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Effects of Gravity on Soot Formation in a Coflow Laminar Methane/Air Diffusion Flame

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Abstract

Simulations of a laminar coflow methane/air diffusion flame at atmospheric pressure are conducted to gain better understanding of the effects of gravity on soot formation by using detailed gas-phase chemistry, complex thermal and transport properties coupled with a semiempirical two-equation soot model and a nongray radiation model. Soot oxidation by O2, OH and O was considered. Thermal radiation was calculated using the discrete ordinate method coupled with a statistical narrow-band correlated-K model. The spectral absorption coefficient of soot was obtained by Rayleigh’s theory for small particles. The results show that the peak temperature decreases with the decrease of the gravity level. The peak soot volume fraction in microgravity is about twice of that in normal gravity under the present conditions. The numerical results agree very well with available experimental results. The predicted results also show that gravity affects the location and intensity for soot nucleation and surface growth.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, PO Box 2706, Beijing, 100190, China

    Wenjun Kong

  2. Institute for Chemical Process and Environmental Tech., NRC, Ottawa, Canada

    Fengshan Liu

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  1. Wenjun Kong
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  2. Fengshan Liu
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Correspondence to Wenjun Kong.

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Kong, W., Liu, F. Effects of Gravity on Soot Formation in a Coflow Laminar Methane/Air Diffusion Flame. Microgravity Sci. Technol. 22, 205–214 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12217-009-9175-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12217-009-9175-z

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