Numerical simulation of hydrogen–air reacting flows in rectangular channels with catalytic surface reactions

Abstract

In this work a prediction was numerically modeled for a catalytically stabilized thermal combustion of a lean homogeneous mixture of air and hydrogen. The mixture flows in a narrow rectangular channel lined with a thin coating of platinum catalyst. The solution using an in-house code is based on the steady state partial differential continuity, momentum and energy conservation equations for the mixture and species involved in the reactions. A marching technique is used along the streamwise direction to solve the 2-D plane-symmetric laminar flow of the gas. Two chemical kinetic reaction mechanisms were included; one for the gas phase reactions consisting of 17 elementary reactions; of which 7 are forward–backward reactions while the other mechanism is for the surface reactions—which are the prime mover of the combustion under a lean mixture condition—consisting of 16 elementary reactions. The results were compared with a former congruent experimental work where temperature was measured using thermocouples, while using PLIF laser for measuring water and hydrogen mole fractions. The comparison showed good agreement. More results for the velocities, mole fractions of other species were carried out across the transverse and along the streamwise directions providing a complete picture of overall mechanism—gas and surface—and on the production, consumptions and travel of the different species. The variations of the average OH mole fraction with the streamwise direction showed a sudden increase in the region where the ignition occurred. Also the rate of reactions of the entire surface species were calculated along the streamwise direction and a surface water production flux equation was derived by calculating the law of mass action’s constants from the concentrations of hydrogen, oxygen and the rate of formation of water near the surface.