Prediction of species and temperature profile in methanol, oxygen, and argon flame

Abstract EN

A chemical kinetic model is developed to predict the adiabatic flame temperature and the species concentration profiles for methanol/oxygen/argon flames.

The modeling is carried out for sub-atmospheric pressure (0.167 atmo¬sphere) and for atmospheric pressure for the equivalence ratios 0.9, 1.0, and 1.1.

The reaction mechanism used for the modeling is the one as given by Thomas and Dryer [4] which is actually a revision of the mechanism given by Westbrook and Dryer [2ل.

It contains 84 elementary reactions and 25 stable and unstable species.

The concentration profiles of the stable species are computed as a function of distance over the burner and a comparison is made between the calculated and the experimental concentration profiles.

A good quantitative and qualitative agreement is observed between the computed and the experimental concentration profiles in the reaction zone.

The difference is observed in the post flame, which might occur due to the diffusion effect, which is not dealt with in this modeling work.

A sharp concentration gradient for CO after the peak value at equivalence ratio 1.0 also suggests that the molecular diffusion may affect the profile.

This modeling work is useful for analyzing methanol as an alternative fuel and provides an understanding of the combustion phenomena and exhaust emission of methanol.