Turbulent Hydrogen/Ammonia Premixed Flames under Highly Intensive Turbulence Conditions: Fundamental Physics and Modeling

The decarbonisation of international shipping, heavy-duty road transportation, and aviation requires timeliness and effectiveness of the technical measures taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Hydrogen and ammonia are identified to be two promising carbon-free fuels that can address the Swedish goal of achieving zero net CO2 emissions by 2045. Combustion of pure ammonia is difficult due to low flame speed, difficulty of ignition and high amount of NOx emission.

Co-combustion of ammonia and hydrogen is a potential approach that has caused the attention of recent research and development.

In this proposal we aim to study the fundamental physics of turbulent premixed hydrogen/ammonia flames, using theoretical analysis and high-fidelity direct numerical simulations, to achieve deeper understanding of the flow/flame interaction and its impact on the structures of the reaction layers, to identify the formation/destruction of NO and N2O.

Based on this detailed knowledge a high computational efficiency and high prediction accuracy large eddy simulation models will be developed and validated under different turbulent flow conditions. The focus is on highly intensive turbulence conditions that are relevant to industrial engine operation.

The theoretical analysis and DNS data will have a long-last impact in the field, and the LES model will provide the highly needed tool for the current development of ammonia marine engines ongoing in EU and Nordic countries.