2010AFRC Elevated Flare Ignition Paper
2010AFRC Elevated Flare Ignition Paper
2010AFRC Elevated Flare Ignition Paper
+ (eq. 4)
where the coefficients are selected so that complete combustion of soot (C) and intermediate
species (IS) produce the same species and thermal energy as direct combustion of the fuel. The
coefficients in the formula are mass weights, not moles.
The advantage of the three-step reaction is that the first reaction has a low activation energy,
which allows the partial burning and heat release of the flare gas. This will maintain combustion
since the partial heat released will allow the second reaction, which produces most of the heat
and all of the soot, to occur. As in the previous combustion models developed for flare
simulations [9], the flare gas Arrhenius combustion time scale is combined with the turbulence
time scale to yield an overall time scale for the reaction rate. The characteristic time from the
kinetics equation was combined with the characteristic turbulence time scale:
t
turb
=C x
2
/
diff
(eq. 5)
Prediction and Measurement of Multi-Tip Flare Ignition
Advances in Combustion Technology: Improving the Environment and Energy Efficiency
Page 7 of 21
Where x is the characteristic cell size, C is a user input constant (0.2E-4),
diff
is the eddy
diffusivity from the turbulence model, and t
turb
is the turbulence time scale, i.e. characteristic
time required to mix the contents of a computational cell. The reaction rates are combined by
simple addition of the time scales. This combustion model captures the eddy dissipation effects
and local equivalence ratio effects. The reactions are all based on Arrhenius kinetics with:
T T
R
N
i
R
A
i
e f C
dt
df
/
1
(eq. 6)
where coefficients C and Activation Temperatures T
A
are supplied for all reactions. The
Arrhenius kinetics and turbulent mixing form the commonly used Eddy-Breakup (EBU) type
combustion model.
The kinetics and turbulence models are combined by summing the characteristic time scales. In
addition to these dynamic models, sequences of irreversible chemical reactions that describe the
combustion chemistry are required. To minimize computation load, a minimum number of
chemical reactions are used that fulfill the requirements of total energy yield and species
consumption and production. From the basis of heat transfer, flame size, and air demand the
details of the chemical reactions are not critical as long as the oxygen consumption is correctly
balanced for a given fuel type. To this end, a multi-step chemical reaction model for natural gas
was used to approximate the global reaction mechanism as shown in the equation below:
DX
1
/dt = A
k
*T
b
*X
1c
*X
2d
Exp(-E
a
/T) (eq. 7)
Where A
k
is the pre exponential coefficient, X
1
is the mole fraction of natural gas, X
2
is the mole
fraction of oxygen, E
a
is an activation temperature, T is the local gas temperature, and b, c and d
are global exponents.
Global reaction kinetics are often used to model combustion as a single step in CFD combustion
simulations. The coefficients and powers are fit to existing experimental data. Although it is
possible to use a global reaction mechanism with the same coefficients as those which have been
published elsewhere, this could be misleading because the coefficients were originally fit to
experimental data chosen by other authors for a specific combustion experiment being modeled
and it is well known that simulation results are sensitive to both the computational grid (cell
structure and density) and the experimental data chosen by the original authors. A different
computational grid or experiment would likely require a different set of reaction coefficients.
In the present work, the global reaction mechanisms of Duterque et. al.
[13] and Kim [14] were
chosen as starting points. However, these authors adjusted their global reaction coefficients to
match laminar flame speed data. The combustion occurring in the gas flare being modeled in
this work, flame speed is governed by turbulent mixing, not laminar flow, hence their original
coefficients have limited applicability but do provide a good starting point. The coefficients
associated with the activation temperature and the exponents on the mole fractions are based
upon the physics of the reaction mechanism and therefore are not expected to be sensitive to
local grid structure. However, that is not the case with the pre-exponential coefficient. Therefore,
Prediction and Measurement of Multi-Tip Flare Ignition
Advances in Combustion Technology: Improving the Environment and Energy Efficiency
Page 8 of 21
to match reaction rates with measured combustion rates, only the pre-exponential coefficients
were varied as a parameter in this effort to develop a validated combustion model.
The combustion model also depends upon turbulent mixing. Since the natural gas is injected as a
pure species, the combustion is governed not only by chemical kinetics but also by turbulent
mixing with air. The C3d code uses an LES formulation to approximate turbulent mixing, and
that formulation has two proportionality coefficients, which were also varied as parameters in the
combustion model development work. The first coefficient, , is a scale factor to the turbulence
intensity as a function of the strain rates in the local fluid flow. The second coefficient, , is a
time delay factor that is added to the kinetics rate coefficient to account for the delay in the
mixing of combusting species in the computational cell.
The following table (see Table 1) shows the parameter selection used in this analysis. A
k
is the
value of the pre-exponential coefficient in SI units, is the dimensionless LES proportionality
coefficient, and is a dimensionless turbulent mixing time coefficient.
Table 1- Parameters varied in Combustion Modeling tuning
Parameter Varied In Combustion
Model Development
Parameter Value(s) Considered In Model Tuning
A
k
1.0e14, 2.5e14, 5.0e14, 1.0e15,.,.,.5.0e17