Kendal Bushe

Associate Professor

B.Sc. (Alberta); Ph.D. (Cambridge)

Research Interests

• Combustion
• Turbulence
• Numerical Simulation
• Computational Fluid Dynamics
• IC Engines
• Thermal Power Generation

Current Research Work

My research is in turbulent combustion. I have been developing methods for numerical simulation of turbulent combustion, including the development of a new modelling approach which has come to be known as Conditional Source-term Estimation. I have also been involved in experimental work; my research group has commissioned two different experimental facilities for the study of the ignition and combustion of methane and natural gas in engines.

• Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes: Here, the governing equations in their ensemble-averaged form are solved to obtain either steady or transient flow fields using both commercial CFD packages and in-house, flow-specific codes. Models must be provided for the dissipation of energy due to turbulence. In the case of reacting flows, models must also be provided for the averaged chemical source-terms. Applications range from fundamental studies to industrial applications for use in design optimization.
• Large Eddy Simulation: In LES, the governing equations are spatially filtered such that only the large scale motions in the flow are resolved on the computational grid. Models must be provided for the dissipation of energy at unresolved scales. In the case of reacting flows, models must be provided for the chemical source-terms as well because they are also under-resolved in simulations of most practical flames. Here we have been focusing on careful validation of models against DNS and experimental data for simple laboratory-scale flames.
• Fundamental ignition simulations: We are also studying autoignition using the relatively new Stochastic Particle Model, which solves the chemical Master equation using a Monte Carlo technique. Using this method, the autoignition delay time becomes a random variable. This study has significant implications for the operation and control of Homogeneous-Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engines.

Teaching Activities

• MECH 375: Heat Transfer
• MECH 470: Energy Conversion Systems
• MECH 479: Computational Fluid Dynamics
• MECH 576: Combustion
• MECH 586: Turbulent Shear Flows

Selected Publications:

• • C. Devaud, W. K. Bushe & J. Bellan, “The modeling of the turbulent reaction rate under high-pressure conditions: A priori evaluation of the Conditional Source-term Estimation concept,” Combustion and Flame, 207, pp. 205-221, 2019.
  • G. R. Hendra & W. K. Bushe, “The uniform conditional state model for turbulent reacting flows,” Combustion and Flame, 205, pp. 484-505, 2019.
  • C. Devaud, W.K. Bushe, and J.R. Bellan, “Modelling of the Turbulent Reaction Rate in High-Pressure Flows,” In AIAA Scitech 2019 Forum (p.1493), 2019.
  • W. K. Bushe, “Spatial gradients of conditional averages in turbulent flames,” Combustion and Flame, 192, pp. 314-339, 2018.
  • J. Yi, A. Frisque, and W.K. Bushe, “Evaluation of Impact of Turbulence Model Choices in CFD for Cp-Values Used in Airflow Networks,” Proceedings of the 15th IBPSA Conference San Francisco, CA, USA, August 2017.
  • H. P. Tsui, M. M. Kamal, S. Hochgreb & W. K. Bushe, “Direct comparison of PDF and scalar dissipation rates between LEM simulations and experiments for turbulent, premixed methane air flames,” Combustion and Flame, 165, pp. 208-222, 2016.
  • H.P. Tsui, and W.K. Bushe, “Conditional Source-term Estimation using dynamic ensemble selection and parallel iterative solution,” Combustion Theory and Modelling, 20(5), pp.812-833, June 2016.
  • M.M. Salehi, A. Frisque, and W.K. Bushe, “Did Pursuing LEED Make the CIRS Building More Energy Efficient?” Proceedings of the 14th Conference of International Building Performance Simulation Association, Hyderabad, India, December 2015.
  • M.M. Salehi, B.T. Cavka, A. Frisque, D. Whitehead, and W.K. Bushe, “A case study: The energy performance gap of the Center for Interactive Research on Sustainability at the University of British Columbia,” Journal of Building Engineering, 4, pp.127-139, December 2015.
  • N. Shahbazian, M.M. Salehi, C.P. Groth, Ö.L. Gülder, and W.K. Bushe, “Performance of conditional source-term estimation model for LES of turbulent premixed flames in thin reaction zones regime,” Proceedings of the Combustion Institute, 35(2), pp.1367-1375, 2015.
  • G.V. Nivarti, M.M. Salehi, and W.K. Bushe, “A mesh partitioning algorithm for preserving spatial locality in arbitrary geometries,” Journal of Computational Physics, 281, pp.352-364, January 2015.
  • K. Luo, H. Wang, W. K. Bushe, and J. Fan, “Direct numerical simulation and reaction rate modelling of premixed turbulent flames,” International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2014.
  • Salehi, M.M., Bushe, W.K., P. Marmion, and R. Pradinuk, “CFD Modelling of an Underground Water Tank Heat Storage System,” Proceedings of the eSIM IBPSA 2014 Conference, 2014.
  • M. Mahdi Salehi, W. Kendal Bushe, N. Shahbazian, and C. Groth, “Modified laminar flamelet presumed probability density function for LES of premixed turbulent combustion,” Proceedings of the Combustion Institute, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 1203–1211, 2013.

For a full list of my publications, visit my profile on: