Effects of Large Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons on the Soot Formation in Ethylene-Air Nonpremixed Flames

S. Prabhu, P.G. Arias, Y. Wang, Y. Gao, S. Park, Hong G. Im, Mani Sarathy, Suk-Ho Chung, T. Lu

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

    Abstract

    This study presents updated comprehensive gas-phase kinetic mechanism and aerosol models to predict soot formation characteristics in ethylene-air nonpremixed flames. A main objective is to investigate the sensitivity of the soot formation rate to various chemical pathways for large polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). In this study, the detailed chemical mechanism was reduced from 397 to 99 species using directed relation graph (DRG) and sensitivity analysis. The method of moments with interpolative closure (MOMIC) was employed for the soot aerosol model. Counterflow nonpremixed flames of pure ethylene at low strain rate sooting conditions are considered, for which the sensitivity of soot formation characteristics with respect to hetrogeneous nucleation is investigated. Results show that higher PAH concentrations result in higher soot nucleation rate, and that the average size of the particles are in good agreement with experimental results. It is found that the nucleation processes (i.e., soot inception) from higher PAH precursors, coronene in particular, is critical for accurate prediction of the overall soot formation.
    Original languageEnglish (US)
    Title of host publicationProceedings of the European Combustion Meeting 2015
    StatePublished - Mar 30 2015

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