Demonstration of Numerical Simulation of

Combustion Process Using CFD Tool

Daniel Owusu Asante
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Kongju National University, Cheonan, South Korea
Email:dasantewusu@gmail.com

1.0 Introduction
In this short demonstration, a model of a combustor was designed using ANSYS Workbench after which
was discretized by the meshing tool available. The species transport model in FLUENT was applied by
incorporating all the zones of the combustor. The reaction mechanism and stoichiometry were generated
from the coal calculator by the proximate and ultimate input of the feed supplied. Results of the contours
were displayed to show the various mole fraction of the species present. It was also noticed that the
temperature in the combustor increased to 2700K. However this work will be a precedence to simulate a
gasifier by altering the reactions and replacing with a typical gasification reaction. Various ultimate and
proximate analysis obtained from different biomass feed can be assigned. This will the next demonstration
that will be done.

2.0 Simulation Procedure in Pictures

Top outlet

Coal & O2 inlet

Bottom outlet

Fig.1 Geometry designed using workbench Fig.2 Meshed model with assigned boundary names
Table 1. Details used in the simulation

Air Mass Coal mass Initial

Combustor Combustor Number of
Flowrate Flowrate Temperature
Height [m] Diameter [m] Meshes
[kg/s] [hg/s] [K]

2 1 300 9.75 4.5 61619

Fig.3 The supply of inputs for proximate and ultimate analysis generating the gas phase reaction

Fig.4 One of the reactions with its kinetics Fig.5 DPM model was used to inject coal as shown
Fig.6 Activation of DPM model and other models Fig.7 Defining material properties

3.0 Results
After the simulation was executed, results of mole fractions, temperature, and velocity and particle
flow regimes were displayed to further explain what occurs inside the combustor. It was observed
that some particles of coal came out from the top exhaust. This could be that the velocity assigned
at the inlet was higher. The vector and velocity contour plots in Fig 10 and Fig.11 shows this was
the reason.

Fig.8 CO2 mole fraction contour Fig.9 CO mole fraction contour

Fig.10 Temperature contour Fig.11 O2 mole fraction contour

Fig.12 3D velocity vector Plot Fig.13 Velocity distribution contour

Fig.14 Coal Particle trajectory Fig.15 Coal mass concentration

Fig 16. Char mass fraction

4.0 Discussion and Conclusion
The simulation demonstration was successfully executed. The amount of coal was almost consumed from
the mass concentration plot in Fig.15. However a small portion came out through the outlet as shown Fig
14. This can be corrected by assigning the optimized velocity to the inlets. It is observed that all amount of
CO produced were completely consumed in the oxidation zone. Results of the char produced in Fig.16 was
generated by using Fluent Graphics and Animation menu instead of CFD post since the results was
displayed better. The char that resulted from the combustion process was concentrated at the bottom part
of the gasifier which will eventually be consumed in the reaction.
Future studies will look at the possibility of assigning biomass material instead of coal. The reaction has to
be altered and replaced by the gasification kinetics reported in literature or experiment conducted.