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Aim: Simulating Combustion of Natural Gas. Objective: Part I Perform a combustion simulation on the combustor model and plot the variation of the mass fraction of the different species in the simulation using line probes at different locations of the combustor as shown in Fig. You need to plot for CO2, H2O,…
Faizan Akhtar
updated on 07 Jun 2021
Aim: Simulating Combustion of Natural Gas.
Objective:
Part I
Perform a combustion simulation on the combustor model and plot the variation of the mass fraction of the different species in the simulation using line probes at different locations of the combustor as shown in Fig. You need to plot for CO2, H2O, CH4, N2, O2, NOx emissions & Soot formation.
Part II
As you must have observed from the above simulation, the Nox and soot are getting formed at the outlet of the combustor. Such formation has harmful effects on the environment and humans. The stringent government norms also demand the least formation of Nox and soot and to satisfy those requirements, you need to check the effect of adding the water in the fuel.
In this part, you need to add the water content in the fuel from 5% to 30% by mole and observe the effect of it on the results. It is necessary to provide line plots and contours to prove your claim.
Introduction
A combustor is an area or a chamber where the combustion takes place. It can be a burner, combustion chamber, or flame holder. In a combustor, the high-pressure air is fed which is heated at constant pressure and is guided to the turbines through the nozzle-guided vanes.
A combustor must maintain stable combustion despite the velocity of the air is on the higher side. In order to do so the air mixes and ignites the fuel and to complete the combustion more air is added. The typical components of the combustor include fuel inlet, air inlet, and the walls of the combustor. The drawbacks of the combustor model include the emission of species such as carbon-di-oxide and emission of NOx and soot formation due to incomplete combustion which is harmful to the environment. The temperature plot should be uniform, if it is not then it will lead to temperature hotspots leading to the thermal damage of the combustor.
Applications of combustion
The typical application of the combustion includes
Solving and Modelling approach
Preprocessing and Solver settings
The geometry is loaded into Spaceclaim
The combine option is selected which is available in the "Design" ribbon, and the "Select Bodies to Merge" is selected and the components are merged into a single one.
The plane option is selected from the "Design" ribbon and the three plains are created as shown below
The "Split Body" is selected from the ribbon, the target body, and the XY plane is selected first, the resulting split body is shown below
The XZ plane is selected and the body is split into one-fourth as shown below
The front portion of the body is selected and is copied and pasted in a new tab with a new file name as shown below
Thus a 3-D model is converted into a 2-D model for ease in simulation. The 2-D model is loaded for meshing.
Meshing
It is the process of discretizing the entire computational domain into a finite number of control volumes. These volumes are used for solving non-linear second-order PDE. The NS equations are solved in each volume using iterative procedures and the leftover after each iteration is called Residuals. The residuals plot plays an important criterion in determining whether the solution has converged or not. The residuals can never be zero but lower residuals mean the solution is reaching a more accurate level. There are various factors that play an important role in determining the convergence and one of the criteria is meshing. The coarse mesh has higher skewness and aspect ratio value. The mesh refinement approach is carried out to decrease the value of the mentioned parameters recommended by ANSYS-FLUENT. The finite volume discretization schemes are recommended by the CFD software package because it preserves the conservation property, it can be applied to the structured and unstructured mesh.
Baseline mesh
Element size: 2mm
Captured curvature: Yes
Captured proximity: Yes
Num cells across gaps: 1
Mesh metric
Number of Elements | Element Quality | Aspect Ratio | Skewness | Orthogonal Quality |
17037 | 0.99564 | 1.011 | 4.5526e−003 | 0.99981 |
Refined mesh
Element size: 1mm
Captured curvature: Yes
Captured proximity: Yes
Num cells across gaps: 2
Mesh metric
Number of Elements | Element Quality | Aspect Ratio | Skewness | Orthogonal Quality |
67345 | 0.99731 | 1.0035 | 2.7491e−003 | 0.99988 |
Element size: 0.8mm
Captured curvature: Yes
Captured proximity: Yes
Num cells across gaps: 3
Mesh metric
Number of Elements | Element Quality | Aspect Ratio | Skewness | Orthogonal Quality |
105933 | 0.99733 | 1.0061 | 2.5638e−003 | 0.9999 |
Element size: 0.7mm
Captured curvature: Yes
Captured proximity: Yes
Num cells across gaps: 4
Mesh metric
Number of Elements | Element Quality | Aspect Ratio | Skewness | Orthogonal Quality |
138094 | 0.99691 | 1.0038 | 3.1476e−003 | 0.9998 |
Named selection
Air inlet (Type Velocity inlet)
Fuel inlet (Type Velocity inlet)
Side Walls (Type Wall)
Axis (Type Axis)
Walls (Type Wall)
Outlet (Type Pressure outlet)
Setup
The steady-state pressure-based(M<0.3) solver was selected. The axis-symmetric option was selected which states that the rate of change of any quantities (density, temperature, and pressure) remains zero, the change is observed only in the axial direction (x-axis).
