A tabulated chemistry approach for numerical modeling of diesel spray evaporation in a “stabilized cool flame” environment

Droplet evaporation in a “stabilized cool flame” environment leads to a homogeneous, heated air–fuel vapor mixture that can be subsequently either burnt or utilized in fuel-reforming applications for fuel cell systems. The paper investigates the locally occurring physico-chemical phenomena in an atmospheric pressure, diesel spray, stabilized cool flame reactor, utilizing a tabulated chemistry approach in conjunction with a two-phase, Eulerian–Lagrangian computational fluid dynamics code. Actual diesel oil physical properties are used to model spray evaporation in the two-phase simulations, whereas the corresponding chemistry is represented by n-heptane. A lookup table is constructed by performing a plethora of perfectly stirred reactor simulations, utilizing a semidetailed n-heptane oxidation chemical kinetics mechanism. The overall exothermicity of the preignition n-heptane oxidation chemistry and the fuel consumption rates are examined as a function of selected independent parameters, namely temperature, fuel concentration, and residence time; their influence on cool flame reactivity is thoroughly studied. It is shown that the tabulated chemistry approach allows accurate investigation of the chemical phenomena with low computational cost. The two-phase flow inside the stabilized cool flame reactor is simulated, utilizing the developed lookup table. Predictions are presented for a variety of test cases and are compared to available experimental data, with satisfactory agreement. Model validation tests indicate that prediction quality improves with increasing values of air temperature at the reactor's inlet.