Predicting the ignition delay of turbulent methane jets using Conditional source-term estimation

A predictive simulation of the autoignition process of non-premixed methane in a turbulent jet configuration was performed. Closure for the chemical source-term was obtained using Conditional Source-term Estimation with Laminar Flamelet Decomposition (CSE-LFD). The ambient oxidizer conditions - the high pressure and moderate temperatures characteristic of compression ignition engines - were chosen with the intent to validate the combustion model used under engine-relevant conditions. Validation was obtained by comparison of the predicted ignition delay to experimental results obtained from a shock-tube facility at several initial temperatures. Overall, the combination of full chemistry that has been carefully tuned to predict autoignition of premixed methane-air mixtures under similar temperature/pressure conditions with the CSE-LFD model is able to successfully predict the autoignition delay time of methane-air jets well within the scatter in the experimental data.