No abstract

The Monte-Carlo method is often presented as a reference method for radiative transfer simulation when dealing with participating, inhomogeneous media. The reason is that numerical uncertainties are only of a statistical nature and are accurately evaluated by measuring the standard deviation of the Monte Carlo weight. But classical Monte-Carlo algorithms first sample optical thicknesses and then determine absorption or scattering locations by inverting the formal integral definition of optical thickness as an increasing function of path length. This function is only seldom analytically invertible and numerical inversion procedures are required. Most commonly, a volumic grid is introduced and optical properties within each cell are replaced by approximate homogeneous or linear fields. Simulation results are then sensitive to the grid and can no longer be considered as references. We propose a new algorithmic formulation based on the use of null-collisions that eliminate the need for numerical inversion: no volumic grid is required. Benchmark configurations are first considered in order to evaluate the effect of two free parameters: the amount of null-collisions, and the criterion used to decide at which stage a Russian Roulette is used to exit the path tracking process. Then the corresponding algorithm is implemented using a development environment allowing to deal with complex geometries (thanks to computer graphics techniques), leading to a Monte Carlo code that can be easily used for validation of fast radiative transfer solvers embedded in combustion simulators. "Easily" means here that the way the Monte Carlo algorithm deals with both the geometry and the temperature/pressure/concentration fields is independent of the choices made inside the combustion solver: there is no need for the design of a new pathtracking procedure adapted to each new CFD grid. The Monte Carlo simulator is ready for use as soon as combustion specialists provide a localization/interpolation tool defining what they consider as the continuous input fields best suiting their numerical assumptions. The radiation validation tool introduces no grid in itself.

Radiation exchanges must be taken into account to improve the prediction of heat fluxes in turbulent combustion. The strong interaction with turbulence and its role on the formation of polluting species require the study of unsteady coupled calculations using Large Eddy Simulations (LESs) of the turbulent combustion process. Radiation is solved using the Discrete Ordinate Method (DOM) and a global spectral model. A detailed study of the coupling between radiative heat transfer and LES simulation involving a real laboratory flame configuration is presented. First the impact of radiation on the flame structure is discussed: when radiation is taken into account, temperature levels increase in the fresh gas and decrease in the burnt gas, with variations ranging from 100 K to 150 K thus impacting the density of the gas. Coupling DOM and LES allows to analyze radiation effects on flame stability: temperature fluctuations are increased, and a wavelet frequency analysis shows changes in the flow characteristic frequencies. The second part of the study focuses on the Turbulence Radiation Interaction (TRI) using the instantaneous radiative fields on the whole computational domain. TRI correlations are calculated and are discussed along four levels of approximation. The LES study shows that all the TRI correlations are significant and must be taken into account. These correlations are also useful to calculate the TRI correlations in the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) approach.

Radiation exchanges must be taken into account to improve large eddy simulation (LES) prediction of turbulent combustion, in particular, for wall heat fluxes. Because of its interaction with turbulence and its impact on the formation of polluting species, unsteady coupled calculations are required. This work constitutes a first step toward coupled LES-radiation simulations, selecting the optimal methodology based on systematic comparisons of accuracy and CPU cost. Radiation is solved with the discrete ordinate method (DOM) and different spectral models. To reach the best compromise between accuracy and CPU time, the performance of various spectral models and discretizations (angular, temporal, and spatial) is studied. It is shown that the use of a global spectral model combined with a mesh coarsening (compared with the LES mesh) and a minimal coupling frequency Nit allows to compute one radiative solution faster than Nit LES iterations while keeping a good accuracy. It also appears that the impact on accuracy of the angular discretization in the DOM is very small compared with the impact of the spectral model. The determined optimal methodology may be used to perform unsteady coupled calculations of turbulent combustion with radiation.