Transient Development of Flame and Soot Distribution in Laminar Diffusion Flame With Preheated Air

Abstract

A numerical investigation of the transient development of flame and soot distributions in a laminar axisymmetric coflowing diffusion flame of methane in air has been carried out considering the air preheating effect. The gas phase conservation equations of mass, momentum, energy, and species concentrations along with the conservation equations of soot mass concentration and number density are solved simultaneously, with appropriate boundary conditions, by an explicit finite difference method. Average soot diameters are then calculated from these results. It is observed that the soot is formed in the flame when the temperature exceeds 1300 K. The contribution of surface growth toward soot formation is more significant compared with that of nucleation. Once the soot particles reach the high temperature oxygen-enriched zone beyond the flame, the soot oxidation becomes important. During the initial period, when soot oxidation is not contributing significantly, some of the soot particles escape into the atmosphere. However, under steady condition the exhaust product gas is nonsooty. Preheating of air increases the soot volume fraction significantly. This is both due to more number of soot particles and the increase in the average diameter. However, preheating of air does not cause a qualitative difference in the development of the soot-laden zone during the flame transient period.