The energy equation is selected.
Calculation of Reynolds number
Re=ρ⋅v⋅Dμ
Re=1.225⋅0.5⋅0.081.7894e−05
Re=2738.348 which justifies the flow is in transitional region but the Reynolds number is more close to the turbulent region.
Viscous model
The turbulence model was set to k−ε realizable, standard wall function.
The family of the turbulence model and its variants (Standard/RNG/Realizable) are considered one of the frequently used turbulence models and they are found in all commercial codes available. It is used for the high Reynolds number, equilibrium flows and steady-state without having a large pressure gradient. The major feature of this model is wall sensitivity. There are certain shortcomings of this model is that it can only be used for high Reynolds number, so the law of the wall must be employed to obtain the velocity"boundary condition" away from solid boundaries. In order to integrate the equation in the viscous sub-layer low Reynolds number must be used. The model is insensitive to the adverse pressure gradient so it ignores the shear stress originating from the wall and thus it delays separation. The best way to avoid all those shortcomings is to use the Realizable model which uses a reliability constraint in the equation as if all the normal stresses near the wall are positive and the correlation coefficient of the shear stress should not exceed one.
The near-wall treatment is chosen as a Standard wall function which should not be used below the Y+ limit of 11 as the solution accuracy might deteriorate in an uncontrollable manner.
Species model
The species model allows us to set the parameters related to species transport and combustion. In the species model "Species Transport" is selected. The species transport allows us to set the model related to the mixing and transport of species by solving conservation equations consisting of convection, diffusion, and the reaction terms in the equation. The "Reaction" is selected as "Volumetric" which enables the calculation of the reacting flow as volumetric. The None-Explicit Source Chemistry Solver was used. The Inlet Diffusion is selected from the option which enables the calculation of diffusion flux at the inlet. The Diffusion Energy Source is selected which includes the effect of enthalpy transport due to species diffusion in the energy equation. The number of volumetric species is displayed as 5 (CO2, H2O, CH4, N2, O2) this is the informational value and it cannot be edited. The mixture-material can be selected from the dropdown list as such the present challenge states that the mixture-material should be "methane-air", "methane-air2". The "Eddy-Dissipation" is selected as the Turbulence-Chemistry- Interaction enables us to use it for turbulent flows and computes only the mixing rate.
The chemical reaction involving combustion of methane with air is as follows'
CH4+ar(O2+3.76N2)→aCO2+bH2O+cN2
Thus equating left-hand side to the right hand side
a=1
2b=4
3.76ar=c
2ar=2a+b
Therefore a=1, b=2, ar=2c=7.52
At the fuel inlet, the methane is injected which is equal to a 1-mole fraction or mass fraction.
The air mixture contains 2 moles of O2 and 7.52 moles of N2.
Mole fraction of O2=29.52=0.21
Mole fraction of N2=7.529.52=0.7899
Equivalent mass fraction of O2=0.23
Equivalent mass fraction of N2=0.77
NOx model
The generation of NOx is quite low during the combustion process. In other words NOx chemistry has less influence on temperature field and other combustion products. The NOx model is activated after the species model has been set up. The methane is selected as fuel.
The "Thermal NOx" and "PromptNOx" are selected for the above challenge. For particulate matters present in the combustion the fuel NOx will be enabled only if the DPM option is enabled. The "Thermal NOx" accounts for the product formed by the oxidation of atmospheric nitrogen in the presence of combustion air. The "PromptNOx" accounts for the reaction of molecular nitrogen with combustion flame giving rise to cyanide and hydrogen cyanide which eventually decompose to form nitrogen oxide.
Soot model
The "Soot model" is used for calculating the formation of soot at the combustion outlet. The one-step "Soot model" is selected which is the default "Soot model". The fuel is selected as CH4 and the oxidant is selected as O2.
Boundary condition
Air inlet: The ANSYS-FLUENT describes the inlet to be a velocity inlet. The inlet velocity of the air will be 0.5msec−1, the thermal boundary condition will remain as it is. In species, the mass fraction of 0.23will be computed for O2 and the rest species will be zero.
