Turbulent combustion

The flames and hearths used in practice take many different forms. In the vast majority of cases, the turbulence of the gas flow plays a key role, and it is its interaction with the combustion phenomena that enables the high volume intensities of heat release that have been achieved.

Predicting, even if only qualitatively, the properties of interest to the engineer has proved to be very tricky simply by correlating existing empirical data.

However, more reasoned research over the last thirty years or so, using computer modeling and computation, has laid a solid foundation for a set of forecasting methods that combine theoretical thinking and experimental knowledge.

In this article, we describe the basic principles of these methods, explaining their main features, and present a few examples of their possibilities.