Radiative heat flux characteristics of methane flames in oxy-fuel atmospheres

Oxy-fuel combustion is a promising alternative for power generation with CO₂ capture, where the fuel is burned in an atmosphere enriched with oxygen and CO₂ is used as a diluent. This type of combustion is characterised by uncommon characteristics in terms of thermal heat transfer budget as compared to air supported systems. The study presents experimental results of radiative heat flux along the flame axis and radiant fractions of non-premixed jet methane flames developing in oxy-fuel environments with oxygen concentrations ranging from 35% to 70%, as well as in air. The flames investigated have inlet Reynolds numbers from 468 to 2340. The data collected have highlighted the effects of the flame structure and thermo-chemical properties of oxy-fuel combustion on the heat flux radiated by the flames. It was first observed that peak heat flux increases considerably with oxygen concentration. More generally the radiant fraction increases with both increasing Reynolds number in the laminar regime and oxygen concentration. It was found that despite a difference in flame temperature, the radiative characteristics of the flames (heat flux distributions and radiant fraction) in air were similar to those with 35% O₂ in CO₂. The radiative properties of flames in oxy-fuel atmosphere with CO₂ as diluents appear to be dominated by the flame temperature.     

Assessment of an unstructured exponential scheme discrete ordinates radiation model for non-gray media

For radiative transfer in complex geometries, Sakami and his co-workers have developed a discrete ordinates method (DOM) exponential scheme for unstructured meshes which was mainly applied to gray media. The present study investigates the application of the unstructured exponential scheme to a wider range of non-gray scenarios found in fire and combustion applications, with the goal to implement it in an in-house Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code for fire simulations. The original unstructured gray exponential scheme is adapted to non-gray applications by employing a statistical narrow-band/correlated-k (SNB-CK) gas model and meshes generated using the authors’ own mesh generator. Different non-gray scenarios involving spectral gas absorption by H₂O and CO₂ are investigated and a comparative analysis is carried out between heat flux and radiative source terms predicted and literature data based on ray-tracing and Monte Carlo methods. The maximum discrepancies for total radiative heat flux do not typically exceed 5%.     

Transformational-zone method of calculation of complex heat exchange during flow of optically active medium inside tube of diffuse grey surface

The paper presents analytical and experimental investigations of influence of radiative heat transfer on complex heat exchange during flow of optically active gas inside a pipe of diffusegrey properties. It was assumed that the pipe is heated from the outside by a constant heat flux and gas flowing inside is both absorbing and emitting and of small optical density. The influence of length and radiative properties of the pipe surface and of the gas temperature distribution on the wall and in the gas were analysed. The influence of radiative energy transfer on overall heat transfer coefficient was estimated. Mathematical model of radiative convective heat exchange in a system of one-dimensional temperature field, based on zone division method of Hottel and surface transformation, was verified numerically and experimentally. The results of numerical calculations were compared with experimental results obtained during carbone dioxide (CO₂) flow inside electrically heated ceramic tube. The set of nonlinear differential equations was solved by Runge-Kutta method with Hamming modification and with the use of separable-kernel method.     

Numerical analysis of interaction between non-gray radiation and forced convection flow over a recess using the full-spectrum k-distribution method

In the present work, the interaction between non-gray radiation and forced convection in a laminar radiating gas flow over a recess including two backward and forward facing steps in a duct is investigated numerically. Distributions of absorption coefficients across the spectrum (50 cm^?1 < η < 20,000 cm^?1) are obtained from the HITRAN2008 database. The full-spectrum k-distribution method is used to account for non-gray radiation properties, while the gray radiation calculations are carried out using the Planck mean absorption coefficient. To find the divergence of radiative heat flux distribution, the radiative transfer equation is solved by the discrete ordinates method. The effects of radiation–conduction parameter, wall emissivity, scattering coefficient and recess length on heat transfer behaviors of the convection–radiation system are investigated for both gray and non-gray mediums. In addition, the results of gray medium are compared with non-gray results in order to judge if the differences between these two approaches are significant enough to justify the usage of non-gray models. Results show that for air mixture with 10 % CO₂ and 20 % H₂O, use of gray model for the radiative properties may cause significant errors and should be avoided.     

