A fully coupled, parallel approach for the post-processing of CFD data through reactor network analysis

In this paper we describe and apply a parallel code, named KPPSMOKE, for the prediction of pollutantemissions from combustion devices operating in turbulent conditions. The approach is based on thekinetic post-processing of CFD simulations, which are transformed into equivalent networks of perfectlystirred reactors and solved using a detailed kinetic mechanism (hundreds of species). The numericalalgorithm is based on a fully-coupled technique, in which the highly non-linear mass balance equationsare solved together, by alternating different resolution methods in order to ensure high accuracy and fastconvergence. As a result of KPPSMOKE parallel structure, large reactor networks characterizing industrial devices (10^5–10^6reactors) can be solved in reasonable times (∼hours).The accuracy and the reliability of the algorithm was demonstrated on a lab-scale burner and on afull-scale industrial device, i.e. a combustor for aircrafts. The numerical performance was also assessed in terms of parallel efficiency and speedup.