Large-eddy simulation of pilot-assisted pulverized-coal combustion in a weakly turbulent Jet

Abstract

Large-eddy simulation has been performed to investigate pilot-assisted pulverized-coal combustion in a weakly turbulent air jet. An advanced pyrolysis model, the chemical percolation devolatilization (CPD) model, has been incorporated into the LES framework to predict the local, instantaneous pyrolysis kinetics of coal particles during the simulation. Prediction on volatile species generation is thus improved, which provides an important initial condition for gas-phase volatile and solid-phase char combustion. For gas-phase combustion, the partially stirred reactor (PaSR) model is employed to model the combustion of volatile species, taking into account subgrid turbulence-chemistry interactions. For heterogeneous solid-phase char combustion, both the intrinsic chemical reaction on the internal surface of a char particle and the diffusion of gaseous oxidant through the film layer around the particle have been incorporated by using a kinetic/diffusion surface reaction model. The LES results show overall good agreements with experimental data. Sensitivity analysis has been performed to better understand the impact of parameter uncertainties on the LES results.