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14.3.3 Non-Premixed Model Input and Solution Procedures

in FLUENT
The non-premixed model setup and solution procedure in FLUENT differs slightly for single-
and two-mixture-fraction problems. Below, an overview of each approach is provided. Note
that your FLUENT case file must always meet the restrictions listed for the non-premixed
modeling approach in Section 14.1.3. In this section, details are provided regarding the
problem definition and calculation procedures you follow in FLUENT.

Single-Mixture-Fraction Approach
For a single-mixture-fraction system, when you have completed the calculation of the mixture
fraction/PDF look-up tables in prePDF, you are ready to begin your reacting flow simulation in
FLUENT. In FLUENT, you will solve the flow field and predict the spatial distribution of and

(and if the system is non-adiabatic or if the system is based on laminar

flamelets). FLUENT will obtain the implied values of temperature and individual chemical
species mass fractions from the look-up tables.

Two-Mixture-Fraction Approach

When a secondary stream is included, FLUENT will solve transport equations for the mean
secondary partial fraction ( ) and its variance in addition to the mean fuel mixture fraction
and its variance. FLUENT will then look up the instantaneous values for temperature, density,
and individual chemical species in the look-up tables, compute the PDFs for the fuel and
secondary streams, and calculate the mean values for temperature, density, and species.

Note that in order to avoid both inaccuracies and unnecessarily slow calculation times, it is
important for you to view your temperature and species tables in prePDF to ensure that they
are adequately but not excessively resolved.

Step 1: Start FLUENT and Read a Grid File

Start your FLUENT session in the usual way, as described in Section 1.5, and then read in a
grid file. The number and types of inlets in your model must meet the constraints of the non-
premixed modeling approach, as discussed in Section 14.1.3 and illustrated in Figures 14.1.12,
14.1.13, and 14.1.14.

Starting a Non-Premixed Calculation From a Previous Case File

You can read a previously defined FLUENT case file as a starting point for your non-premixed
combustion modeling. If this case file contains inputs that are incompatible with the current
non-premixed combustion model, FLUENT will alert you when the non-premixed model is
turned on and it will turn off those incompatible models. For example, if the case file includes
species that differ from those included in the PDF file created by prePDF, these species will be
disabled. If the case file contains property descriptions that conflict with the property data in
the chemical database, these property inputs will be ignored.

!! See Step 2, below, for important information about PDF files created by previous versions of
prePDF.

Step 2: Activate the Non-Premixed Combustion Model

Preliminaries

Before turning on the non-premixed combustion model, you must enable turbulence
calculations in the Viscous Model panel.

Define Models Viscous...

If your model is non-adiabatic, you should also enable heat transfer (and radiation, if
required).

Define Models Energy...

Define Models Radiation...

Figure 14.1.11 illustrates the types of problems that must be treated as non-adiabatic. Note,
however, that the decision to include non-adiabatic effects is made in prePDF. FLUENT will
turn off the energy equation if your prePDF inputs are for an adiabatic system.

Enabling Non-Premixed Combustion

Before any other modeling inputs (e.g., setting of boundary conditions or properties) you
should turn on the non-premixed combustion model, because activating this model will impact
how other inputs are requested during your subsequent work. The non-premixed combustion
model is enabled in the Species Model panel.

Define $\r Models $\r Species...

\begin{figure} \psfig{file=figures/pdf-species-
model.ps} \end{figure}

Figure 14.3.22: The Species Model Panel in FLUENT

Select Non-Premixed Combustion under the Model heading. When you click OK in the
Species Model panel, a Select File dialog box will immediately appear, prompting you for the
name of the PDF file containing the look-up tables created in prePDF. (The PDF file is the file
you saved using the File/Write/PDF... menu item in prePDF after computing the look-up
tables.) FLUENT will indicate that it has successfully read the specified PDF file:
Reading "/home/mydirectory/adiabatic.pdf"...
read 5 species (binary c, adiabatic prepdf)
pdf file successfully read.
Done.

After you read in the PDF file, FLUENT will inform you that some material properties have
changed. You can accept this information; you will be updating properties later on.

You can read in an altered PDF file at any time by using the File/Read/Pdf... menu item.

!! Recall that the non-premixed combustion model is available only when you used the
segregated solver; it cannot be used with the coupled solvers. Also, the non-premixed
combustion model is available only when turbulence modeling is active.

