• CaF-216-126-135

Simulation of primary particle size distributions in a premixed ethylene stagnation flame

Authors: Dingyu Hou, Casper Lindberg, Mengda Wang, Manoel Y. Manuputty, Xiaoqing You, and Markus Kraft*

Reference: Combustion and Flame 216, 126-135, (2020)

Highlights
  • Morphology of soot aggregates in a premixed ethylene flame was computed using a detailed model and compared with experimental TEM images directly.
  • A thorough parametric sensitivity study was performed to understand the influence of key model parameters on the predicted PSDs and soot aggregate morphology.
  • Time scale analysis for individual sooting processes were conducted to explain the morphological evolution of soot particles.
Abstract

Graphical abstract Numerical simulation of soot formation in a laminar premixed burner-stabilized ethylene stagnation flame was performed with a detailed population balance model (DPBM) capable of tracking full structural details of aggregates as well as their chemical composition. A thorough parametric sensitivity study was carried out to understand the influence of individual sooting processes on the computed primary particle size distributions (PPSDs). The rate of production of pyrene, coagulation efficiency and surface growth rate were found to have significant effects on the computed PPSDs. Besides, we found that the instantaneous sintering between small primary particles (PP) can affect the computed PPSDs drastically while sintering between large PPs within aggregates only had mild effects. For an ethylene premixed flame with stagnation plate height being 1.2 cm (Combust. Flame, 198:428-435, 2018), good agreement was obtained between both the computed and measured PPSD and fractal dimension, which supports the current mechanisms contributing to the evolution of PPs, i.e. nucleation, coagulation, surface growth and sintering. Moreover, time scale analysis for individual sooting processes was performed to determine the dominant particle processes at different periods of time, which helped explain the evolution of soot morphology.


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*Corresponding author:
Telephone: +44 (0)1223 762784 (Dept) 769010 (CHU)
Address: Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology
University of Cambridge
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Philippa Fawcett Drive
Cambridge CB3 0AS
United Kingdom
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