Combustion and Flame, Vol.223, 511-524, 2021
Multidimensional simulations of Mckenna-driven flow tube configuration: Investigating non-ideality in NOx formation flow tube experiments
Multidimensional simulations have been conducted to simulate atmospheric pressure, flat-flame/McKenna-burner-driven-flow tube experiments targeted to obtain NOx speciation data for predicting/analyzing syngas combustion emissions. In a prior work, we demonstrated the impacts of multidimensional transport on post flame region prediction departures from those assuming unidimensional flow/transport conditions. Here we develop and utilize a multidimensional laminar reacting flow solver to simulate the fully coupled flame and post flame regions to further elucidate the impacts of the earlier unidimensional modeling assumptions on interpreting post flame NOx experimental data. The model is used to simulate a lean, premixed syngas/air flame and its associated post flame regions within a cylindrical flow-tube-like arrangement. The combustion process takes place under atmospheric condition with trace amount of NOx seeding fed into the inlet gas stream. The spatial evolution of NOx species (NO and NO2) in the flame and in the post-combustion zone suggests two distinct regions: 1) a region encompassing the flame structure itself; and 2) a post flame region in which the temperature decays due to both axial and radial transport processes. The predictions show that for the conditions studied, a pulsatile flow field exists due to the formation of an expanding and contracting recirculation zone in the outer periphery of the flow tube. By resolving the nature of the flow, the resulting time-averaged temperature and species concentrations show improved agreement with existing experimental measurements. The flow-field interaction results in radial inhomogeneities in the NO2 profiles with the maximum concentration offset from the flow centerline. The location of the peak in NO2 is coupled with radial temperature gradients from wall cooling effects and their significant influence on NO/NO2 interconversion kinetics, producing notable NO2 accumulation in regions near the wall. Geometrical configurations capable of suppressing/minimizing the pulsatile nature are also investigated and the results are compared. Other experimental configurations could be considered in parametric simulations to determine the optimal configuration that would minimize non-idealities in the observations. The work shows the value in performing such computations in advance of settling on a particular design for flow tube/flow reactor experiments. (C) 2020 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.