Estimation of radiative properties and temperature distributions in coal-fired boiler furnaces by a portable image processing system

This paper presented an experimental investigation on the estimation of radiative properties and temperature distributions in a 670 t/h coal-fired boiler furnace by a portable imaging processing system. The portable system has been calibrated by a blackbody furnace. Flame temperatures and emissivities were measured by the portable system and equivalent blackbody temperatures were deduced. Comparing the equivalent blackbody temperatures measured by the portable system and the infrared pyrometer, the relative difference is less than 4%. The reconstructed pseudo-instantaneous 2-D temperature distributions in two cross-sections can disclose the combustion status inside the furnace. The measured radiative properties of particles in the furnace proved there is significant scattering in coal-fired boiler furnaces and it can provide useful information for the calculation of radiative heat transfer and numerical simulation of combustion in coal-fired boiler furnaces. The preliminary experimental results show this technology will be helpful for the combustion diagnosis in coal-fired boiler furnaces.     

Effect of oxygen fraction on local entropy generation in a hydrogen–air burner

This study considers numerical simulation of the combustion of hydrogen with air, including oxygen and nitrogen, in a burner and the numerical solution of local entropy generation rate due to the high temperature and velocity gradients in the combustion chamber. The effects of equivalence ratio (ϕ) and oxygen percentage (γ) on the combustion and entropy generation rate are investigated for different ϕs (from 0.5 to 1.0) and γs (from 10 to 30%). The combustion is simulated for the fuel mass flow rate providing the same heat transfer rate to the combustion chamber in the each case. The numerical calculation of combustion is performed individually for all cases with the help of the Fluent CFD code. Furthermore, a computer program has been developed to calculate numerically the volumetric entropy generation rate distributions and the other thermodynamic parameters by using the results of the calculations performed with the FLUENT code. The calculations bring out that the increase of ϕ (or the decrease of λ) reduces significantly the reaction rate levels. The average temperatures in the combustion chamber increase about 70 and 23% with the increases of γ (from 10 to 30%) and ϕ (from 0.5 to 1.0), respectively. With the increase of γ from 10 to 30%, the volumetric local entropy generation rates decrease about 9 and 4% in the cases of ϕ=0.5 and 1.0, respectively, and while the total entropy generation rates decrease exponentially, the merit numbers increase. The useful energy transfer rate to irreversibility rate therefore improves as the oxygen percentage increases.     

Radiation modelling in oxy-fuel combustion scenarios

Coal combustion was simulated in a lab-scale furnace and a full scale utility boiler at air-burn, oxy-combustion with dry- and wet-flue gas recycles. Good agreement was obtained between the numerical predictions and experimental measurements. The study confirmed that certain dry and wet recycle ratios imitate the temperature and heat transfer characteristics found in air combustion. The performances of five grey models to predict the radiative properties of gases in the simulations were examined. Emissivity correlations developed for purely CO₂ media were not found to be suitable to predict the property at low H₂O/CO₂ ratios encountered during dry-recycle. Therefore, a new total emissivity correlation and a weighted-sum-of-grey-gases (WSGG) model were formulated to address the shortcomings and inaccuracies in existing grey gas models under oxy-firing. The new WSGG model with 4 band intervals was found to perform well in test cases that were representative of air- and oxy-firing conditions in boilers.     

Thermo-gravitational convection in a continuous optical discharge

The relative importance of such processes as the free convective motion of the gas, the absorption of the laser radiation and radiative heat transfer is discussed. The burning of a continuous optical discharge under experimental conditions [6] is theoretically investigated. The two-dimensional problem of the convective motion of the gas in an optical discharge burning in a vertical CO₂ laser beam inside a cylindrical chamber is solved. The principal characteristics of thermogravitational convection of the radiating air under conditions of local thermodynamic equilibrium at atmospheric pressure are studied on the temperature interval from 300 to 20 000°K.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 4, pp. 124–129, July–August, 1989.     

