The importance of accurately modelling soot and radiation coupling in laminar and laboratory-scale turbulent diffusion flames

Abstract

Ultrafine and highly light absorbing soot particles have been known to be harmful to human health and a major climate forcer. Understanding the mechanisms of soot formation and developing reliable and robust soot models are essential to design efficient and clean combustion systems. Thermal radiation is often the dominant heat transfer mode in both turbulent and laminar flames and affects soot formation through its influence on temperature. Significant progress has been made in modelling soot formation, thermal radiation transfer, and turbulence radiation interaction in hydrocarbon flames over the last three decades. However, the optically thin approximation has still been used to simplify thermal radiation transfer modelling and turbulence radiation interaction has often been neglected in soot formation modelling without proper justification. In this paper, soot models developed for laminar and laboratory scale turbulent jet diffusion flames, non-gray radiative heat transfer models, and turbulence radiation interaction models are reviewed. The aim of this review is to highlight the importance of thermal radiation heat transfer in both laminar and turbulent diffusion flames and turbulence radiation interaction in turbulent jet diffusion flames. Use of the optically thin approximation is often not justified even in laminar diffusion flames. This is particularly true in diffusion flames at elevated pressures or microgravity. Although the prediction of soot in both laminar and turbulent flames is primarily influenced by soot kinetic model, it is also significantly affected by aerosol dynamic model, thermal radiation heat transfer model, and turbulence radiation interaction model. It is important to accurately model soot aerosol dynamics and non-gray thermal radiation transfer in laminar diffusion flames and additionally to adequately model turbulence radiation interaction in turbulent flames for the purpose of validating reaction mechanisms and soot kinetic models.