Numerical Analysis of Flame Temperature and Intermediate Product Concentration in Micro-Scale Coaxial Diffusion Combustion of Methanol

As an excellent nanoscale material, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) play a very important role in improving the batteries of new energy vehicles. The micro-scale combustion flame synthesis method is a promising method for preparing carbon nanotubes. To explore the optimal growth condition of carbon nanotubes under micro-scale combustion, the detailed mechanism of methanol C3 (114 species, 1999 reactions) was reduced based on whole-species sensitivity analysis, then a suitable model of methanol combustion was established by using Fluent software coupling with simplified mechanism (16 species, 65 reactions) of methanol. The model was used for the numerical simulation of micro-scale coaxial diffusion combustion of methanol, and then it was verified by the experimental results of micro-scale combustion of methanol. They were analyzed that the flame temperature field and important intermediate product concentration including the Carbon monoxide (CO), oxhydryl (OH), and aldehyde (HCO) under different methanol flow rates and airflow rates. The results show that the methanol flame temperature field distribution area and the top temperature are gradually increased with the increase of methanol flow rate, the top temperature is increased with the increase of airflow rate. The peak values of CO, OH and HCO are increased with the increase of methanol flow rate. With the increase of airflow rate, they were increased at first, and then were decreased.