Modelling and validation of an industrial optical spray combustion chamber using OpenFOAM

This thesis develops a numerical model of an industrial spray combustion chamber to study the characteristics of a hydraulic common rail sac-hole diesel injector. The model employs an Eulerian-Lagrangian description for compressible multiphase flow and URANS for turbulence modeling. Various spray sub-models were configured to match experimental measurements in cold and reactive conditions, including Mie scattering, schlieren imaging, and OH chemiluminescence. Direct integration of chemistry allowed the simulation to reproduce ignition behavior accurately. Sensitivity analysis identified injection rate profiles, turbulence model, chamber temperature, and chemical mechanism as the most critical parameters. The thesis also proposes corrections to injection profiles and provides guidelines for turbulence model tuning in industrial spray simulations.

Recommended citation: J. Alopaeus. (2024). "Modelling and validation of an industrial optical spray combustion chamber using OpenFOAM." Aalto University.
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