Characterization of Turbulence in an Optically Accessible Fan-Stirred Spherical Combustion Chamber

Fundamental characteristics of fan-generated turbulence inside a constant-volume combustion chamber (CVCC) with 400 mm inner diameter under high-pressure and high-temperature conditions have been investigated to establish benchmark data for studies of turbulent premixed flame propagation. Here, the CVCC was designed to withstand up to 1.0 MPa initial pressure and 600 K initial temperature and equipped with four fans oriented in a tetrahedron configuration. A time-resolved particle imaging velocimetry (TR-PIV) is employed to characterize the turbulence under various thermodynamic conditions. Additionally, stereoscopic TR-PIV measurements were conducted to characterize the three-dimensional turbulent flow field inside the chamber. The results showed that the chamber could achieve homogenous and isotropic turbulence. A reasonably isotropic stationary turbulence with large turbulence intensities (up to ≈ 4.7 m/s) was achieved in the central region extending to almost 50 mm radius. This has been manifested by near-zero mean velocities and directional invariance of turbulence intensities. Global homogeneity and isotropy ratios in the chamber were close to unity, indicating weak anisotropy. The spectral energy spectra of the generated turbulent flow fields were in satisfactory agreement with the well-known Kolmogorov’s–5/3 law associated with homogeneous isotropic turbulence irrespective of the intensity of the turbulence. Various spatio-temporal length scales characterizing the turbulent flow field including the integral, Taylor, and Kolmogorov length scales were reported. Turbulence statistics and inherent parameters were investigated at elevated pressure and temperature conditions as well as results from test cases to determine turbulent–flame propagation speeds were reported. Accordingly, the present canonical configuration apparatus can be conveniently adopted for several turbulent combustion studies including mainly the determination of turbulent burning velocity for gaseous and liquid premixed flames in nearly homogeneous isotropic turbulence.