A novel transient wall heat transfer approach for the start-up of SI engines with gasoline direct injection

The introduction of CO₂-reduction technologies like Start–Stop or the Hybrid-Powertrain and the worldwide stringent emission legislation require a detailed optimization of the engine start-up. The combustion concept development as well as the calibration of the engine control unit makes an explicit thermodynamic analysis of the combustion process during the start-up necessary. Initially, the well-known thermodynamic analysis of in-cylinder pressure at stationary condition was transmitted to the highly non-stationary engine start-up. For this running mode of the engine the current models for calculation of the transient wall heat fluxes were found to be misleading. With a fraction of nearly 45% of the burned fuel energy, the wall heat is very important for the calculation of energy balance and for the combustion process analysis. Based on the measurements of transient wall heat transfer densities during the start-up presented in a former work (Lejsek and Kulzer in Investigations on the transient wall heat transfer at start-up for SI engines with gasoline direct injection. SAE Paper), the paper describes the development of adaptations to the known correlations by Woschni (MTZ 31:491, 1970), Hohenberg (Experimentelle Erfassung der Wandwärme von Kolbenmotoren. TU Graz, Habil., 1980) and Bargende (Ein Gleichungsansatz zur Berechnung der instationären Wandwärmeverluste im Hochdruckteil von Ottomotoren. TH Darmstadt, PhD-Thesis, 1991) for the application during engine start-up. To demonstrate the high accuracy of the model, the results of the cyclic resolved thermodynamic analysis using the presented novel approaches were compared with the results of the measurements. It is shown, that the novel heat flux models for the engine start-up process gives a cyclic resolved thermodynamic analysis to optimize the engine start-up pretty efficient.     

Prediction of a Turbulent Non-Premixed Natural Gas Flame in a Semi-Industrial Scale Furnace using a Radiative Flamelet Combustion Model

A mixedness-reactedness flamelet combustion model coupled with a comprehensive radiation heat transfer model based on the discrete transfer method of solution of the radiative transport equation is applied for the simulation of a 3 MW non-swirling turbulent non-premixed natural gas flame in the experimental furnace at the International Flame Research Foundation. In the calculation, turbulence is represented by the standard k − ε and a differential Reynolds-stress model. Predictions are compared with measurements of mean gas velocity, temperature, major species concentrations and incident radiation wall flux. The radiative mixedness-reactedness flamelet combustion model, irrespective of the model for turbulence, is able to reproduce the basic structure of the experimental flame, which is stabilised downstream of the burner nozzle. In the near burner region, encompassing the non-reacting lift-off zone, good quality predictions are obtained using both the turbulence models, whereas further downstream, within the combusting zone of the jet, the Reynolds-stress turbulence model generates better predictions at and about the furnace axis. The nitric oxide (NO) formation via the thermal- and prompt-NO routes was also calculated and compared with in-flame and flue-gas NO data. The measured NO level at the furnace exit is well reproduced in the calculation, however discrepancies exist near the burner where NO concentrations around the furnace axis are overpredicted.     

Modeling of dynamics, heat transfer, and combustion in two-phase turbulent flows: 2. Flows with heat transfer and combustion

The objective of this part of the paper is to summarize the information concerning the authors' works in the field of simulation of two-phase gas-particle turbulent flows with heat transfer and combustion. A kinetic equation had been derived for the probability density function (PDF) of the particle velocity, temperature, and mass distributions in turbulent flows. This PDF equation is used for the construction of the governing conservation equations of mass, momentum, and heat transfer in the dispersed particle phase.The numerical scheme incorporates two-phase fluid dynamics, convective and radiative heat transfer, and combustion. The proposed models have been applied to the calculation of various particle-laden turbulent flows in jets, combustion and gasification chambers, and furnaces.     

