Multi-physical CFD simulation of the CORIA stationary burner fed by a H2/CH4 fuel blend and pure H2 based on CHT

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Multi-physical CFD simulation of the CORIA stationary burner fed by a H2/CH4 fuel blend and pure H2 based on CHT

Hydrogen fuel is currently identified as a promising solution to decarbonize industrial and domestic burners that nowadays operates with natural gas (mainly CH4). Before switching to fully hydrogen burners, an intermediate step would consist in adding in different portions (between 20% and 30%) of H2 in the fuel mix together with CH4. However, one of the main drawbacks on H2 introduction in the fuel blend is the modification of the main flame properties (speed and temperature, molecular diffusion, flame strain sensitivity, quenching distance, NOx emissions etc.) and the increase of heat transfer by radiation due to water vapor concentration.

Consequently, the flame shape and fluid/wall heat transfers are highly affected. This leads to the necessity of reconsidering a retrofitting and optimization of the burners. For this sake, CFD is a recognized key-tool that can help the retrofitting process giving access to a high-fidelity 3D representation of the investigated technological configurations. The simulation fidelity can be further improved if heat transfer toward the wall (convective and radiative) as well as solid conduction are accounted in the simulation.

In line with the knowhow on combustion and CHT modelling, IFPEN is building-up several project proposals on the introduction of alternative e-fuels in industrial burners.

This internship proposal aims at pursuing the work initiated in the context of the collaboration with CORIA and CETIAT during the internship of Justin Bertsch. 3D Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) of the CORIA stationary burner fluid domain, fed either by pure CH4 and by CH4-H2 fuel blends were successfully conducted, using the solver CONVERGE^TM and TFM-AMR combustion model.

Despite the promising results obtained in the fluid simulations (cold flow validation and flame stabilization effect due to H2 addition) some open questions need to be still addressed to complete the study:

• The validation of the reactive fluid flow using reactive PIV measurements from CORIA
• The impact of the thermal boundary conditions on the flame topology and thermo-acoustic instabilities

In particular, for the CORIA burner configuration, it was observed that thermo-acoustics instabilities are triggered by the modification of the wall thermal field in LES. In the first simulations the thermal wall boundary conditions were estimated from literature.

The scope of the present internship is to develop, starting from the already existing set-up, a fully coupled CHT calculation of the CORIA burner. In the first phase only the solid wall conduction will be simulated while in a second phase the radiative transfer toward the burner wall will be also added. The impact of a weak or a strong coupling will be also evaluated.

The new simulations, conducted in the internship, will be supported by a parallel experimental campaign on the CORIA burner that is ongoing. The present internship will assess the capability of the IFPEN multi-physics tool CONVERGE^TM to model industrial burner applications.

The ongoing development for accounting H2 differential diffusion in the TFM model could be also integrated in the modelling framework in the final part of the internship

Requested profile and skills:

Master M2 (Equivalent Bac +5)

• Knowledge of theoretical combustion and CFD (theoretical and/or practical). Ideally with a first experience in CFD in an internship or project with a research or commercial code.
• Experience with a coding language (ideally Python or C++)