Role of Flow Visualization in the Development of UNICORN
Issue title: International Conference on Optical Technology
and Image Processing in Fluid, Thermal, and Combustion Flow, Yokohama, Japan,
December 1998
Affiliations: Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air
Force Base, OH 45433-7103, USA | Innovative Scientific Solutions, Inc., 2766 Indian
Ripple Road, Dayton, OH 45440-3638, USA
Abstract: This paper describes how visualizations have been used in the
development and evaluation of a reacting-flow-simulation model known as UNICORN
(UNsteady Ignition and COmbustion with ReactioNs). UNICORN, which solves full
Navier-Stokes equations, has evolved over a 6-year period and is perhaps one of
the most thoroughly evaluated codes of its kind. It evolved hand-in-hand with
experiments that have been conducted to test its ability to predict ignition,
extinction, and the dynamic characteristics of diffusion and premixed flames of
hydrogen, methane, and propane fuels and that are stabilized in different ways.
This paper also describes how UNICORN has been used, in conjunction with
experiments, to provide new insights into combusting flows. Also, predictions
of unobserved phenomena that were later confirmed by experiments are described.
This paper demonstrates that the judicious use of a well-validated simulation
in conjunction with laser based diagnostics is an effective way of
understanding complex combusting flows.
