First-Principles Petascale Simulations for Predicting Deflagration to Detonation Transition in Hydrogen-Oxygen Mixtures
Author | : |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : |
Release | : 2015 |
ISBN-10 | : OCLC:953401465 |
ISBN-13 | : |
Rating | : 4/5 (65 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: Hydrogen has emerged as an important fuel across a range of industries as a means of achieving energy independence and to reduce emissions. DDT and the resulting detonation waves in hydrogen-oxygen can have especially catastrophic consequences in a variety of industrial and energy producing settings related to hydrogen. First-principles numerical simulations of flame acceleration and DDT are required for an in-depth understanding of the phenomena and facilitating design of safe hydrogen systems. The goals of this project were (1) to develop first-principles petascale reactive flow Navier-Stokes simulation code for predicting gaseous high-speed combustion and detonation (HSCD) phenomena and (2) demonstrate feasibility of first-principles simulations of rapid flame acceleration and deflagrationto- detonation transition (DDT) in stoichiometric hydrogen-oxygen mixture (2H2 + O2). The goals of the project have been accomplished. We have developed a novel numerical simulation code, named HSCD, for performing first-principles direct numerical simulations of high-speed hydrogen combustion. We carried out a series of validating numerical simulations of inert and reactive shock reflection experiments in shock tubes. We then performed a pilot numerical simulation of flame acceleration in a long pipe. The simulation showed the transition of the rapidly accelerating flame into a detonation. The DDT simulations were performed using BG/Q Mira at the Argonne National Laboratiory, currently the fourth fastest super-computer in the world. The HSCD is currently being actively used on BG/QMira for a systematic study of the DDT processes using computational resources provided through the 2014-2016 INCITE allocation" First-principles simulations of high-speed combustion and detonation." While the project was focused on hydrogen-oxygen and on DDT, with appropriate modifications of the input physics (reaction kinetics, transport coefficients, equation of state) the code has a much broader applicability to petascale simulations of high speed combustion and detonation phenomena in reacting gases, and to high speed viscous gaseous flows in general. Project activities included three major steps - (1) development of physical and numerical models, (2) code validation, and (3) demonstration simulation of flame acceleration and DDT in a long pipe.