COMBUSTION
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Over the past three decades there has been considerable effort in the world to develop and
introduce alternative transportation fuels to replace conventional fuels such as gasoline
and diesel, environmental issues, most notably air pollution and limited availability of
conventional fuels are among the principle driving forces behind this movement.
If one tries to find for the definition of perfect fuel, hydrogen probably satisfies most of
the desirable characteristics of such a fuel. Plentiful and clean burning, hydrogen has very
high energy content.
Due to difficulties in conducting spatially resolved measurements of combustion
characteristics in devices, the numerical simulation can be cost effective approach to
study the combustion mechanism.
In this work, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) based numerical simulations have
been performed to study the combustion of non-premixed hydrogen-air mixture in
cylindrical chamber.
The performance of the combustor is evaluated by using CFD package FLUENT 6.0
under adiabatic wall condition at various equivalence ratios and mass flow rates of
hydrogen & air.
1.1
The objective of this work is to study the fundamentals of Computational Fluid Dynamics
(CFD), Numerical modeling, combustion phenomenon and various aspects in order to use
them for solving the realistic problems. The objectives of this research effort are:
The understanding of the basics of Hydrogen-oxygen reaction mechanism, its
combustion and the geometry of the cylindrical chamber used in this study is very
important for simulating hydrogen-air combustion system.
To develop a two dimensional numerical mesh and flow model which adequately
and accurately represent the physical model of combustion chamber and is simple
enough to limit the amount of computational time for obtaining a solution.
To prepare a mathematical model for hydrogen-air combustion system.
The objective of this study is to find and apply appropriate model that improve the
simulation of combustion with the commercial CFD-package FLUENT.
Generate numerical data/solutions which correlate as much as possible with the
experimental data for various conditions including equivalence ratios, mass flow
rates of hydrogen-air mixture.
The main objective of the research presented in this seminar, is the development of a
numerical infrastructure for the multidimensional numerical simulation of combustion
processes with the maximum level of accuracy.
CHAPTER 2
HYDROGEN AS A FUEL
The combustion of hydrogen does not produce carbon dioxide (CO2), particulate,
or sulfur emissions. It can produce nitrous oxide (NOX) emissions under some
conditions.
Hydrogen can be produced from renewable resources, such as by reforming
ethanol (this process emits some carbon dioxide) and by the electrolysis of water
(electrolysis is very expensive).
Energy Content for 1 kg (2.2 lb) of Hydrogen = 424 Standard Cubic Feet
(Reacting with oxygen to form water).
CNG
Hydrogen
Gasoline
LPG
Biogas
50000
12000
42000
46000
5000
Density (Kg/m3)
0.69
0.09
720-750
2.24
1.1
34.0
265-325
38.25
25.0
Stoichiometric A/F
(Kg/Kg)
17.3
34.3
14.6
15.5
4-75
1.4-7.6
2.15-9.6
7.5-14
Octane No.
130+
86-94
103-105
120
130
730
585
222
428
700
493-549
Latent Heat of
Vaporizations (KJ/m3)
509
375
428
Molecular Weight
18.88-17.05
100
55-60
Specific Gravity
0.424
0.07
0.72-0.78
-259
-423
80-437
2.1.6 Diffusivity
Hydrogen diffusivity, or its ability to disperse in air, is considerably greater than that of
gasoline.The high diffusivity is advantageous for two main reasons. First, it facilitates the
formation of uniform mixture of fuel and air. Secondly, if a hydrogen leak does develop,
the hydrogen will disperse rapidly. Thus unsafe conditions can either be avoided or
minimized.
2.1.7 Density
Hydrogen has extremely low density. This creates two problems: (1) a very large volume
is necessary to store enough hydrogen to give a vehicle an adequate driving range, (2) the
energy density of hydrogen air charge and hence the power output is reduced.
