Large Eddy Simulation of coal combustion in a large-scale laboratory furnace

Abstract A detailed Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of pulverised coal combustion in a large-scale laboratory furnace is presented. To achieve a detailed representation of the flow, mixing and particle dispersion, a massively parallel LES was performed. Different phenomenological network models were applied and compared to each other in order to obtain the most adequate devolatilization kinetic data for the LES. An iterative procedure allowed to optimise the devolatilization kinetic data for the studied coal and operating conditions. The particle combustion history is studied by analysing particle instantaneous properties giving a perspective on coal combustion that currently is not available by other means than LES. Predicted major species and temperature were compared with measurements and a good agreement was obtained. The finely resolved near burner region revealed that the flame is stabilised very close to the burner. Furthermore, two distinct zones of CO 2 production were found – one in the internal recirculation zone (IRZ) due to gaseous combustion, and one downstream of the vortex breakdown, due to intense char combustion. It was found that particle properties are inhomogeneous within the IRZ, whereas in the external recirculation zone (ERZ) and downstream of the vortex breakdown they were found to be homogeneous.