Application and Comparison of FPI, SLFM, and FPV Chemistry Tabulation to the Prediction of Soot Formation in Laminar Diffusion Flames at Elevated Pressures

Numerical methods to predict soot formation often rely on the use of large detailed chemical mechanisms that can make the numerical simulations very computationally expensive. This study aims to address this issue by employing several chemistry tabulation methods and assessing their capabilities when applied to the prediction of soot in laminar coflow diffusion flames. The tabulation methods considered herein include: the flame-prolongation of intrinsic low dimensional manifold (FPI) method, the steady laminar flamelet method (SLFM), and the flamelet/progress variable (FPV) method. Various techniques for coupling the tabulation methods to soot models are investigated. Flames involving pure methane, and methane/ethanol fuel mixtures are evaluated at both 1 and 4 atm, and a Jet-A surrogate fuelled flame is tested at 1 atm. The tabulation methods are compared to results obtained using the full detailed chemical mechanisms and to experimental results. The relative strengths and weaknesses of the various tabulation methods are discussed.M.A.S