A PDF/photon Monte Carlo method for radiative heat transfer in turbulent flames

Thermal radiation plays a dominant role in heat transfer for most combustion systems. Accurate predictions of radiative heat transfer are essential for the correct determination of flame temperature, flame structure, and pollutant emissions in combustion simulations. In turbulent flames, transported probability density function (PDF) methods provide a reliable treatment of nonlinear processes such as chemical reactions and radiative emission. Here a second statistical approach, a photon Monte Carlo (PMC) method, is employed to solve the radiative transfer equation (RTE). And a state-of-the-art model for spectral radiative properties, the full-spectrum k-distribution (FSK) method, is employed. The FSK method provides an efficient and accurate approach for spectral integration in radiation calculations. The resulting model is applied to simulate radiation and turbulence/radiation interactions in nonluminous turbulent non-premixed jet flames. The initial results reported here emphasize sensitivities of computed results to variations in the physical and numerical models. Results with versus without radiation, results obtained using two different RTE solvers, and results with a gray-gas approximation versus a spectral FSK method are compared.