AAAR 32nd Annual Conference
September 30 - October 4, 2013
Oregon Convention Center
Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
Modeling of Nanoparticles Synthesis in Inverted Flames
IGOR NOVOSSELOV, Christopher Stipe, Rajan K. Chakrabarty, Hans Moosmuller, Enertechnix Inc
Abstract Number: 559 Working Group: Aerosol Physics
Abstract Combustion synthesis has proven to be a cost effective method for producing a diverse array of nanomaterials. Fundamental knowledge, gained through scientific studies of flame chemistry and aerosol kinetics, makes it possible to engineer nanoparticles with novel physical, thermal, electrical, and biological properties. Modeling of the combustion process can be used to gain insight into the fluid dynamics and flame structure, which are essential to understanding both combustion and aerosol gel formation processes.
We have investigated a recently reported phenomenon of formation of carbon superaggregates (SAs) from a reversed gravity (i.e., downward) diffusion flame. In order to investigate the process of aerosol gel synthesis, 2D transient CFD simulations were performed for acetylene and methane flames. Acetylene combustion was modeled using three-step acetylene oxidation chemistry. Reduced methane-air oxidation chemistry was used for methane combustion system. The species, flow and energy equations were coupled to the soot formation/oxidation chemistry and discrete ordinates (DO) radiation model. The simulation showed good qualitative and quantitative agreement with the experimental data for flame length, measured surface temperatures and soot production location.