Numerical analysis of the water steam jet gasdynamic parameters influence on the hydrocarbon fuel combustion in a pilot burner

Abstract

Abstract On the basis of the conserved scalar approach with constrained-equilibrium chemistry model, variant numerical simulation of aerodynamics, heat transfer and the vaporized diesel fuel combustion processes, including soot formation and its effect on radiative heat transfer, has been performed in the pilot burner designed according to a concept of a hydrocarbon fuel combustion enhancement by axial injection of superheated water steam high-speed jet. The aerothermochemical structure of multicomponent reacting flow inside the burner has been analysed for the three cases of numerical study, including two regimes of the water steam axial injection with different jet velocity, and one regime of air injection through the same axial nozzle. The dependencies of the burner flame characteristics and its ecological performance on the given gasdynamic parameters of the discharged steam or air jet have been obtained. Also the numerical study has confirmed the low-NOx features of the burner operational regimes with water steam injection.