Multiscale methods in turbulent combustion: strategies and computational challenges

Abstract

A principal challenge in modeling turbulent combustion flows is associated with their complex, multiscale nature. Traditional paradigms in the modeling of these flows have attempted to address this nature through different strategies, including exploiting the separation of turbulence and combustion scales and a reduced description of the composition space. The resulting moment-based methods often yield reasonable predictions of flow and reactive scalars' statistics under certain conditions. However, these methods must constantly evolve to address combustion at different regimes, modes or with dominant chemistries. In recent years, alternative multiscale strategies have emerged, which although in part inspired by the traditional approaches, also draw upon basic tools from computational science, applied mathematics and the increasing availability of powerful computational resources. This review presents a general overview of different strategies adopted for multiscale solutions of turbulent combustion flows. Within these strategies, some specific models are discussed or outlined to illustrate their capabilities and underlying assumptions. These strategies may be classified under four different classes, including (i) closure models for atomistic processes, (ii) multigrid and multiresolution strategies, (iii) flame-embedding strategies and (iv) hybrid large-eddy simulation–low-dimensional strategies. A combination of these strategies and models can potentially represent a robust alternative strategy to moment-based models; but a significant challenge remains in the development of computational frameworks for these approaches as well as their underlying theories.