion and heat release fluctuation using reduced dy-
namical models. Such reduced models can be used advanta-
geously to derive control strategies for combustion devices.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors thank Dr. Sergei Shtork 共Lisbon Tech. Uni-
versity兲 for kindly providing the experimental data and an-
swering many questions about the Lisbon burner. The au-
thors also want to thank Dr. Mirko Salewski and Lisa Prahl
for contributing to the paper. The computations were run on
LUNAC and HPC2N computing facilities within the SNIC
program. This work was supported by the Swedish Energy
Agency 共STEM兲 and by the Swedish Research Council
共VR兲.
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