Jens Dedeyne, Laurien A. Vandewalle, David J. Van Cauwenberge, Kevin M. Van Geem, Guy B. Marin (UGhent)

Even though LES is being used extensively to evaluate flow features in many different applications, RANS simulations remain the industrial standard as it is less computationally demanding. This is especially the case for simulation of steam cracking, where detailed kinetics increase the computational demand even more. To reduce the computational cost of these simulations, the domain size can be decreased drastically by implementing streamwise periodic boundary conditions (SPBC). However, the underlying assumptions of constant property flows limit this to non-reactive systems.
A simulation approach was developed to extend the existing methodology to non-equilibrium kinetics. This novel methodology was validated by comparison with full-scale CFD simulations for an industrially applied propane pyrolysis reactor.