ARTICLE:

• THE ROLE OF RADIATIVE TRANSFER IN COMBUSTION  download article

S. H. Chan
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, P.O.Box 784 Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201, USA

ABSTRACT

Radiative transfer being the dominant mode of heat transfer in high temperature combustion systems, the classical studies concern mainly with the prediction of radiative heat transfer from a given flame to the surroundings. This review focuses, however, beyond the prediction of radiative flux from a flame; rather it aims to examine the active role of radiation in affecting combustion and turbulent processes of flames. First, the effects of thermal radiation on the basic flame structure are presented. They show that thermal radiation can induce a new extinction limit not achievable by other means, and can greatly affect the reaction rates to alter the emission of NO_x and other pollutants. Second, the recent advances in turbulence-radiation interaction in radiating turbulent flames are reviewed. The fluctuating scalars in the flames can now be simulated by a semicausal stochastic method to account for all the correlated effects by their neighboring points in temporal and spatial spaces. The simulation yields accurately the ensemble averaged radiation intensity and other radiation statistics. Finally, a scheme is proposed for the integration of radiation, turbulence and reaction kinetics in transport processes for a complete simulation of turbulent radiating flames.

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