If you are modeling a non-adiabatic system and you wish to include the effects of
compressibility, re-open the Species Model panel (Figure 14.3.23) and turn on
Compressibility Effects under PDF Options. This option tells FLUENT to update the density,
temperature, species mass fraction, and enthalpy from the PDF tables to account for the
varying pressure of the system. When the non-premixed combustion model is active, you can
enable compressibility effects only in the Species Model panel. For other models, you will
specify compressible flow ( ideal-gas, boussinesq, etc.) in the Materials panel.

Figure 14.3.23: The Species Model Panel With Available

PDF Options

Using PDF Files Created by Previous Releases of prePDF

PDF files created by prePDF 1 cannot be read into FLUENT or into prePDF 4 (the current
version). If you have prePDF 1 files, read the input file into prePDF 4, recalculate the look-up
tables, and save a new PDF file to be read into FLUENT. As noted in Section 14.3.5, prePDF 1
input files that were created for coal combustion systems must be modified before computing
the PDF look-up tables in prePDF 4.

PDF files created by prePDF 2 can be read into FLUENT, but it is recommended that you
recalculate the look-up tables in prePDF 4. In these versions of prePDF, the mixture fraction
variance was not scaled to its maximum value while building the PDF table. This resulted in a
lower-resolution table, especially for lower mixture fraction values, and at mixture fraction
values close to 0 and 1. To take advantage of a more advanced PDF table look-up scheme, you
can read a PDF or input file created by prePDF 2 into prePDF 4 and recalculate the look-up
table.

Two-mixture-fraction PDF files created in prePDF 2 should be read into prePDF 4 and written
out in FLUENT 6 format. (Two-mixture-fraction PDF files written by prePDF 2 cannot be read
directly into FLUENT.)

Table 14.3.1 summarizes the recommended procedures for using old PDF files in FLUENT.

Table 14.3.1: Using Old PDF Files in FLUENT

PDF file Readable Readable Recommended
type in in Procedure
prePDF FLUENT?
4?
prePDF 1 input files no Read input file
only into prePDF 4,
recalculate PDF
table, and
write a PDF file
in FLUENT 6
format.
prePDF 2 yes yes Read input or
(single PDF file into
mixture prePDF 4,
fraction) recalculate PDF
table, and
write a PDF file
in FLUENT 6
format.
prePDF 2 yes no Read PDF file
(two into prePDF 4
mixture and write a
fractions) PDF file in
FLUENT 6
format.
prePDF 3 yes yes prePDF 3 files
are compatible
with both
 prePDF 4 and
FLUENT 6.

Retrieving the PDF File During Case File Reads

The PDF filename is specified to FLUENT only once. Thereafter, the filename is stored in your
FLUENT case file and the PDF file will be automatically read into FLUENT whenever the case
file is read. FLUENT will remind you that it is reading the PDF file after it finishes reading the
rest of the case file by reporting its progress in the text (console) window.

Note that the PDF filename stored in your case file may not contain the full name of the
directory in which the PDF file exists. The full directory name will be stored in the case file
only if you initially read the PDF file through the GUI (or if you typed in the directory name
along with the filename when using the text interface). In the event that the full directory
name is absent, the automatic reading of the PDF file may fail (since FLUENT does not know
which directory to look in for the file), and you will need to manually specify the PDF file. The
safest approaches are to use the GUI when you first read the PDF file or to supply the full
directory name when using the text interface.

Step 3: Define Boundary Conditions

Input of Mixture Fraction Boundary Conditions

When the non-premixed combustion model is used, flow boundary conditions at inlets and
exits (i.e., velocity or pressure, turbulence intensity) are defined in the usual way. Species mass
fractions at inlets are not required. Instead, you define values for the mean mixture fraction,
, and the mixture fraction variance, , at inlet boundaries. (For problems that include a

secondary stream, you will define boundary conditions for the mean secondary partial
fraction and its variance as well as the mean fuel mixture fraction and its variance.) These
inputs provide boundary conditions for the conservation equations you will solve for these
quantities. The inlet values are supplied in the boundary conditions panel for the selected inlet
boundary (e.g., Figure 14.3.24).

Define Boundary Conditions...

 Figure 14.3.24: The Velocity Inlet Panel Showing Mixture Fraction
Boundary Conditions

Input the Mean Mixture Fraction and Mixture Fraction Variance (and the Secondary Mean
Mixture Fraction and Secondary Mixture Fraction Variance, if you are using two mixture
fractions). In general, the inlet value of the mean fractions will be 1.0 or 0.0 at flow inlets: the
mean fuel mixture fraction will be 1.0 at fuel stream inlets and 0.0 at oxidizer or secondary
stream inlets; the mean secondary mixture fraction will be 1.0 at secondary stream inlets and
0.0 at fuel or oxidizer inlets. The fuel or secondary mixture fraction will lie between 0.0 and 1.0
only if you are modeling flue gas recycle, as illustrated in Figure 14.1.15 and discussed in
Section 14.1.2. The fuel or secondary mixture fraction variance can usually be taken as zero at
inlet boundaries.

