Dimensions of CH4-Jet Flame in Hot O2/CO2 Coflow

The present study has numerically simulated the oxy-fuel combustion of a methane (CH 4 ) jet in hot coflow (JHC). The main objective is to investigate the influences of the oxygen (O 2 ) molar fraction ( X O2 * ), temperature ( T cof * ) and velocity ( v cof * ) of the O 2 /CO 2 coflow on dimensions of the JHC reaction zone or flame. The simulations use the model of eddy dissipation concept (EDC) with the detailed chemical mechanism described by GRI-Mech 3.0. To validate the modeling, several air-fuel JHC flames are predicted under the same conditions of the work of Dally et al. [ Proc. Combust. Inst. 2002, 29, 1147–1154]; the predictions match well with the measurements. Results suggest that, as either X O2 * or v cof * decrease or T cof * increases, the volume of the JHC reaction zone increases and hence the overall oxidation rate of CH 4 decreases. In particular, raising the coflow speed v cof * causes the flame to be significantly thinner but only slightly longer. It is also demonstrated that the oxy-fuel reaction zone is larger, and so, the temperature is lower than the air-fuel counterpart. Besides, under identical conditions, the oxy-fuel combustion produces more carbon monoxide than does the air-fuel combustion.