Numerical Investigation of Soot Formation in Turbulent Diffusion Flames Using Moss-Brookes Model

In the present work, two different turbulent diffusion flames are investigated for soot predictions using the presumed shape multi-environment Eulerian PDF (EPDF) as turbulence-chemistry closure. In this approach, the chemical equation is represented by multiple reactive scalars and finite number of Delta functions are used to describe the shape of joint composition PDF, while the truncated series expansion in spherical harmonics (P1 approximation) is used to solve the radiative heat-transfer equation. The absorption coefficient is modeled using the weighted sum of gray gases model (WSGG) considering four fictitious gases. The soot volume fraction is predicted using acetylene based soot inception model (Moss-Brookes model). The model accounts for inception, surface growth and oxidation processes of soot. An equilibrium based approach is used to determine the OH radical concentration, required for soot oxidation. A single variable PDF in terms of temperature is used to include the turbulence-chemistry effects on soot. An effective absorption coefficient is calculated to include the influence of radiative heat transfer on soot. The combined tool is used to determine the soot formation in two hydrocarbon flames (Delft flame III, pilot stabilized natural gas flame and an unconfined C₂H₄/air jet flame). The soot formation rate decreases with the inclusion of radiation for both the flames and indicate the need for delineation of radiative heat transfer. The effects of soot-turbulence interaction are consistent with available literature. The effect of collision efficiency on oxidation rate can be clearly explicated from the predictions of C₂H₄/air flame.