Diffusion at Inlets

In some cases, you may wish to include only the convective transport of mixture fraction
through the inlets of your domain. You can do this by disabling inlet mixture-fraction
diffusion. By default, FLUENT includes the diffusion flux of mixture fraction at inlets. To turn
off inlet diffusion, use the define/models/species-transport/inlet-diffusion? text command.

Input of Thermal Boundary Conditions and Fuel Inlet Velocities

If your model is non-adiabatic, you should input the Temperature at the flow inlets. While the
inlet temperatures were requested in prePDF (as the Fuel Inlet Temperature, Oxidiser Inlet
Temperature, and (if applicable) Secondary Inlet Temperature in the Operating Conditions
panel), these inputs were used only in the construction of the look-up tables. The inlet
temperatures for each fuel, oxidizer, and secondary inlet in your non-adiabatic model should
be defined, in addition, as boundary conditions in FLUENT. It is acceptable for the inlet
temperature boundary conditions defined in FLUENT to differ slightly from those you input in
prePDF. If the inlet temperatures differ significantly from those in prePDF, however, your
look-up tables may provide less accurate interpolation. This is because the discrete points in
the look-up tables were selected based on the inlet temperatures as defined in prePDF.

When you are using the full equilibrium model (rich limit of 1.0), prePDF will in most cases
predict a modified equilibrium fuel temperature and composition. As detailed in Section
14.3.1, your inlet velocity at gas-phase fuel inlets should be based on the density corresponding
to this adjusted temperature and composition. The temperature at the gas-phase fuel inlet,
however, should be retained at the value you used to define the fuel inlet in prePDF. Similar
equilibrium adjustments may occur, under unusual circumstances, at oxidizer inlets and your
inputs should be determined in the same way.

Wall thermal boundary conditions should also be defined for non-adiabatic non-premixed
combustion calculations. You can use any of the standard conditions available in FLUENT,
including specified wall temperature, heat flux, external heat transfer coefficient, or external
radiation. If radiation is to be included within the domain, the wall emissivity should be
defined as well. See Section 6.13.1 for details about thermal boundary conditions at walls.

Step 4: Define Physical Properties

When you use the non-premixed combustion model, the material used for all fluid zones is
automatically set to pdf-mixture. This material is a special case of the mixture material
concept discussed in Section 13.1.2. The constituent species of this mixture are the species that
you defined in prePDF; you cannot change them in FLUENT. When the non-premixed model is
used, heat capacities, molecular weights, and enthalpies of formation for each species
considered are extracted from the chemical database, so you will not modify any properties
for the constituent species in the PDF mixture. For the PDF mixture itself, the density is
determined from the look-up tables and the specific heat is determined via the mixing law
discussed in Section 7.5.4, using specific heat values for the constituent species obtained from
the chemical database ( thermodb.scm).

The physical property inputs for a non-premixed combustion problem are therefore only the
transport properties (viscosity, thermal conductivity, etc.) for the PDF mixture. To set these in
the Materials panel, choose mixture as the Material Type, pdf-mixture (the default, and only
choice) in the Mixture Materials list, and set the desired values for the transport properties.

Define $\r Materials...

See Chapter 7 for details about setting physical properties. The transport properties in a non-
premixed combustion problem can be defined as functions of temperature, if desired, but not
as functions of composition. In practice, since turbulence effects will dominate, it will be of
little benefit to include even the temperature dependence of these transport properties.

If you are modeling radiation heat transfer, you will also input radiation properties, as
described in Section 7.6. Composition-dependent absorption coefficients (using the WSGGM)
are allowed.

Step 5: Solve the Flow Problem

The next step in the non-premixed combustion modeling process in FLUENT is the solution of
the mixture fraction and flow equations. First, initialize the flow. By default, the mixture
fraction and its variance have initial values of zero, which is the recommended value; you
should generally not set non-zero initial values for these variables. See Section 24.13 for
details about solution initialization.

Solve $\r Initialize $\r Initialize...

Next, begin calculations in the usual manner.

Solve $\r Iterate...

During the calculation process, FLUENT reports residuals for the mixture fraction and its
variance in the fmean and fvar columns of the residual report:
iter cont x-vel y-vel k epsilon fmean fvar
28 1.57e-3 4.92e-4 4.80e-4 2.68e-2 2.59e-3 9.09e-1 1.17e+0
29 1.42e-3 4.43e-4 4.23e-4 2.48e-2 2.30e-3 8.89e-1 1.15e+0
30 1.28e-3 3.98e-4 3.75e-4 2.29e-2 2.04e-3 8.88e-1 1.14e+0

(For two-mixture-fraction calculations, columns for psec and pvar will also appear.)

