Large Eddy Simulations (LES) with the Conditional Moment Closure (CMC) combustion model of swirling ethanol spray flames have been performed in conditions close to blow-off for which a wide database of experimental measurements is available for both flame and spray characterization. The solution of CMC equations exploits a three-dimensional unstructured code with a first order closure for chemical source terms. It is shown that LES/CMC is able to properly capture the flame structure at different conditions and agrees reasonably well with the measurements both in terms of mean flame shape and dynamic behaviour of the flame evaluated in terms of local extinctions and statistics of the lift-off height. Experimental measurements of the overall (liquid plus gaseous) mixture fraction, performed using the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy technique, are also included allowing further assessment and validation of the numerical method. The sensitivity of the simulation results to the various boundary conditions is discussed.
Keywords: Conditional moment closure; Large eddy simulation; Lift-off; Local extinction; Turbulent spray flames.