The Chair for Simulation of Reacting Thermo-Fluid Systems employs virtual reality (VR) tools to support post-processing and data analysis of CFD simulations. VR enables the interactive analysis of three-dimensional flow datasets, with or without particles (e.g. bubbles, droplets or solid particles), allowing complex flow processes to be visualised and examined more deeply from a multitude of perspectives. The following examples illustrate how VR has been used to explore our simulation research data:

The above example presents a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of turbulent pulverised solid fuel combustion in a swirling gas-assisted lab scale combustion chamber using an Euler–Lagrange modelling framework. In this approach, the gas phase is treated as a continuum, while the solid particles are represented as discrete Lagrangian point particles. The chemical reactions are described using a flamelet tabulation method based on the flamelet/progress variable (FPV) approach. The underlying six-dimensional flamelet table captures the mixing of the pilot, volatile and char off-gas fuel streams with air, as well as chemical reaction progress, interphase heat transfer and turbulent sub-grid scale variations [1].

A potential electrobiotechnological strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions is microbial electrosynthesis in bubble column reactors [2]. This process aims to capture CO₂ generated in industrial processes and recycle it as a chemical feedstock. Initially, electrical energy is converted into chemical energy by electrolysing water to produce hydrogen. The hydrogen serves as an energy source for microorganisms (e.g. Cupriavidus necator). When CO₂ is supplied to the process, these microorganisms can produce energy-rich carbon compounds (e.g. methane) and raw materials for the chemical industry (e.g. terpenes, high-value sugars, aldehydes and organic acids). Experimental measurements of bubble size and velocity have been conducted in collaboration with the EBT-BLT group at KIT. The two-phase flow inside the bubble column was modelled at EBI-TFS using an Euler-Lagrange modelling approach. The gas bubbles injected at the bottom of the reactor were described as discrete point particles and subjected to various forces (e.g. drag, buoyancy, lift and gravity) that drive their trajectories.

[1] Luu, T. D. et al. "Flame characterisation of gas-assisted pulverised coal combustion using FPV-LES". Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 39 (2023) 3249-3258. ⇒ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proci.2022.07.080
[2] Enzmann, F. et al. "Transferring bioelectrochemical processes from H-cells to a scalable bubble column reactor". Chemical Engineering Science 193 (2019) 133-143. ⇒ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2018.08.056