Hydrogen flames are very pale blue and are almost invisible in daylight due to the
absence of soot. Visibility is enhanced by the presence of moisture or impurities (such as
sulfur) in the air. Hydrogen flames are readily visible in the dark or subdued light.
Hydrogen also can be carried on board vehicles and engine installations in the form of
various metallic hydrides that would permit the controlled release of hydrogen through
the supply of heat, often from the engine exhaust gas or its cooling water. These methods
are of limited usefulness as they add much cost and weight while reducing the flexibility
of the fuel system and contributing to an increase in undesirable emissions. The carrying
of hydrogen as a cryogenic liquid has its serious limitations also. The work and
infrastructure required to liquefy hydrogen are much too expensive and energy intensive
to become widely usable. The energy consumed in the liquefaction process can be up to
around 30% of the heating value of the hydrogen. Also, the cryogenic tanks needed to
carry the liquid hydrogen, despite the very substantial progress made in recent years in
their design, safety and manufacture, remain relatively expensive and bulky.
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CHAPTER 3
COMBUSTION
3.1 Combustion Phenomena
Combustion is a key element of many of modern society's critical technologies.
Combustion accounts for approximately 85 percent of the world's energy usage and is
vital to our current way of life. Spacecraft and aircraft propulsion, electric power
production, home heating, ground transportation, and materials processing all use
combustion to convert chemical energy to thermal energy or propulsive force.
Examples of combustion applications:
Gas turbines and jet engines
Rocket propulsion
Piston engines
Guns and explosives
Furnaces and boilers
Flame synthesis of materials (fullerenes, nano-materials)
Chemical processing (e.g. carbon black production)
Forming of materials
Fire hazards and safety
Combustion is a complex interaction of physical (fluid dynamics, heat and mass transfer),
and chemical processes (thermodynamics, and chemical kinetics). Practical applications
of the combustion phenomena also involve applied sciences such as aerodynamics, fuel
technology, and mechanical engineering.The transport of energy, mass, and momentum
are the physical processes involved in combustion. The conduction of thermal energy, the
diffusion of chemical species, and the flow of gases all follow from the release of
chemical energy in the exothermic reaction. The subject areas most relevant to
combustion in the fields of thermodynamics, transport phenomena, and chemical kinetics
can be summarized as follows:
Thermodynamics:
Stoichiometry
Properties of gases and gas mixtures
Heat of formation
Heat of reaction
Equilibrium
Adiabatic flame temperature
Fluid Dynamics:
Laminar flows
Turbulence
Effects of inertia and viscosity
Combustion aerodynamics
Chemical Kinetics:
Application of thermodynamics to a reacting system gives us the equilibrium
composition of the combustion products and maximum temperature corresponding to this
composition, i.e. the adiabatic flame temperature. However, thermodynamics alone is not
capable of telling us whether a reactive system will reach equilibrium. If the time scales
of chemical reactions involved in a combustion process are comparable to the time scales
of physical processes (e.g. diffusion, fluid flow) taking place simultaneously; the system
may never reach equilibrium. Then, we need the rate of chemical reactions involved in
combustion. Combustion processes can be sub-divided based on mixing as premixed,
non- premixed and partially premixed. Combustion in homogeneous-charge sparkignition engines and lean burn turbines is under premixed conditions. Contrastingly,
combustion in Diesel engines or industrial furnaces is under non-premixed conditions. In
the nonpremixed cases, fuel is injected into the combustion chamber along with air,
where it is ignited due to pre-existing hot gases or auto-ignites due to high temperatures
second criterion for subdividing the turbulent combustion relates to the ratio of
turbulence to chemical reaction time scales. Above a certain cross-over temperature,
hydrocarbon oxidation occurs by chain-branching. Chain-branching ceases when the
temperature falls below this limit, thus causing extinction of flame. This crossover
temperature increases with pressure. While the fast chemical processes can be simulated
using equilibrium approach, slow chemical reactions require being modeled using kinetic
expressions. Presence of slow and very fast reactions in the same reaction mechanism can
pose problems in numerical solutions due to stiffness of the equations. Most industrial
combustion processes involve turbulent flows. Laminar flows are encountered in few
industrial cases and a large number of academic cases. Flow simulations require the
solutions of balance equations (of mass, energy and momentum). These equations are
mostly of partial differential form. Laminar flow cases are much simpler and
straightforward and can often be approximated with one dimensional treatment. Presence
of turbulence in the flow requires special treatment to account for the complex nature of
turbulence. Combustion requires that fuel and oxidizer be mixed at the molecular level
and in turbulent flows; this mixing is done not only by molecular (thermal) processes, but
also by the turbulent fluctuations. Molecular mixing takes place at the interface of the
smallest eddies.
