Combustion, adiabatic calculation

This expression may now be equated with the negative of the enthalpy of reaction (or combustion) to calculate the theoretical adiabatic flame temperature. This procedure is illustrated in the solution to this problem. 

Flame Temperature. The adiabatic flame temperature, or theoretical flame temperature, is the maximum temperature attained by the products when the reaction goes to completion and the heat fiberated during the reaction is used to raise the temperature of the products. Flame temperatures, as a function of the equivalence ratio, are usually calculated from thermodynamic data when a fuel is burned adiabaticaHy with air. To calculate the adiabatic flame temperature (AFT) without dissociation, for lean to stoichiometric mixtures, complete combustion is assumed. This implies that the products of combustion contain only carbon dioxide, water, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur dioxide. 

Actual temperatures in practical flames are lower than calculated values as a result of the heat losses by radiation, thermal conduction, and diffusion. At high temperatures, dissociation of products of combustion into species such as OH, O, and H reduces the theoretical flame temperature (7). Increasing the pressure tends to suppress dissociation of the products and thus generally raises the adiabatic flame temperature (4). 

Adiabatic flame temperatures agree with values measured by optical techniques, when the combustion is essentially complete and when losses are known to be relatively small. Calculated temperatures and gas compositions are thus extremely useful and essential for assessing the combustion process and predicting the effects of variations in process parameters (4). Advances in computational techniques have made flame temperature and equifibrium gas composition calculations, and the prediction of thermodynamic properties, routine for any fuel-oxidizer system for which the enthalpies and heats of formation are available or can be estimated. 

Adiabatic Reaction Temperature (T ). The concept of adiabatic or theoretical reaction temperature (T j) plays an important role in the design of chemical reactors, gas furnaces, and other process equipment to handle highly exothermic reactions such as combustion. T is defined as the final temperature attained by the reaction mixture at the completion of a chemical reaction carried out under adiabatic conditions in a closed system at constant pressure. Theoretically, this is the maximum temperature achieved by the products when stoichiometric quantities of reactants are completely converted into products in an adiabatic reactor. In general, T is a function of the initial temperature (T) of the reactants and their relative amounts as well as the presence of any nonreactive (inert) materials. T is also dependent on the extent of completion of the reaction. In actual experiments, it is very unlikely that the theoretical maximum values of T can be realized, but the calculated results do provide an idealized basis for comparison of the thermal effects resulting from exothermic reactions. Lower feed temperatures (T), presence of inerts and excess reactants, and incomplete conversion tend to reduce the value of T. The term theoretical or adiabatic flame temperature (T,, ) is preferred over T in dealing exclusively with the combustion of fuels. 

A natural gas having the volumetric composition of 90% methane, 8% ethane, and 2% nitrogen at 1 atm and 25°C is used as fuel in a power plant. To ensure complete combustion 75% excess air is also supplied at 1 atm and 25°C. Calculate (i) the lower and higher heating values of the fuel at 25°C and (ii) the theoretical maximum temperature in the boiler assuming adiabatic operation and gaseous state for all the products. 

The experimental data and the calculations involved in the determination of a reaction enthalpy by isoperibol flame combustion calorimetry are in many aspects similar to those described for bomb combustion calorimetry (see section 7.1) It is necessary to obtain the adiabatic temperature rise, A Tad, from a temperaturetime curve such as that in figure 7.2, to determine the energy equivalent of the calorimeter in an separate experiment and to compute the enthalpy of the isothermal calorimetric process, AI/icp, by an analogous scheme to that used in the case of equations 7.17-7.19 and A /ibp. The corrections to the standard state are, however, much less important because the pressure inside the burner vessel is very close to 0.1 MPa. 

The experiments are usually carried out at atmospheric pressure and the initial goal is the determination of the enthalpy change associated with the calorimetric process under isothermal conditions, AT/icp, usually at the reference temperature of 298.15 K. This involves (1) the determination of the corresponding adiabatic temperature change, ATad, from the temperature-time curve just mentioned, by using one of the methods discussed in section 7.1 (2) the determination of the energy equivalent of the calorimeter in a separate experiment. The obtained AT/icp value in conjunction with tabulated data or auxiliary calorimetric results is then used to calculate the enthalpy of an hypothetical reaction with all reactants and products in their standard states, Ar77°, at the chosen reference temperature. This is the equivalent of the Washburn corrections in combustion calorimetry... 

