Effects of hydrogen and nitrogen on soot volume fraction, primary particle diameter and temperature in laminar ethylene/air diffusion flames

Abstract The current study analyzed the soot precursor of the n-butylbenzene found in diesel and kerosene in laminar flame, and integrated the corresponding poly-aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) growth mechanism with the popular n-butylbenzene oxidation mechanisms to improve the soot formation prediction of n-butylbenzene. The size of soot precursor was determined by the fringe length in the core of soot particle since the nanostructure of the core of soot particle is similar with that of nascent soot particle formed by soot precursor nucleation. The geometric mean fringe length in core of soot particles was measured to be 0.67 nm approximating to the size of five-ringed PAH (A5). An A5 growth mechanism was added on a popular n-butylbenzene mechanism, and the combined mechanism was further reduced. After validation by the ignition delay time in literature, the combined mechanism was then validated by the primary particle diameter in laboratory and soot volume fraction of n-propylbenzene in literature. The calculated soot precursor concentration and PAH condensation rate of the combined mechanism are smaller than that of the base mechanism. The simulated primary soot particle diameter of proposed combined mechanism agrees well with the measure primary soot particle diameter. Comparing to the simulated soot volume fraction of base n-butylbenzene mechanism, the simulated soot volume fraction of proposed combined n-butylbenzene-A5 mechanism agrees well with the measure soot volume fraction of n-propylbenzene in literature. This study provides certain support for further investigation of soot formation of n-butylbenzene and its relative fuel like diesel and kerosene.

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Numerical Investigation of Soot Formation in Laminar Ethylene-Air Diffusion Flames

Volume 2: Turbo Expo 2007 ◽

10.1115/gt2007-27118 ◽

2007 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Massimiliano Di Domenico ◽

Peter Gerlinger ◽

Manfred Aigner

Keyword(s):

Volume Fraction ◽

Diffusion Flames ◽

Soot Formation ◽

Formation Rate ◽

Soot Volume Fraction ◽

Transport Equations ◽

Combustion Model ◽

Inlet Temperature ◽

Elementary Reactions ◽

Air Diffusion

In this work a new soot formation model is used to predict temperature, species and soot concentrations in laminar ethylene-air diffusion flames. The gas-phase chemistry is described by elementary reactions with transport equations solved for any species. The chemical paths yielding to soot are modeled by a sectional approach for Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs). Soot dynamics is described by a two-equation model for soot mass fraction and particle number density. Phenomena like nucleation, growth and oxidation have been included both for PAHs and soot. Moreover, PAH-PAH and PAH-soot collisions are taken into account. Species, PAH and soot transport equations are implemented in the in-house DLR-THETA CFD code. The laminar, ethylene-air diffusion flame investigated experimentally by McEnally and coworkers (2000) is simulated in order to validate the model. An analysis of the main flame’s features as well as the interaction between them and the soot chemistry will be given. A qualitative correlation between local stoichiometric values and soot formation rate is assessed. In order to study the sensitivity of the combustion model to simulation parameters like the inlet temperature and kinetic mechanism, additional simulations are performed. Results are also compared with experimental data in terms of temperature, species mole fractions and soot volume fraction axial profiles.

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Effect of the Preheated Oxidizer Temperature on Soot Formation and Flame Structure in Turbulent Methane-Air Diffusion Flames at 1 and 3 atm: A CFD Investigation

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14123671 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (12) ◽

pp. 3671

Author(s):

Subrat Garnayak ◽

Subhankar Mohapatra ◽

Sukanta K. Dash ◽

Bok Jik Lee ◽

V. Mahendra Reddy

Keyword(s):

Mole Fraction ◽

Air Temperature ◽

Reaction Rate ◽

Volume Fraction ◽

Diffusion Flames ◽

Soot Formation ◽

Flame Structure ◽

Soot Volume Fraction ◽

Computational Domain ◽

Pressure Elevation

This article presents the results of computations on pilot-based turbulent methane/air co-flow diffusion flames under the influence of the preheated oxidizer temperature ranging from 293 to 723 K at two operating pressures of 1 and 3 atm. The focus is on investigating the soot formation and flame structure under the influence of both the preheated air and combustor pressure. The computations were conducted in a 2D axisymmetric computational domain by solving the Favre averaged governing equation using the finite volume-based CFD code Ansys Fluent 19.2. A steady laminar flamelet model in combination with GRI Mech 3.0 was considered for combustion modeling. A semi-empirical acetylene-based soot model proposed by Brookes and Moss was adopted to predict soot. A careful validation was initially carried out with the measurements by Brookes and Moss at 1 and 3 atm with the temperature of both fuel and air at 290 K before carrying out further simulation using preheated air. The results by the present computation demonstrated that the flame peak temperature increased with air temperature for both 1 and 3 atm, while it reduced with pressure elevation. The OH mole fraction, signifying reaction rate, increased with a rise in the oxidizer temperature at the two operating pressures of 1 and 3 atm. However, a reduced value of OH mole fraction was observed at 3 atm when compared with 1 atm. The soot volume fraction increased with air temperature as well as pressure. The reaction rate by soot surface growth, soot mass-nucleation, and soot-oxidation rate increased with an increase in both air temperature and pressure. Finally, the fuel consumption rate showed a decreasing trend with air temperature and an increasing trend with pressure elevation.

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