The NUS RYrhoCentralFoam Suite is developed by the Computational Combustion and Energy Group based on the rhoCentralFoam solver in the open-source codes OpenFOAM to study multi-phase, multi-component, compressible and reacting flows. It started in 2018 and has been improved / optimized when we used for our own research so far. It can be used for modelling the scientific problems related to fuel combustion, industrial explosion/detonation, hydrogen energy safety, and other kinds of heterogeneous flames laden with liquid droplets or solid particles. A hybrid Eulerian-Lagrangian method is used to model the continuous gas phase with discrete droplet phase. Moreover, the sub-grid scale combustion models for LES of the Eulerian phase are also incorporated with RYrhoCentralFoam, including laminar chemistry model, flamelet-type tabulated chemistry model, and interfaced with the multiple mapping conditioning (MMC) model. In addition, Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) is also available for RYrhoCentralFOAM for two- and three-dimensional flow problems. We also develop a series of post-processing utility OpenFOAM codes for RYrhoCentralFoam simulations. The current contributors for RYrhoCentralFoam include Huangwei Zhang, Majie Zhao, Yong Xu, Zhiwei Huang, Qingyang Meng, Pikai Zhang and Shangpeng Li from our group. For any inquires, please send an email to Dr Huangwei Zhang (huangwei.zhang@nus.edu.sg).

The building blocks of physical/chemical models and numerical implementations in the RYrhoCentralFoam solver are shown below:

Figure 1. Overall structure of the hybrid Eulerian-Lagrangian solvers in RYrhoCentralFoam.

Figure 2. The scalability of RYrhoCentralFoam in simulating hydrogen detonation. Testes* done over Fugaku supercomputer** from R-CCS in Japan .

 

*Test case configuration: Gas composition – H2/air mixture; CFD cells – 25,000,000 Cartesian cells (Two-dimensional); Chemical mechanism – 9 species / 19 reaction; Chemical integrator – Seulex solver.

**Fugaku: Processor – A64FX 48C 2.2GHz; Theoretical Peak (Rpeak) – 537,212 TFlop/s; Linpack Performance (Rmax) – 442,010 TFlop/s; Rank first in Top 500 supercomputer list (data from Top 500 website).

 

Source code download: Link

Main features of RYrhoCentralFoam:

• Eulerian-Lagrangian method for two-phase flows
• Godunov-type Riemann-solver-free shock-capturing scheme
• Advanced sub-grid scale turbulent combustion models
• Adaptive mesh refinement (AMR)
  
• Dynamic adaptive chemistry (DAC) integration and in-situ adaptive tabulation (ISAT)
  
• Dilute particles and moderately dense particles, respectively  with low to high dispersed phase volume fractions (up to 20% volume fraction)
  
• Computational parcel method for physical droplets / particles
• Thermal property libraries and sub-models for liquid droplets and solid particles (gas-liquid and gas-solid multiphase reacting flows)
• Interface with the open source software Cantera (https://cantera.org/) for updating transport properties and chemical kinetics

Please Cite:

• Pikai Zhang, Huangwei Zhang*, Yun Feng Zhang, Shangpeng Li, Qingyang Meng, Modelling particle collisions in moderately dense curtain impacted by an incident shock wave. Submitted to Physics of Fluids. 2023.
• Zhiwei Huang, Majie Zhao, Yong Xu, Guangze Li, Huangwei Zhang*, Eulerian-Lagrangian modelling of detonative combustion in two-phase gas-droplet mixtures with OpenFOAM: validations and verifications.  Fuel. 286(2021) 119402. [CITE]
• Huangwei Zhang*, Majie Zhao, Zhiwei Huang, Large eddy simulation of turbulent supersonic hydrogen flames with OpenFOAM. Fuel. 282(2020) 118812. [CITE]
  

Selected Publications with RYrhoCentralFoam:

(*: corresponding author; underlined: RS/RF)

• Jingtai Shi, Yong Xu, Pikai Zhang, Wanxin  Ren, Huangwei Zhang*, Effects of dilute coal char particle suspensions on propagating methane detonation wave. Combustion and Flame. 249(2023) 112618. Link PDF Download 
• Qingyang Meng, Majie Zhao, Yong Xu, Liangqi Zhang, Huangwei Zhang*, Structure and dynamics of spray detonation in n-heptane droplet / vapor / air mixtures. Combustion and Flame. 2023. Accepted and In Press.
• Shan Jin, Chao Xu, Hongtao Zheng, Huangwei Zhang*, Detailed chemistry modelling of rotating detonations with dilute n-heptane sprays and preheated air. Proceedings of the Combustion Institute. 2022. Link PDF Download
  
• Yong Xu, Huangwei Zhang*, Interactions between a propagating detonation wave and circular water cloud in hydrogen/air mixture. Combustion and Flame. 245(2022) 112369. Link PDF Download
  