The liquid propellant rocket combination nitrogen tetroxide (N204) and IJDMII (unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine) has optimum performance at an oxidizer-to-fuel weight ratio of 2 at a chamber pressure of 67 atm. Assume that the products of combustion of this mixture are N2, C02, H20, CO, H2, O, H, OH, and NO. Set down the equations necessary to calculate the adiabatic combustion temperature and the actual product composition under these conditions. These equations should contain all the numerical... 

The heat of combustion amounts to 7483 cal/g of aluminum fuel and the adiabatic flame temperature calculated by the NASA chemical equilibrium program [6] is 4005 K. The combustion equation for aluminum and steam is... 

The heat of combustion amounts to 4272 cal/g of aluminum fuel and the adiabatic flame temperature calculated by the chemical equilibrium program is 3036 K. Thus, the heat released when aluminum is burned with steam is about 57% of the amount released when aluminum is burned with O2. Many experimental investigations have been carried out on the combustion of aluminum in atmospheres where the primary oxidizer was O2 [7-16], and also in atmospheres where the primary oxidizer was H2O and/or CO2 [16-19]. There is general... 

When some portion of the AP particles contained within an AP composite propellant is replaced with nitramine particles, an AP-nitramine composite propellan-tis formulated. However, the specific impulse is reduced because there is an insufficient supply of oxidizer to the fuel components, i. e., the composition becomes fuel-rich. The adiabatic flame temperature is also reduced as the mass fraction of nitramine is increased. Fig. 7.49 shows the results of theoretical calculations of and Tf for AP-RDX composite propellants as a function of Irdx- Th propellants are composed of jjxpb(0-13) and the chamber pressure is 7.0 MPa with an optimum expansion to 0.1 MPa. Both I p and T)-decrease with increasing Irdx- The molecular mass of the combustion products also decreases with increasing Irdx due to the production of Hj by the decomposition of RDX. It is evident that no excess oxidizer fragments are available to oxidize this H2. 

Boron particles are incorporated into GAP pyrolants in order to increase their specific impulse.[8-i2] xhe adiabatic flame temperature and specific impulse of GAP pyrolants are shown as a function of air-to-fuel ratio in Fig. 15.10 and Fig. 15.11, respectively. In the performance calculation, a mixture of the combustion products of the pyrolant with air is assumed as the reactant. The enthalpy of the air varies according to the velocity of the vehicle (or the relative velocity of the air) and the flight altitude. The flight conditions are assumed to be a velocity of Mach 2.0 at sea level. An air enthalpy of 218.2 kj kg is then assumed. 

In the simple two-component system of PVC binder and oxidizer, the important propellant properties of specific impulse, density, adiabatic flame temperature, and burning rate increase with an increase in solids loading. This is shown in Figure 8, where theoretical calculated values of specific impulse, adiabatic flame temperature, and density are given for a range of oxidizer content for PVC plastisol propellants comprised of only binder and oxidizer. [Calculated values of specific impulse reported throughout this paper are for adiabatic combustion at a rocket chamber pressure of 1000 p.s.i.a. followed by isentropic expansion to 1 atm. pressure with the assumptions that during the expansion process chemical compo-... 

Use GRI-Mech (GRIM30. mec) and a laminar premixed flame code to calculate the burning velocity of a methane-air mixture at 1.0 atm. Repeat the calculation, replacing the nitrogen in the combustion air with helium. Compare flame speeds and adiabatic flame temperatures. 

Then, the calculated temperature of the combustion chamber is 3800°F. This is called the adiabatic flame temperature. Such a temperature is quite sufficient to turn even bricks into a high-viscosity, lava-type, semisolid fluid. 

Since we are located far from the boundary we may neglect the influence of heat transfer in the process. We equate the combustion temperature Tg with the so-called theoretical combustion temperature Tt, calculated from thermodynamic data under the assumption of adiabatic combustion. For more detail, see 1.4 and 1.5. 

An adiabatic calorimeter is a calorimeter that has a jacket temperature adjusted to follow the calorimeter temperature so as to maintain zero thermal head, and the test method (ASTM D-2015, ISO 1928) consists of burning the coal sample in the calorimeter, and the jacket temperature is adjusted during the burning so that it is essentially the same as the calorimeter water temperature. The calorific value is calculated from observations made before and after the combustion. In the isothermal method (ASTM D-3286 ISO 1928), the calorific value is determined by burning a weighed sample of coal in oxygen under controlled conditions, and the calorific value is computed from temperature observations made before, during, and after combustion with appropriate allowances made for the heat contributed by other processes. The value computed for the calorific value of coal... 

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