Under-Relaxation Factors for PDF Equations

The transport equations for the mean mixture fraction and mixture fraction variance are quite
stable and high under-relaxation can be used when solving them. By default, an under-
relaxation factor of 1 is used for the mean mixture fraction (and secondary partial fraction)
and 0.9 for the mixture fraction variance (and secondary partial fraction variance). If the
residuals for these equations are increasing, you should consider decreasing these under-
relaxation factors, as discussed in Section 24.9.

Density Under-Relaxation

One of the main reasons a combustion calculation can have difficulty converging is that large
changes in temperature cause large changes in density, which can, in turn, cause instabilities
in the flow solution. FLUENT allows you to under-relax the change in density to alleviate this
difficulty. The default value for density under-relaxation is 1, but if you encounter convergence
trouble you may wish to reduce this to a value between 0.5 and 1 (in the Solution Controls
panel).

Tuning the PDF Parameters for Two-Mixture-Fraction Calculations

For cases that include a secondary stream, the PDF integrations are performed inside FLUENT.
The parameters for these integrations are defined in the Species Model panel (Figure 14.3.25).

Define $\r Models $\r Species...

 Figure 14.3.25: The Species Model Panel for a Two-Mixture-Fraction
Calculation

The parameters are as follows:

Compressibility Effects
(non-adiabatic systems only) tells FLUENT to update the density, temperature, species
mass fraction, and enthalpy from the PDF tables to account for the varying pressure of
the system.

Probability Density Function

specifies which type of PDF should be used. You can pick either double delta (the default)
or beta in the drop-down list. These choices are the same as what you saw in prePDF for
the single-mixture-fraction case. (See Section 14.1.2.) The double delta PDF has the
advantage of being faster than the beta PDF, and it is the default. The beta function,
however, may be a more accurate representation of the PDF.

Number of Flow Iterations Per Property Update

specifies how often the density, temperature, and specific heats are updated from the
look-up table. Remember that when you are calculating two mixture fractions, the
updating of properties includes computation of the PDFs and can be quite CPU-intensive.
You should generally not reduce the Number of Flow Iterations Per Property Update
below the default value of 10, unless you are experiencing convergence difficulties.

For simulations involving non-adiabatic multiple strained flamelets, looking up the four-
dimensional PDF tables can be CPU-intensive if a large number of species exist in the
flamelet files. In such cases, the Number of Flow Iterations Per Property Update
controls the updating of the mean molecular weight, which involves looking up the PDF
tables for the species mass fractions.

Step 6: Postprocessing the Non-Premixed Model Results in FLUENT

The final step in the non-premixed combustion modeling process is the postprocessing of
species concentrations and temperature data from the mixture fraction and flow-field solution
data. The following variables are of particular interest:

Mean Mixture Fraction (in the Pdf... category)

Secondary Mean Mixture Fraction (in the Pdf... category)

Mixture Fraction Variance (in the Pdf... category)

Secondary Mixture Fraction Variance (in the Pdf... category)

Fvar Prod (in the Pdf... category)

Fvar2 Prod (in the Pdf... category)

Mass fraction of (species-n) (in the Species... category)

Mole fraction of (species-n) (in the Species... category)

Molar Concentration of (species-n) (in the Species... category)

Static Temperature (in the Temperature... category)

Enthalpy (in the Temperature... category)

These quantities can be selected for display in the indicated category of the variable-selection
drop-down list that appears in postprocessing panels. See Chapter 29 for their definitions.

In all cases, the species concentrations are derived from the mixture fraction/variance field
using the look-up tables. Note that temperature and enthalpy can be postprocessed even when
your FLUENT model is an adiabatic non-premixed combustion simulation in which you have
not solved the energy equation. In both the adiabatic and non-adiabatic cases, the temperature
is derived from the look-up table created in prePDF.

Figures 14.3.26 and 14.3.27 illustrate typical results for a methane diffusion flame modeled
using the non-premixed approach.
 Figure 14.3.26: Predicted Contours of Mixture Fraction in a
Methane Diffusion Flame

Figure 14.3.27: Predicted Contours of CO Mass Fraction

Using the Non-Premixed Combustion Model

Previous: 14.3.2 Informational Messages and

Up: 14.3 User Inputs for
Next: 14.3.4 Modeling Liquid Fuel
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