Swirl Motion Effects on Flame Dynamic of Pulverized Olive Cake in a Vertical Furnace

ABSTRACT

This article presents the effect of inlet swirl motion on the flow behavior and combustion dynamics of pulverized olive cake (OC) in a 3D vertical furnace. The spherical OC particles are injected perpendicularly to the coaxial air inlet jets. Three cases are studied: without swirling air flow (Ja), with swirling axial jet (Js1), and with both swirling axial and coaxial jets (Js2). The numerical approach is based on Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) method using the k–ε turbulence model. For turbulence-chemistry interactions of the non-premixed combustion, a mixture fraction/probability density function approach is used. The OC thermal characteristics are determined experimentally by the thermogravimetric analysis. Flow topology, velocity contours, temperature distribution, and species concentrations profiles in several locations along the burner are obtained for all cases. Results show that the flame is more stabilized and close to the air inlet section for the swirling jet cases. The temperature of the burned gases reaches its maximum value of 1560 K.

KEYWORDS:

• CFD modeling
• Non-premixed combustion
• Olive cake
• Pulverized biomass
• Swirling jet

Funding

The authors wish to acknowledge the funding support from Region Centre Val de Loire (VERA Project).

Additional information

Funding

The authors wish to acknowledge the funding support from Region Centre Val de Loire (VERA Project).