Swiss-roll combustors are spiral-shaped devices that have been explored for applications such as methane flaring in the oil and gas industry. Since methane has a higher global warming potential than carbon dioxide, improving combustion efficiency during flaring can help reduce emissions.
The blog by Rohit Kamath, Convergent Science explains how CONVERGE CFD software is used to simulate a Swiss-roll combustor test bench developed by Advanced Cooling Technologies Inc. The simulations analyze internal flow, combustion, and heat transfer, capturing phenomena such as flame anchoring, recirculation zones, and incomplete combustion that are difficult to observe experimentally. The study also incorporates Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) and conjugate heat transfer (CHT) to improve solution accuracy and evaluates methane, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxide emissions under lean operating conditions. The simulation results show good agreement with experimental measurements at the combustor outlet.
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