Optimisation of a Side Inlet for H2 Entry into an Ultrasonic Spray Pyrolysis Device

Abstract

An ultrasonic spray pyrolysis (USP) device consists of an evaporation and two reaction zones of equal length, into which an aerosol with a precursor compound enters, and where nanoparticles are formed in the final stage. As part of this research, we simulated the geometry of a side inlet, where the reaction gas (H2) enters into the reaction tube of the device by using numerical methods. Mixing with the carrier gas (N2) occurs at the entry of the H2. In the initial part, we performed a theoretical calculation with a numerical simulation using ANSYS CFX, while the geometries of the basic and studied models were prepared with Solidworks. The inlet geometry of the H2 included a study of the position and radius of the inlet with respect to the reaction tube of the USP device, as well as a study of the angle and diameter of the inlet. In the simulation, we chose the typical flows of both gases (N2, H2) in the range of 5 L/min to 15 L/min. The results show that the best geometry is with the H2 side inlet at the bottom, which the existing USP device does not allow for. Subsequently, temperature was included in the numerical simulation of the basic geometry with selected gas flows; 150 °C was considered in the evaporation zone and 400 °C was considered in the other two zones—as is the case for Au nanoparticle synthesis. In the final part, we performed an experiment on a USP device by selecting for the input parameters those that, theoretically, were the most appropriate—a constant flow of H2 5 L/min and three different N2 flows (5 L/min, 10 L/min, and 15 L/min). The results of this study show that numerical simulations are a suitable tool for studying the H2 flow in a UPS device, as the obtained results are comparable to the results of experimental tests that showed that an increased flow of N2 can prevent the backflow of H2 effectively, and that a redesign of the inlet geometry is needed to ensure proper mixing. Thus, numerical simulations using the ANSYS CFX package can be used to evaluate the optimal geometry for an H2 side inlet properly, so as to reconstruct the current and improve future USP devices.