Numerical investigation of a bluff-body stabilized flame in a curved channel

This study numerically investigates the impacts of the curved channel and centrifugal acceleration on turbulence and vortex formation for a bluff body stabilized flame using an in-house solver. Large eddy simulations (LES) for both non-reacting and reacting flows are performed to validate the solution methodology for a well-defined triangular bluff body combustor geometry. After that, the downstream of the flame holder is modified to generate combustors with varying curvatures to investigate the effects of wall curvature on the turbulence and vortex dynamics. The sustained curvature results in delayed re-acceleration in the reverse flow region and asymmetric flow field. The asymmetric turbulent and vortex structures are formed in the wake region and both enhance with the augmenting curvature. The turbulent and vortex formation becomes closer to the trailing edge of the bluff body. Hydrodynamic instabilities increase and dominate the flow characteristics as the curvature enhances in the far-wake region.