Georgia Institute of Technology College of Sciences

Fine properties of spherical averages in the continuous setting include
$L^p$  improving estimates
and sparse bounds, interesting in the settings of a fixed radius, lacunary sets of radii, and the
full set of radii. There is a parallel theory in the setting of discrete spherical averages, as studied
by Elias Stein, Akos Magyar, and Stephen Wainger. We recall the continuous case, outline the
discrete case, and illustrate a unifying proof technique. Joint work with Robert Kesler, and
Dario Mena Arias.

We will discuss how to solve algebraic equations using symbolic, numerical, and combinatorial methods.

Soot particles are major pollutants emitted from propulsion and power generation systems. In turbulent combustion, soot evolution is heavily influenced by soot-turbulence-chemistry interaction. Specifically, soot is formed during combustion of fuel-rich mixtures and is rapidly oxidized before being transported by turbulence into fuel-lean mixtures. Furthermore, different soot evolution mechanisms are dominant over distinct regions of mixture fraction. For these reasons, a new subfilter Probability Density Function (PDF) model is proposed to account for this distribution of soot in mixture fraction space. At the same time, Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) studies of turbulent nonpremixed jet flames have revealed that Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH), the gas-phase soot precursors, are confined to spatially intermittent regions of low scalar dissipation rates due to their slow formation chemistry. The length scales of these regions are on the order of the Kolmogorov scale (i.e., the smallest turbulence scale) or smaller, where molecular diffusion dominates over turbulent mixing irrespective of the large-scale turbulent Reynolds number. A strain-sensitivity parameter is developed to identify such species. A Strain-Sensitive Transport Approach (SSTA) is then developed to model the differential molecular transport in the nonpremixed “flamelet” equations. These two models are first validated a priori against a DNS database, and then implemented within a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) framework, applied to a series of turbulent nonpremixed sooting jet flames, and validated via comparisons with experimental measurements of soot volume fraction.