Sensitivity analysis of skeletal reaction mechanisms for use in CFD simulation of oxygen enhanced combustion systems

Oxygen enhanced combustion (OEC) techniques are supposed to be a fuel saving alternative to conventional air-fired combustion, due to the reduction or removal of nitrogen from the combustion system, which causes a higher flame temperature and radiation intensity. Therefore, more heat is available in OEC for heating, melting and annealing processes, and subsequently, increases the process efficiency. The main aim of the present study is the numerical investigation of different reaction mechanisms under air-fuel and oxy-fuel conditions using 1D simulation of laminar counter-flow diffusion flames. The mechanisms are further used in 3D CFD simulation with the steady laminar flamelet model for the development of a time efficient numerical approach, applicable in air-fuel and OEC. Three skeletal reaction mechanisms were tested and compared to the GRI3.0 mechanism. The calculated temperatures and species concentrations revealed that a skeletal mechanism with 17 species and 25 reversible reactions predicts a faster fuel conversion into the reaction products under oxy-fuel conditions, which leads to higher temperatures in the flame compared to the GRI3.0. Sensitivity analysis showed that two reversible reactions are mainly responsible for the faster fuel conversion. Furthermore, the reaction mechanisms investigated, were used for 3D CFD simulation of a lab-scale furnace under different OEC conditions and air-fuel combustion. Up to concentrations of 30% O2 in the O2/N2 mixture, all reaction mechanisms were able to predict the temperatures in the furnace with a close accordance to measured data. With higher oxygen enrichment levels, only the mentioned skeletal mechanism with 25 reactions calculated good results, whereas the GRI3.0 failed for oxy-fuel combustion.