Fuel inlet: The inlet velocity of the fuel will be 80msec−1. In species, the mass fraction of methane will be computed as 1 as discussed above`
Outlet: The ANSYS-FLUENT describes the outlet to be a pressure outlet, the gauge pressure will be 0Pa.
Axis: The type axis is selected by ANSYS-FLUENT which indicates that the rate of change of quantities in the radial direction is zero.
Walls and side walls: The type wall is selected for the ANSYS-FLUENT. The wall is stationary and in the shear condition, no-slip is selected.
Monitor plots
The residual plot is created and the convergence limit is checked off.
The surface report is created. The area-weighted average temperature is plotted by selecting the outlet boundary zones. The temperature at the outlet, mass fraction of the soot, and the NOx are calculated for the outlet.
Initialization
The solution is hybrid initialized by hitting t=0. The hybrid initialization solves the Laplace equation to evaluate the pressure and the velocity fields. The number of iteration is set to 10 and the tolerance level is set to 1e-6.
Post-processing
The line probes were created at plane-1 in the CFD post.
Line-1
Point | x[m] | y[m] | z[m] |
Point 1 | 0.1 | 0 | 0 |
Point 2 | 0.1 | 0.08 | 0 |
Line-2
Point | x[m] | y[m] | z[m] |
Point 1 | 0.2 | 0 | 0 |
Point 2 | 0.2 | 0.08 | 0 |
Line-3
Point | x[m] | y[m] | z[m] |
Point 1 | 0.3 | 0 | 0 |
Point 2 | 0.3 | 0.08 | 0 |
Line-4
Point | x[m] | y[m] | z[m] |
Point 1 | 0.4 | 0 | 0 |
Point 2 | 0.4 | 0.08 | 0 |
Line-5
Point | x[m] | y[m] | z[m] |
Point 1 | 0.5 | 0 | 0 |
Point 2 | 0.5 | 0.08 | 0 |
Line-6
Point | x[m] | y[m] | z[m] |
Point 1 | 0.6 | 0 | 0 |
Point 2 | 0.6 | 0.08 | 0 |
Part-2 simulation set up
The material is changed from methane-air to methane-air2 step. In the fuel inlet boundary condition, under the species tab, the input parameters are set for methane and water.
The output parameter is selected for the "Temperature", "Mass fraction of soot", "Mass fraction of NOx.
The mass fraction of methane and water is changed accordingly and the behavior of the output parameters is observed.
Case-1
Baseline mesh
Element size: 2mm
Pressure-velocity coupling scheme: SIMPLE
Residual plot
Temperature
Pressure-velocity coupling scheme: SIMPLEC
Residual plot
Temperature
Pressure-velocity coupling scheme: COUPLED
Residual plot
Temperature
Comparison of all cases
Mesh | Number of elements | Pressure-velocity schemes | Temperature at the outlet | Mass fraction of NOx | Mass fraction of Soot |
Baseline mesh | 17183 | SIMPLE | 937.8879K | 4.920071e−07 | 0 |
SIMPLEC | 1622.17K | 4.014398e−05 | 5.16668e−09 | ||
COUPLED | 1589.537K | 0.0001888244 | 0.0003230682 |
The baseline simulation was performed to check how the simulation ran and to decide the best pressure-velocity schemes. The SIMPLE (Semi Implicit Pressure Linked Equation) as stated solves the pressure and momentum equation implicitly and the velocity equation explicitly. It solves the equation sequentially and requires more iteration for convergence, but less memory space. The mass fraction of the soot is zero and the NOx was recorded close to zero, a rise is observed in the monitor plots at 500 iterations, and even the combustion was not visualized in the contour temperature. The SIMPLEC (Semi Implicit Pressure Linked Equation Consistent) manipulates the momentum equation in such a way to omit the less significant terms in the velocity equation, and again it is the variant of SIMPLE scheme, the mass fraction of the soot and the NOxwas recorded close to zero, therefore not reliable in the case of NOx and soot. The COUPLED scheme as the name suggests that it solves the pressure and the velocity equation instantaneously, requires less iteration to convergence, requires more memory. The monitor plot produced by the COUPLED scheme produces a stable output and reaches a convergence at around 250 iterations. The mass fraction of soot and the NOx is also stable. The results of the COUPLED scheme are reliable.
