A computational model to simulate self-heating ignition across scales, configurations, and coal origins
File(s)1-s2.0-S001623611831603X-main.pdf (2.44 MB)
Published version
Author(s)
Yuan, H
Restuccia, F
Richter, F
Rein, G
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Self-heating of fuel layers can trigger ignition when the temperature of the surroundings is sufficiently high. Self-heating ignition has been a hazard and safety concern in raw materials production, transportation, and storage facilities for centuries. Hot plate and oven-basket experiments are the two most used lab-scale experiments to assess the hazard of self-heating ignition. While extensive experiments have been done to study this phenomenon, modelling of the experiments is substantially lagging behind. A computational model that can accurately simulate self-heating ignition under the two experimental configurations has not been developed yet. In this study, we build such a model by coupling heat transfer, mass transfer, and chemistry using the open-source code Gpyro. Due to the accessibility of large amount of experimental data, coal is chosen as the material for model validation. A literature review of the kinetic parameters for coal samples from different origins reveals that there is a compensation effect between the activation energy and exponential factor. Combining the compensation effect with our model, we simulate 6 different experimental studies covering the two experimental configurations, a wide range of sample sizes (heights ranging from 5 mm to 126 mm), and various coal origins (6 countries). The model accurately predicts critical ignition temperature (Tig) for all 24 experiments with an error below 7 °C. This computational model unifies for the first time the two most used self-heating ignition experiments and provides theoretical insights to understand self-ignition for different fuels under different conditions.
Date Issued
2019-01-15
Date Acceptance
2018-09-11
ISSN
0016-2361
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
1100
End Page
1109
Journal / Book Title
Fuel
Volume
236
Copyright Statement
© 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY/4.0/)
Sponsor
Commission of the European Communities
EPSRC
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Grant Number
682587
EP/M506345/1
EP/L504786/1
Subjects
Science & Technology
Technology
Energy & Fuels
Engineering, Chemical
Engineering
Self-heating
Ignition
Coal
Hot plate
Oven-basket
LOW-TEMPERATURE OXIDATION
SMOLDERING COMBUSTION
KINETIC-PARAMETERS
THERMAL IGNITION
DUST LAYERS
HOT SURFACE
PYROLYSIS
BEHAVIOR
BIOMASS
LIGNITE
0904 Chemical Engineering
0913 Mechanical Engineering
0306 Physical Chemistry (Incl. Structural)
Energy
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2018-09-24