Modelling the spontaneous combustion of coal: the adiabatic testing procedure |
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| Authors: | S J Zarrouk M J O'Sullivan J D St George |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Engineering Science , The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019 , Auckland, New Zealand;2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering , The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019 , Auckland, New Zealand |
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| Abstract: | A general approach is described for modelling problems that involve heat and mass transfer in coal, such as spontaneous combustion. It is based on the TOUGH2 code, which is a general-purpose simulator for modelling multi-component, multi-phase, non-isothermal flow in a porous medium. An equation of state (EOS) module for TOUGH2 is developed, which includes accurate physical properties for all of the gases involved (N2, oxygen and carbon dioxide). The new simulator is then used to model the adiabatic method for testing the reactivity of coal samples. An important part of the model development is the selection of the approximate representation of the reaction of coal with oxygen. The results show that (i) using dual Arrhenius parameters and (ii) representing the heat-release as an oxidation reaction rather than a purely thermal reaction both significantly improve the match of the model to the experimental data. |
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