Development of a Toroidal Jet-Stirred Reactor for Lean Blowoff and Emissions Studies of Ammonia-Hydrogen Mixtures

The present paper describes the design of a toroidal jet-stirred reactor (TJSR) for lean blowoff and emissions studies of ammonia-hydrogen mixtures at atmospheric pressure, with provisions for high-pressure testing in the future. The TJSR is a kind of well-stirred reactor experiment that has been used by other researchers for understanding the combustion characteristics of fuels. It consists of a ceramic torus, jet ring, casing, and exhaust pipe. Chemkin-Pro was used to approximate the flow rate through and the temperature inside the ceramic torus. The jet ring was made from Inconel 625; its design is a tradeoff between having sufficient wall thickness for storing pressure while minimizing the length of the nozzles. Thermomechanical simulations were conducted in Ansys Mechanical to determine the stresses and expansion of the reactor at operating conditions. ASME codes were used to design the exhaust pipe and flanges. Laser absorption spectroscopy will be used to measure the chemical species in the exhaust, so optical ports were designed to fit in the exhaust pipe’s flanges. Passages were designed in the optical ports for cooling the windows. Future work will consist of testing the reactor at atmospheric pressures and then modifying it to fit in a pressure vessel for high pressure.