Analysis of a parallelized nonlinear elliptic boundary value problem solver with application to reacting flows

A parallelized finite difference code based on the Newton method for systems of nonlinear elliptic boundary value problems in two dimensions is analyzed in terms of computational complexity and parallel efficiency. An approximate cost function depending on 15 dimensionless parameters is derived for algorithms based on stripwise and boxwise decompositions of the domain and a one-to-one assignment of the strip or box subdomains to processors. The sensitivity of the cost functions to the parameters is explored in regions of parameter space corresponding to model small-order systems with inexpensive function evaluations and also a coupled system of nineteen equations with very expensive function evaluations. The algorithm was implemented on the Intel Hypercube, and some experimental results for the model problems with stripwise decompositions are presented and compared with the theory. In the context of computational combustion problems, multiprocessors of either message-passing or shared-memory type may be employed with stripwise decompositions to realize speedup of O(n), where n is mesh resolution in one direction, for reasonable n

Numerical modeling of flame-balls in fuel-air mixtures

At low gravity, when buoyancy effects are small, flame-balls can be generated. These are stationary spherical structures whose existence appears to require a near-limit mixture, a small Lewis number and heat losses from radiation. It is our goal to combine computational modeling with existing experimental and theoretical studies (NASA) of these structures so that an improved understanding of flammability limits and near-limit phenomena will occur. The question of flammability limits is of fundamental importance and has long been examined. It is of great practical importance to predict, from first principles, a limit mixture strength that agrees with experimental values for the configuration at hand. Flame-balls provide an excellent configuration in which convective losses can be eliminated and the resulting stable solutions are produced from a diffusive, reactive and radiative balance. Although analytical modeling provides convincing evidence that the key physical ingredients of flame-balls have been identified, quantitative confirmation can only come from detailed numerical simulations. Our goal is to predict theoretically the mass fractions of the species and the temperature as functions of the independent coordinate r

A comparison of computational and experimental lift-off heights of coflow laminar diffusion flames

As a sensitive marker of changes in flame structure, the number densities of excited-state CH (denoted CH*), and excited-state OH (denoted OH*) are imaged in coflow laminar diffusion flames. Measurements are made both in normal gravity and on the NASA KC-135 reduced-gravity aircraft. The spatial distribution of these radicals provides information about flame structure and lift-off heights that can be directly compared with computational predictions. Measurements and computations are compared over a range of buoyancy and fuel dilution levels. Results indicate that the lift-off heights and flame shapes predicted by the computations are in excellent agreement with measurement for both normal gravity (1g) and reduced gravity flames at low dilution levels. As the fuel mixture is increasingly diluted, however, the 1g lift-off heights become underpredicted. This trend continues until the computations predict stable flames at highly dilute fuel mixtures beyond the 1g experimental blow-off limit. To better understand this behavior, an analysis was performed, which indicates that the lift-off height is sensitive to the laminar flame speed of the corresponding premixed mixture at the flame edge. By varying the rates of two key "flame speed" controlling reactions, we were able to modify the predicted lift-off heights so as to be in closer agreement with the experiments. The results indicate that reaction sets that work well in low dilution systems may need to be modified to accommodate high dilution flames

An Experimental and Computational Study on Soot Formation in a Coflow Jet Flame Under Microgravity and Normal Gravity

Upon the completion of the Structure and Liftoff in Combustion Experiment (SLICE) in March 2012, a comprehensive and unique set of microgravity coflow diffusion flame data was obtained. This data covers a range of conditions from weak flames near extinction to strong, highly sooting flames, and enabled the study of gravitational effects on phenomena such as liftoff, blowout and soot formation. The microgravity experiment was carried out in the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) on board the International Space Station (ISS), while the normal gravity experiment was performed at Yale utilizing a copy of the flight hardware. Computational simulations of microgravity and normal gravity flames were also carried out to facilitate understanding of the experimental observations. This paper focuses on the different sooting behaviors of CH4 coflow jet flames in microgravity and normal gravity. The unique set of data serves as an excellent test case for developing more accurate computational models.Experimentally, the flame shape and size, lift-off height, and soot temperature were determined from line-of-sight flame emission images taken with a color digital camera. Soot volume fraction was determined by performing an absolute light calibration using the incandescence from a flame-heated thermocouple. Computationally, the MC-Smooth vorticity-velocity formulation was employed to describe the chemically reacting flow, and the soot evolution was modeled by the sectional aerosol equations. The governing equations and boundary conditions were discretized on an axisymmetric computational domain by finite differences, and the resulting system of fully coupled, highly nonlinear equations was solved by a damped, modified Newtons method. The microgravity sooting flames were found to have lower soot temperatures and higher volume fraction than their normal gravity counterparts. The soot distribution tends to shift from the centerline of the flame to the wings from normal gravity to microgravity