Heat and mass transfer study of impinging turbulent premixed flames

 Impinging jet combusting flows on granite plates are studied. A mathematical model for calculating heat release in turbulent impinging premixed flames is developed. The combustion including radiative heat transfer and local extinction effects, and flow characteristics are modeled using a finite volume computational approach. Two different eddy viscosity turbulence models, namely the standard k–ɛ and the RNG k–ɛ model with and without radiation (discrete transfer model) are assessed. The heat released predictions are compared with experimental data and the agreement is satisfactory only when both radiative heat transfer and local extinction modeling are taken into account. The results indicate that the main effect of radiation is the decrease of temperature values near the jet stagnation point and along the plate surface. Radiation increases temperature gradients and affects predicted turbulence levels independently of the closure model used. Also, the RNG k–ɛ predicts higher temperatures close the solid plate, with and without radiative heat transfer. Received on 13 November 2000 / Published online: 29 November 2001     

Multiphysics Simulation Combining Large-Eddy Simulation,Wall Heat Conduction and Radiative Energy Transfer to Predict Wall Temperature Induced by a Confined Premixed Swirling Flame

A multi-physics simulation combining large-eddy simulation, conjugate heat transfer and radiative heat transfer is used to predict the wall temperature field of a confined premixed swirling flame operating under atmospheric pressure. The combustion model accounts for the effect of enthalpy defect on the flame structure whose stabilization is here sensitive to the wall heat losses. The conjugate heat transfer is accounted for by solving the heat conduction within the combustor walls and with the Hybrid-Cell Neumann-Dirichlet coupling method, enabling to dynamically adapt the coupling period. The latter coupling procedure is enhanced to determine statistics (mean, RMS, \(\ldots \)) in a permanent regime accurately and efficiently thanks to an acceleration technique which is derived and validated. The exact radiative heat transfer equation is solved with an advanced Monte Carlo method with a local control of the statistical error. The coupled simulation is carried out with or without accounting for radiation. Excellent results for the wall temperature are achieved by the fully coupled simulation which are then further analyzed in terms of radiative effects, global energy budget and fluctuations of wall heat flux and temperature.     

Thermodynamic and heat transfer analysis of heat recovery from engine test cell by Organic Rankine Cycle

During manufacture of engines, evaluation of engine performance is essential. This is accomplished in test cells. During the test, a significant portion of heat energy released by the fuel is wasted. In this study, in order to recover these heat losses, Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) is recommended. The study has been conducted assuming the diesel oil to be composed of a single hydrocarbon such as C₁₂H₂₆. The composition of exhaust gases (products of combustion) have been computed (and not determined experimentally) from the stoichiometric equation representing the combustion reaction. The test cell heat losses are recovered in three separate heat exchangers (preheater, evaporator and superheater). These heat exchangers are separately designed, and the whole system is analyzed from energy and exergy viewpoints. Finally, a parametric study is performed to investigate the effect of different variables on the system performance characteristics such as the ORC net power, heat exchangers effectiveness, the first law efficiency, exergy destruction and heat transfer surfaces. The results of the study show that by utilizing ORC, heat recovery equivalent to 8.85 % of the engine power is possible. The evaporator has the highest exergy destruction rate, while the pump has the lowest among the system components. Heat transfer surfaces are calculated to be 173.6, 58.7, and 11.87 m² for the preheater, evaporator and superheater, respectively.     

Functional mathematical model of a hydrogen-driven combustion chamber for a scramjet

A functional mathematical model of a hydrogen-driven combustion chamber for a scramjet is described. The model is constructed with the use of one-dimensional steady gas-dynamic equations and parametrization of the channel configuration and the governing parameters (fuel injection into the flow, fuel burnout along the channel, dissipation of kinetic energy, removal of some part of energy generated by gases for modeling cooling of channel walls by the fuel) with allowance for real thermophysical properties of the gases. Through parametric calculations, it is found that fuel injection in three cross sections of the channel consisting of segments with weak and strong expansion ensures a supersonic velocity of combustion products in the range of free-stream Mach numbers M_∞ = 6–12. It is demonstrated that the angle between the velocity vectors of the gaseous hydrogen flow and the main gas flow can be fairly large in the case of distributed injection of the fuel. This allows effective control of the mixing process. It is proposed to use the exergy of combustion products as a criterion of the efficiency of heat supply in the combustion chamber. Based on the calculated values of exergy, the critical free-stream Mach number that still allows scramjet operation is estimated.     