For the "COUPLED" scheme the gradient is set to Least Square Cell Method. The Pressure is set to the second-order scheme which utilizes the central differencing scheme at the cell centroid to compute the values and is second-order accurate. The momentum, mass fraction of species, mass fraction of NOx, mass fraction of soot is set to the second-order upwind scheme which utilizes the values at the cell faces to compute the cell-centered solution at the cell centroid and is second-order accurate. The turbulence terms are discretized by using the first-order upwind scheme which utilizes the values at the cell faces as the cell averaged value indicating that it is first-order accurate.
Mesh refinement approach
The mesh refinement approach was carried to gradually increase the "Element Quality", "Orthogonal Quality", and to decrease the "Aspect Ratio", "Skewness" value to reduce any error arising due to interpolation. It can also increase convergence. The orthogonal quality should be >0.1 and the skewness value should be <0.95.
Refined mesh
Element size: 1mm
Pressure-velocity schemes: COUPLED
Residual plot
Temperature
Element size: 0.8mm
Pressure-velocity schemes: COUPLED
Residual plot
Temperature
Element size: 0.7mm
Pressure-velocity schemes: COUPLED
Residual plot
Temperature
Comparison of all cases
Mesh | Element size | Number of elements | Pressure-velocity schemes | Temperature at the outlet | Mass fraction of NOx | Mass fraction of soot |
Refined mesh | 1mm | 67345 | COUPLED | 1588.67K | 0.0001843973 | 0.0002781303 |
0.8mm | 105933 | 1586.987K | 0.0001853749 | 0.0003461276 | ||
0.7mm | 138094 | 1587.345K | 0.0001843004 | 0.0003142322 |
The fewer deviations are observed in the results from element size 1mm and 7mm whereas the results from element size 1mm and 8mm are more deviated which brings us to the conclusion of using 7mm element size in a future calculation.
Results
Element size: 0.7mm
Mixture: Methane-air
Temperature at plane-1
Mass fraction of CO2
Mass fraction of O2
Mass fraction of N2
Mass fraction of H2O
Mass fraction of CH4
Mass fraction of NOx
Results
Element size: 0.7mm
Mixture: Methane-air2 step
Residual plot & Temperature plot
Mass fraction values
CH4=1 H2O=0
CH4=0.95 H2O=0.05
CH4=0.90 H2O=0.1
CH4=0.85 H2O=0.15
CH4=0.80 H2O=0.20
CH4=0.75 H2O=0.25
CH4=0.70 H2O=0.3
Temperature at plane-1
CH4=1 H2O=0 & CH4=0.95 H2O=0.05
CH4=0.90 H2O=0.1 & CH4=0.85 H2O=0.15
CH4=0.80 H2O=0.20 & CH4=0.75 H2O=0.25
CH4=0.70 H2O=0.3
Mass fraction of CH4
CH4=1 H2O=0 & CH4=0.95 H2O=0.05
CH4=0.90 H2O=0.1 & CH4=0.85 H2O=0.15
CH4=0.80 H2O=0.20 & CH4=0.75 H2O=0.25
CH4=0.70 H2O=0.3
Mass fraction of CO
CH4=1 H2O=0 & CH4=0.95 H2O=0.05
CH4=0.90 H2O=0.1 & CH4=0.85 H2O=0.15
CH4=0.80 H2O=0.20 & CH4=0.75 H2O=0.25
CH4=0.70 H2O=0.3
Mass fraction of CO2
CH4=1 H2O=0 & CH4=0.95 H2O=0.05
CH4=0.90 H2O=0.1 & CH4=0.85 H2O=0.15
CH4=0.80 H2O=0.20 & CH4=0.75 H2O=0.25
CH4=0.70 H2O=0.3
Mass fraction of N2
