Numerical study of primary breakup with One-Dimensional Turbulence

Licentiate thesis, 2015

Most new engines will use direct injection of the fuel, making the fuel spray a critical part of the engine. Fuel spray behavior controls engine performance and emissions and yet there is much that remains unknown about how a spray breaks up, mixes, evaporates and burns. In this regard, the aim of this study is the development of a new computational model for primary breakup which is both predictive and efficient. We used a stochastic modeling approach called One Dimensional Turbulence. ODT permits affordable high resolution of interfaces and single-phase property gradients which are essential for capturing the local behavior of the breakup process. ODT is a stochastic model simulating turbulent flow evolution along a notional 1D line of sight by applying instantaneous maps to represent the effect of individual turbulent eddies on property profiles. The occurrence of an eddy itself is affected by the property profiles, resulting in self-contained flow evolution that obeys the applicable conservation laws.