Effects of surface radiation on natural convection in a rayleigh-benard square enclosure: steady and unsteady conditions

Coupled laminar natural convection with radiation in air-filled square enclosure heated from below and cooled from above is studied numerically for a wide variety of radiative boundary conditions at the sidewalls. A numerical model based on the finite difference method was used for the solution of mass, momentum and energy equations. The surface-to-surface method was used to calculate the radiative heat transfer. Simulations were performed for two values of the emissivities of the active and insulated walls (ɛ₁=0.05 or 0.85, ɛ₂=0.05 or 0.85) and Rayleigh numbers ranging from 10³ to 2.3×10⁶ . The influence of those parameters on the flow and temperature patterns and heat transfer rates are analyzed and discussed for different steady-state solutions. The existing ranges of these solutions are reported for the four different cases considered. It is founded that, for a fixed Ra, the global heat transfer across the enclosure depends only on the magnitude of the emissivity of the active walls. The oscillatory behavior, characterizing the unsteady-state solutions during the transitions from bicellular flows to the unicellular flow are observed and discussed.     

Numerical study on local entropy generation in a burner fueled with various fuels

This study considers numerical simulations of the combustions of hydrogen and various hydrocarbons with air, including 21% oxygen and 79% nitrogen, in a burner and the numerical solution of the local entropy generation rate due to the high temperature and velocity gradients in the combustion chamber. The combustion is simulated for the fuel mass flow rates providing the same heat transfer rate to the combustion chamber in the each fuel case. The effects of (only in the case of H₂ fuel) and equivalence ratio () on the combustion and entropy generation rate are investigated for the different (from 5,000 to 10,000 W) and s (from 0.5 to 1.0). The numerical calculation of combustion is performed individually for all cases with the help of the Fluent CFD code. Furthermore, a computer program has been developed to numerically calculate the volumetric entropy generation rate distributions and the other thermodynamic parameters by using the results of the calculations performed with the FLUENT code. The calculations bring out that the maximum reaction rates decrease with the increase of (or the decrease of ). The large positive and negative temperature gradients occur in the axial direction, nonetheless, the increase of significantly reduces them. The calculations bring out also that with the increase of from 0.5 to 1.0, the volumetric local entropy generation rates decrease about 4% and that the merit numbers increase about 16%.     

Radiative heat transfer in absorbing, emitting, and anisotropically scattering boundary-layer flows with reflecting boundary

The heat transfer in absorbing, emitting, and anisotropically scattering boundary-layer flows with reflecting boundary over a flat plate, over a 90-deg wedge, and in stagnation flow is solved by application of the Galerkin method with the particular solution boundary condition I _p (τ₀,ξ,?μ) of the equation of radiative transfer for an inhomogeneous term and the Box method. The exact integral expressions for the radiation part of this problem are developed. The coupling between convective and radiative heat transfer in boundary-layer flows is described by a set of nonlinear simultaneous equations including differential equations and integrodifferential equations. The Galerkin method and the particular solution boundary condition I _p (τ₀,ξ,?μ) are used to analyze the radiation part of the problem. The nonsimilar boundary-layer equations are solved by the Box method. The present numerical procedure solutions are compared in tables with the other exact treating results, the P-3, and P-1 approximation methods for the case of isotropically scattering boundary-layer flows. The effects of linearly anistropically scattering and reflecting surface are taken into account. It is found that the present method is a reliable and efficient numerical procedure and scattering leads to a reduction in the total heat flux. The influence of the forward-backward scattering parameter on the total heat flux decreases with the increase of the surface reflectivity.     

Three-Dimensional Problem of Radiative Gasdynamics of the Apollo-4 Command Module during Superorbital Atmospheric Entry

The three-dimensional problem of radiative gasdynamics of the superorbital entry of the Apollo-4 command module into the dense terrestrial atmosphere at an angle of attack of 25° is numerically solved. The flow conditions corresponding to the flight velocity V_∞ = 10.5 km/s at an altitude H = 67.3 km are considered in detail. The distributions of the densities of convective and radiative heat fluxes along the surface in a flow are obtained. The spectral composition of the thermal radiation attaining the surface is studied. The results of the calculations are successfully compared with the data of two-dimensional calculations.