Numerical Simulations of Real-Fluid Reacting Sprays at Transcritical Pressures Using Multiphase Thermodynamics

Transcritical fuel sprays form an indispensable part of high-pressure energy-conversion systems. Modeling the complex real-fluid effects in the high-pressure multiphase regime of such sprays accurately, especially the hybrid subcritical-to-supercritical mode of evaporation during mixing fuel and oxidizer, is essential and challenging. This paper represents a novel numerical framework for accurate and efficient simulations of transcritical sprays. The spray is modeled using a diffuse interface method with multiphase thermodynamics, which couples real-fluid state equations with vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) calculations to compute thermo-transport properties. A physically consistent turbulence model for large-eddy simulations (LES) is used, with combustion being modeled via real finite-rate chemistry based on the fugacity of the species. The current method is accurate and free from semi-empirical drop break-up/evaporation models. LES results for the Engine Combustion Network (ECN) Spray-A benchmark demonstrate the potential of the proposed method and its advantages over traditional approaches.