Numerical modeling of pulverized iron flames in a multidimensional hot counterflow burner

TL;DR

This paper presents a numerical model for pulverized iron flames in a hot counterflow burner, validated against experimental data, and analyzes the combustion characteristics and multidimensional effects under different oxidizer conditions.

Contribution

The study extends a state-of-the-art model to include unsteady effects and provides detailed analysis of iron combustion dynamics in a multidimensional burner environment.

Findings

Model accurately predicts particle dynamics and flame shape.

Flow velocity and flame speed show quantitative agreement with experiments.

Iron particles transition from kinetic-controlled to diffusion-controlled regimes.

Abstract

Pulverized iron flames stabilized in a multidimensional hot counterflow burner are simulated using a numerical model, which is extended from the state-of-the-art model developed by Hazenberg and van Oijen (PCI, 2021) considering unsteady effects. The results are compared to available experimental data (McRae et al., PCI, 2019), including particle image velocimetry measurements, a direct flame photo, the flow field velocity and the flame speed for different iron and oxygen concentrations. The comparison shows that the particle dynamics and flame shape can be reasonably well predicted. The flow field velocity and flame speed also show quantitative agreement between the simulation and the experiment. Based on the validated simulation results, the iron combustion characteristics, including the thermal structures and the multidimensional effects, are analyzed for different oxidizer environments. The analysis shows that the iron particles undergo a transition from kinetic-controlled regime (up to ignition) to a diffusion-controlled regime (burning) at the central axis for both environments with the particle temperature being higher than the gas temperature at the flame front, which is indicated by the Damk\"ohler number. For the hot counterflow burner, there exist multidimensional effects, i.e., the temperature and Damk\"ohler number change along the radial direction.