• Hongbo Guo, Yong Xu, Hongtao Zheng, Huangwei Zhang*, Ignition limit and shock-to-detonation transition mode of n-heptane/air mixture in high-speed wedge flows. Proceedings of the Combustion Institute. 2022. Link PDF Download
  
• Hongbo Guo; Yong Xu; Shuying Li; Huangwei Zhang*, On the evolutions of induction zone structure in wedge-stabilized oblique detonation with water mist flows. Combustion and Flame. 241(2022) 112122. Link PDF Download
  
• Yong Xu, Huangwei Zhang*, Pulsating propagation and extinction of hydrogen detonations in ultrafine water sprays. Combustion and Flame. 241(2022) 112086. Link PDF Download
  
• Jingtai Shi, Yong Xu, Wanxin Ren, Huangwei Zhang*, Critical condition and transient evolution of methane detonation extinction by fine water droplet curtains. Fuel. 315(2022) 123133. Link PDF Download
  
• Yong Xu, Majie Zhao, Huangwei Zhang*, Extinction of incident hydrogen/air detonation in fine water sprays. Physics of Fluids. 33(2021)116109. Link PDF Download
  
• Zhiwei Huang, Matthew J. Cleary, Zhuyin Ren, Huangwei Zhang*, Large eddy simulation of a supersonic hydrogen flame with sparse-Lagrangian multiple mapping conditioning approach. Combustion and Flame. 2021. Link PDF Download
  
• Majie Zhao, Zhi X. Chen, Huangwei Zhang*, N. Swaminathan, Large eddy simulation of a supersonic lifted hydrogen flame with perfectly stirred reactor model. Combustion and Flame. 230(2021) 111441. Link PDF Download
  
• Zhiwei Huang, Huangwei Zhang*, On the interactions between a propagating shock wave and evaporating water droplets. Physics of Fluids. 2020. Link PDF Download [Editor’s Pick]
• Majie Zhao, Zhuyin Ren, Huangwei Zhang*, Pulsating detonative combustion in n-heptane/air mixtures under off-stoichiometric conditions. Combustion and Flame. 226(2021) 285-301. Link PDF Download
  
• Majie Zhao, Matthew Cleary, Huangwei Zhang*, Combustion mode and wave multiplicity in rotating detonative combustion with separate reactant injection. Combustion and Flame. 225(2021) 291-304. Link PDF Download
• Qingyang Meng, Ningbo Zhao, Huangwei Zhang*, On the distributions of fuel droplets and in-situ vapor in rotating detonation combustion with pre-vaporized n-heptane sprays. Physics of Fluids. 33(2021) 043307. Link PDF Download
  
• Zhiwei Huang, Matthew Cleary, Huangwei Zhang*, Application of the sparse-Lagrangian multiple mapping conditioning approach to a model supersonic combustor. Physics of Fluids. 32(2020), 105120. Link PDF Download
• Qingyang Meng, Majie Zhao, Hongtao Zheng, Huangwei Zhang*, Eulerian – Lagrangian modelling of rotating detonative combustion in partially pre-vaporized n-heptane sprays with hydrogen addition. Fuel. 290(2020) 119808. Link PDF Download
• Huangwei Zhang*, Majie Zhao, Zhiwei Huang, Large eddy simulation of turbulent supersonic hydrogen flames with OpenFOAM. Fuel. 282(2020) 118812. Link PDF Download
• Zhiwei Huang, Majie Zhao, Yong Xu, Guangze Li, Huangwei Zhang*, Eulerian-Lagrangian modelling of detonative combustion in two-phase gas-droplet mixtures with OpenFOAM: validations and verifications.  Fuel. 286(2021) 119402. Link PDF Download
• Majie Zhao, Jiun-Ming Li, Chiang Juay Teo, Boo Cheong Khoo, Huangwei Zhang*, Effects of Variable Total Pressures on Instability And Extinction of Rotating Detonation Combustion. Flow, Turbulence and Combustion. 104(2019) 261–290. Link PDF Download

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Below we showcased a range of benchmark cases to test the capacity of RYrhoCentralFoam for simulating moderately dense two-phase flows. FIve experiments from various research groups are modelled and their results are presented. Currently, our solver can accurately predict the two-phase flows with the discrete phase volume fraction up to 10%-20% (covering dilute and collision dominated two-phase flows).

[    31/12/2021, tests performed by PhD student in our group, Pikai Zhang    ]

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Below we showcased a range of benchmark cases we performed to validate and verify the numerical schemes or sub-models implemented in RYrhoCentralFoam, in terms of shock-capturing, thermal and species diffusion, chemistry integration, detonation propagation speed and frontal structure, dispersed phase models and two-phase interactions. For more details about the following OpenFOAM case files, please contact Dr Huangwei Zhang.

[    Tests performed by Zhiwei Huang, Majie Zhao, and Yong Xu    ]

Last updated on 18/10/2020