Title:	High Fidelity Numerical Simulation of Flow, Heat-Transfer and Combustion in Energy Related Fluid Mechanics
DNr:	SNIC 2022/3-13
Project Type:	SNIC Large Compute
Principal Investigator:	Christer Fureby <christer.fureby@energy.lth.se>
Affiliation:	Lunds universitet
Duration:	2023-01-01 – 2024-01-01
Classification:	20306 20399 20304
Homepage:	http://www.energy.lth.se/english/
Keywords:

Abstract

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, ~1850, the temperature and the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere has risen by ~1.0°C and ~120 ppm, respectively, most likely as the result of human activity. Solving the global warming problem is thus one of the most important challenges facing mankind in the 21st century. Securing a breakthrough in reduced greenhouse gas emissions and global warming requires a transfer away from our current heavy dependence on fossil fuels. An essential strategy is to increase the efficiency of the energy conversion technologies, increasing the fuel flexibility to enable carbon neutral fuels, and develop new and improved efficient, carbon neutral energy conversion technologies. Numerical simulations and experiments are essential and complementary tools for understanding, developing and improving such technologies. The objective of this computational project is to indirectly support the goals of the Paris climate accord of 2015 by investigating different wind and solar, thermo-chemical and electro-chemical energy conversion technologies such as jet- and dual mode ramjet engines, heat exchangers, batteries, fuel cells, rotating detonation engines and wind turbines. The group applying for this computational project have twelve active research projects within the scope of energy conversion technologies for aviation, marine, power and electricity generation with a total budget of just above 100 MSEK over the next four years, and involving about 22 researchers of which 12 are working on computational methods development and analysis. This research activity has been developed over the last three years with the purpose of more accurately and efficiently support the transition from the current energy system to a more sustainable energy system by using bio fuels, hydrogen and wind/solar but also in more advanced thermo-chemical and electro-chemical engines such as improved jet engines/gas turbines, rotating detonation engines, dual mode ramjet engines and batteries and fuel cells. This proposal is concerned with high-fidelity simulation of fluid mechanics and heat transfer related to wind/solar, thermo-chemical and electro-chemical energy conversion processes. This means addressing several fundamental modelling issues such as turbulence, multi-phase flow, chemical kinetics, combustion, heat transfer, thermal radiation, fluid-structure interaction and optimization. Some aspects of the research are also important for other industrial sectors such as pharmaceutical and food industry. High fidelity fluid dynamics simulations require that turbulence is modelled and treated in a proper way. The interaction of turbulence with additional physics such as heat transfer, spray and combustion necessitate the use of either large eddy simulation or direct numerical simulation. This means that proper resolution of the flow and chemical scales is of the essence, which lead to large computational meshes and long computational times, often dominated by the chemistry. The codes used will primarily be based on openFOAM but will include significant modification to the physical modeling and the numerics that will endorse more accurate and more efficient simulations, in particular on Tier-0 and Tier-1 computer systems. Previous experience with the SNIC resources shows good to excellent scaling.