Thermal cracking of Norpar-13 under near-critical and supercritical conditions

Abstract

A three-step global model is developed to describe the thermal cracking of Norpar-13 under supercritical and near-critical conditions. This cracking model is incorporated into a multi-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code to simulate the heat/mass transfer and thermal cracking of Norpar-13 in flow systems. The proposed model is tested against the experimental data measured at different temperatures and residence times. Agreement is obtained when comparing the simulations results with measurements. The endothermic effect of Norpar-13 thermal cracking is analyzed using the validated cracking model. The results show that the energy absorbed by the cracking reactions has importance consequence in reducing the fuel and wall temperature although it only accounts for a small portion of total input power.