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The third limit follows the trend that one would expect from simple density
considerations. As the pressure increases, the initial densities of the reactants
increase and a lower temperature is necessary for the reactions to become fast
enough for explosion. Furthermore, noting the logarithmic axis, we can see that
the effect of temperature is much stronger than that of pressure, a trend one would
expect and correctly captured by the considerations of simplified one-step
Arrhenius chemistry.
CHAPTER 4
GRID GENERATION AND MATHEMATICAL MODELING
4.1 Model geometry and mesh
The geometry of the cylindrical chamber used in this study is shown in figure 5.The non
premixed hydrogen and air are injected into the cylindrical chamber from inlets located at
one axial end as shown in figure 5. A small nozzle in the center of the combustor
introduces hydrogen at 90m/s and air enters the combustor coaxially. Because of the axial
symmetry of the combustion chamber, the geometry is modeled as a two-dimensional
axi-symmetric model.
= -
+ Fi
is the viscous force tensor and F represents a body force in the -th coordinate
}-
Where is the molecular viscosity which depends on the fluid. The Kronecker delta is
=1,if i = j, 0 otherwise.
4.3.3 Species
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=-
(=1, 2, 3 n)
= where
= -
Where D is the molecular diffusivity of the species relative to the other species.
) = -(2/3)
+:
}-
conditions are applied along the central axis of the combustion chamber. At the exit, a
pressure outlet boundary condition is specified with a fixed pressure of 1.01325 * 105 Pa.
At the chamber wall, no-slip boundary condition and no species flux normal to the wall
surface are applied. The thermal boundary condition on the chamber wall is taken as
adiabatic wall condition.
CHAPTER 5
CFD SIMULATION
A number of numerical simulations have been performed to study the combustion
phenomena under adiabatic wall conditions when hydrogen air mixture changes from
lean to rich and also at different mass flow rate of mixture. Figure. 7 shows the contours
of temperature (K) on the cross section along central axis of combustion chamber at
stoichiometric air fuel ratio i.e. at =1. And Figure 8 shows the gas temperature
distribution along the central axis. It can be seen from Figures 7 and 8 that the highest
temperature is obtained at the exit of combustion chamber. The flame temperature can be
as high as 2365 K which is almost the same as the adiabatic flame temperature of the
Combustion of non premixed stoichiometric hydrogen-air mixture. Figures 9 to show the
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contours of molecular species on the cross-section along the central axis at =1 under
adiabatic wall condition.
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CHAPTER 6
CONCLUSION
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In this work, the CFD based combustion simulations have been applied to analyze the
combustion characteristics of non-premixed hydrogen-air in a 2D combustor. The CFD
simulations, taking in to account the coupling of fluid dynamics, heat transfer and
detailed chemical kinetics, are used to investigate the effects of various operating
conditions. The combustor performance is evaluated by predicting the temperatures of
exit gas of the combustor and outer wall of the combustor. To make the combustor
operable, the heat output should meet the design criteria, the wall temperature should be
lower than the material allowable temperature and the exit gas temperature should be
high enough.
CHAPTER 7
REFERENCES
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