Detailed Chemistry Modeling of Laminar Diffusion Flames on Parallel Computers

. We present a numerical simulation of an axisymmetric, laminar diffusion flame with finite rate chemistry on serial and distributed memory parallel computers. We use the total mass, momentum, energy, and species conservation equations with the compressible Navier-Stokes equations written in vorticity-velocity form. The computational algorithm for solving the resulting nonlinear coupled elliptic partial differential equations involves damped Newton iterations, Krylov-type linear system solvers, and adaptive mesh refinement. The results presented here are the first in which a lifted diffusion flame structure is obtained on a nonstaggered grid. The numerical solution is in very good agreement with previous numerical and experimental data. Key words. combustion, finite rate chemistry, vorticity-velocity, nonlinear methods, iterative methods, parallel computers. AMS(MOS) subject classifications. 80A32, 80-08, 65C20, 65N20, 65F10. 1. Introduction. Detailed computer modeling of chemically ..

Multigrid Solution Of Flame Sheet Problems On Serial And Parallel Computers

. Flame sheet problems are on the natural route to the numerical solution of detailed chemistry, laminar diffusion flames, which, in turn, are important in many engineering applications. In order to model the flame structure more accurately, we use the vorticity-velocity formulation of the fluid flow equations instead of the more traditional stream function-vorticity approach. The numerical solution of the resulting nonlinear coupled elliptic partial differential equations involves damped Newton iterations, adaptive grid procedures, and multigrid methods. We focus on nonlinear damped Newton multigrid, using either one way or correction schemes. Results on serial and parallel processors are presented. Key words. multigrid, combustion, flame sheet, Navier-Stokes, vorticity-velocity, nonlinear methods, iterative methods, parallel computing. AMS(MOS) subject classifications. 80A32, 80-08, 65C20, 65N20, 65F10. 1. Introduction. The difficulties associated with solving high heat release co..

An implicit compact scheme solver for two-dimensional multicomponent flows

A 2D implicit compact scheme solver has been implemented for the vorticity-velocity formulation in the case of nonreacting, multicomponent, axisymmetric, low Mach number flows. To stabilize the discrete boundary value problem, two sets of boundary closures are introduced to couple the velocity and vorticity fields. A Newton solver is used for solving steady-state and time-dependent equations. In this solver, the Jacobian matrix is formulated and stored in component form. To solve the system of linearized equations within each iteration of Newton's method, preconditioned Bi-CGSTAB is used in combination with a matrix-vector product computed in component form. The almost dense Jacobian matrix is approximated by a partial Jacobian. For the preconditioner equation, the partial Jacobian is approximately factored using several methods. In a detailed study of several preconditioning techniques, a promising method based on ILUT preconditioning in combination with reordering and double scaling using the MC64 algorithm by Duff and Koster is selected. To validate the implicit compact scheme solver, several nonreacting model problems have been considered. At least third order accuracy in space is recovered on nonuniform grids. A comparison of the results of the implicit compact scheme solver with the results of a traditional implicit low order solver shows an order of magnitude reduction of computer memory and time using the compact scheme solver in the case of time-dependent mixing problems. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Multigrid Solution Of Flame Sheet Problems On Serial And Parallel Computers

. Flame sheet problems are on the natural route to the numerical solution of detailed chemistry, laminar diffusion flames, which, in turn, are important in many engineering applications. In order to model the flame structure more accurately, we use the vorticity-velocity formulation of the fluid flow equations instead of the more traditional stream function-vorticity approach. The numerical solution of the resulting nonlinear coupled elliptic partial differential equations involves damped Newton iterations, adaptive grid procedures, and multigrid methods. We focus on nonlinear damped Newton multigrid, using either one way or correction schemes. Results on serial and parallel processors are presented. Key words. multigrid, combustion, flame sheet, Navier-Stokes, vorticity-velocity, nonlinear methods, iterative methods, parallel computing. AMS(MOS) subject classifications. 80A32, 80-08, 65C20, 65N20, 65F10. 1. Introduction. The difficulties associated with solving high heat release co..