CH4=1 H2O=0 & CH4=0.95 H2O=0.05
CH4=0.90 H2O=0.1 & CH4=0.85 H2O=0.15
CH4=0.80 H2O=0.20 & CH4=0.75 H2O=0.25
CH4=0.70 H2O=0.3
Mass fraction of O2
CH4=1 H2O=0 & CH4=0.95 H2O=0.05
CH4=0.90 H2O=0.1 & CH4=0.85 H2O=0.15
CH4=0.80 H2O=0.20 & CH4=0.75 H2O=0.25
CH4=0.70 H2O=0.3
Mass fraction of H2O
CH4=1 H2O=0 & CH4=0.95 H2O=0.05
CH4=0.90 H2O=0.1 & CH4=0.85 H2O=0.15
CH4=0.80 H2O=0.20 & CH4=0.75 H2O=0.25
CH4=0.70 H2O=0.3
Mass fraction of NOx
CH4=1 H2O=0 & CH4=0.95 H2O=0.05
CH4=0.90 H2O=0.1 & CH4=0.85 H2O=0.15
CH4=0.80 H2O=0.20 & CH4=0.75 H2O=0.25
CH4=0.70 H2O=0.3
Mass fraction of soot
CH4=1 H2O=0 & CH4=0.95 H2O=0.05
CH4=0.90 H2O=0.1 & CH4=0.85 H2O=0.15
CH4=0.80 H2O=0.20 & CH4=0.75 H2O=0.25
CH4=0.70 H2O=0.3
Mass fraction of CH4 for the given line probes (Line-1 to Line-6)
CH4=1 H2O=0 & CH4=0.95 H2O=0.05
CH4=0.90 H2O=0.1 & CH4=0.85 H2O=0.15
CH4=0.80 H2O=0.20 & CH4=0.75 H2O=0.25
CH4=0.70 H2O=0.3
Mass fraction of CO for the given line probes (Line-1 to Line-6)
CH4=1 H2O=0 & CH4=0.95 H2O=0.05
CH4=0.90 H2O=0.1 & CH4=0.85 H2O=0.15
CH4=0.80 H2O=0.20 & CH4=0.75 H2O=0.25
CH4=0.70 H2O=0.3
Mass fraction of CO2 for the given line probes (Line-1 to Line-6)
CH4=1 H2O=0 & CH4=0.95 H2O=0.05
CH4=0.90 H2O=0.1 & CH4=0.85 H2O=0.15
CH4=0.80 H2O=0.20 & CH4=0.75 H2O=0.25
CH4=0.70 H2O=0.3
Mass fraction of N2 for the given line probes (Line-1 to Line-6)
CH4=1 H2O=0 & CH4=0.95 H2O=0.05
CH4=0.90 H2O=0.1 & CH4=0.85 H2O=0.15
CH4=0.80 H2O=0.20 & CH4=0.75 H2O=0.25
CH4=0.70 H2O=0.3
Mass fraction of O2 for the given line probes (Line-1 to Line-6)
CH4=1 H2O=0 & CH4=0.95 H2O=0.05
CH4=0.90 H2O=0.1 & CH4=0.85 H2O=0.15
CH4=0.80 H2O=0.20 & CH4=0.75 H2O=0.25
CH4=0.70 H2O=0.3
Mass fraction of H2O for the given line probes (Line-1 to Line-6)
CH4=1 H2O=0 & CH4=0.95 H2O=0.05
CH4=0.90 H2O=0.1 & CH4=0.85 H2O=0.15
CH4=0.80 H2O=0.20 & CH4=0.75 H2O=0.25
CH4=0.70 H2O=0.3
Mass fraction of NOx for the given line probes (Line-1 to Line-6)
CH4=1 H2O=0 & CH4=0.95 H2O=0.05
CH4=0.90 H2O=0.1 & CH4=0.85 H2O=0.15
CH4=0.80 H2O=0.20 & CH4=0.75 H2O=0.25
CH4=0.70 H2O=0.3
Mass fraction of soot for the given line probes (Line-1 to Line-6)
CH4=1 H2O=0 & CH4=0.95 H2O=0.05
CH4=0.90 H2O=0.1 & CH4=0.85 H2O=0.15
CH4=0.80 H2O=0.20 & CH4=0.75 H2O=0.25
CH4=0.70 H2O=0.3
Comparison of all cases for methane-air2step mixture
Water content in the fuel (%) |
CH4 mass fraction | H2O mass fraction | Mass fraction of NOx | Mass fraction of Soot | Temperature at the outlet |
1 | 1 | 0 | 0.00015995403 | 0.00019230996 | 1586.9917K |
5 | 0.95 | 0.05 | 0.00012614165 | 6.5777408E−05 | 1539.2351K |
10 | 0.90 | 0.1 | 9.792421E−05 | 2.2853644E−05 | 1489.7656K |
15 | 0.85 | 0.15 | 7.4061329E−05 | 7.256628E−06 | 1439.0385K |
20 | 0.80 | 0.20 | 5.4331403E−05 | 2.2460482E−06 | 1387.0244K |
25 | 0.75 | 0.25 | 3.8479895E−05 | 5.9262782E−07 | 1333.6414K |
30 | 0.70 | 0.30 | 2.616394E−05 | 1.4117863E−07 | 1278.8117K |
Conclusion
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