Vortex Flame Combustion Chamber with Four Inlets

Description

Vortex Flame Combustion Chamber, 4-Inlet (Methane and Air), ANSYS Fluent CFD Simulation Training

In this project, the vortex flame inside a combustion chamber is simulated using ANSYS Fluent software. We perform this CFD project and investigate it by CFD analysis.

The current model is designed in three dimensions using the Design Modeler software model is a cylindrical combustion chamber.

Four inlet sections for airflow are radially around the combustion chamber, and four inlet sections for fuel flow are axially at the top of the chamber. One outlet section for combustion reaction products is determined at the bottom of the combustion chamber.

The meshing of this project has been done with ANSYS Meshing software. The mesh type is structured, and the element number is 725521.

Vortex Flame Methodology

The present problem simulates the vortex flame inside a combustion chamber using ANSYS Fluent software.

The combustion chamber has a cylindrical structure. The reactants, including fuel flow and airflow, enter the combustion chamber separately from four different inlet sections from the upper part. The products resulting from the reaction leave the bottom part of the combustion chamber.

The airflow enters the chamber in a radial direction from four inlet sections with angles of 90 degrees relative to each other located on the outer circumference of the combustion chamber; While the flow of methane gas as fuel from the other four inlets is sprayed directly into the interior of the combustion chamber.

The species transport model has been used to define the chemical reaction between air and methane.

This chemical reaction consists of five species, including O2, N2, CH4, CO2, and H2O. The airflow consists of 0.23 oxygen with a flow rate of 0.001135845 kg/s and a temperature of 300 K entering the combustion chamber, and the fuel flow enters the combustion chamber with a flow rate of 0.0000645kg/s and a temperature of 300 K at the same time.

It is also assumed that the outer wall of the combustion chamber has a convection heat transfer with the free stream of its surroundings; Thus, the ambient temperature is equal to 300 K, and the heat transfer coefficient is equal to 25 W/m2K.

Moreover, the RNG k-epsilon model and energy equation are enabled to solve the turbulent fluid equations and calculate temperature distribution inside the domain.

Vortex Flame Conclusion

At the end of the solution process, two-dimensional and three-dimensional contours related to pressure, temperature, velocity, and mass fraction O2, CH4, H2O, CO2, and N2 are obtained.

The contours show that when the combustion reaction occurs between the fuel and the air, the temperature increases near the inlet sections of the chamber.

Also, due to the chemical reaction of combustion, the volume fraction of methane fuel is reduced, and the volume fraction of reaction products such as CO2 and H2O is increased.