Energy Conversion and Management 81 (2014) 83–97

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Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Evaluation of gas radiation models in CFD modeling of oxy-combustion

M.A. Rajhi a, R. Ben-Mansour a, M.A. Habib a, M.A. Nemitallah a,b,⇑, K. Andersson c
a
Mechanical Engineering Departments, KFUPM, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia
b
Mechanical Engineering Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Mass Avenue, Cambridge, USA
c
Department of Energy and Environment, Energy Technology, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96 Goteborg, Sweden

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Proper determination of the radiation energy is very important for proper predictions of the combustion
Received 4 October 2013 characteristics inside combustion devices using CFD modeling. For this purpose, different gas radiation
Accepted 7 February 2014 models were developed and applied in the present work. These radiation models vary in their accuracy
Available online 3 March 2014
and complexity according to the application. In this work, a CFD model for a typical industrial water tube
boiler was developed, considering three different combustion environments. The combustion environ-
Keywords: ments are air–fuel combustion (21% O2 and 79% N2), oxy-fuel combustion (21% O2 and 79% CO2) and
Gas radiation models
oxy-fuel combustion (27% O2 and 73% CO2). Simple grey gas (SGG), exponential wide band model
Oxy-fuel combustion
Air combustion
(EWBM), Leckner, Perry and weighted sum of grey gases (WSGG) radiation models were examined and
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) their influences on the combustion characteristics were evaluated. Among those radiation models, the
EWBM was found to provide close results to the experimental data for the present boiler combustion
application. The oxy-fuel combustion characteristics were analyzed and compared with those of air–fuel
combustion.
Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction effect, it can be neglected in the RTE. By applying this simplifica-

Energy production from fossil fuel combustion results in the
emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx).
Reduction of these pollutants becomes an international commu-
nity interest and many investigators have been adopted for this
purpose. One of the most promising options to capture carbon
dioxide (CO2) and reduce NOx emission is oxy-fuel combustion
in which the combustion utilizes pure oxygen instead of air. Ther-
mal radiation is the principal mode of heat transfer in the combus-
tion chamber and the radiative properties of combustion products
such as CO2 and H2O affect the heat transfer to the furnace wall
tubes.
In the present work, the transfer of radiant energy was obtained
from the solution of the radiative transfer equation (RTE) as de-
scribed in the coming sections. The radiative transfer equation is
of the integral–differential type. This equation is complex and,
therefore, it is difficult to be exactly solved in 3-D geometries.
The following simplifications to this equation were, therefore,
incorporated. Since the scattering in the combustion of gas fuel
(such as Natural Gas, CH4 and Propane, C3H8) has an insignificant
⇑ Corresponding author at: Mechanical Engineering Department, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, 77 Mass Avenue, Cambridge, USA. Tel.: +966 598212483.
E-mail addresses: medhatahmed@kfupm.edu.sa, mahmed@mit.edu (M.A. Nemi-
tallah).
tion, the radiative transfer equation becomes a differential equa-
tion, which is much easier to be solved than the integral–
differential equation. Viskanta [1] indicated that, in cases where
soot particles are small, such as those cases of methane and pro-
pane combustion, the scattering is a function of the soot particle
diameter raised to the power four. Accordingly, it is justified to ne-
glect the scattering effect in the present calculations. However, this
assumption cannot be generalized to other combustion applica-
tions. Thus, care should be taken during the treatment of the soot
modeling as it directly affects the radiation heat transfer. Soot par-
ticle size effects on the radiation heat transfer were reported in
many studies for different combustion applications [2–4] and dif-
ferent flame types [5,6].
The generation rate of soot particles inside many combustion
applications has been described in various models. Those models
have shown good agreement with experimental data for different
flame types and different combustion applications [7]. The influ-
ence of soot particles on the radiation heat transfer in a multi com-
partment system has been demonstrated by Yeoh et al. [8]. Their
numerical results have shown good agreement when compared
with the experimental data of Luo and Beck [9], considering the
soot model proposed by Moss et al. [10] and Syed et al. [11]. Yeoh
et al. [8] concluded that the accurate calculation of the rate of soot
generation is very essential for accurate CFD modeling of
combustion.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2014.02.019
0196-8904/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
84 M.A. Rajhi et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 81 (2014) 83–97

Nomenclature

Iv spectral radiation intensity (W m2 sr1 Hz1) r Stefan Boltzmann constant (W m2 K4)
I total intensity (W m2 sr1) s transmissivity
Ib blackbody intensity (W m2 sr1) sH optical depth at band head
Ib,m spectral black body intensity (W m2 sr1 Hz1) sk transmissivity of band k
L path length (m) sk,i?n transmissivity of band k and path i ? n
c velocity of radiation (m/s) x bandwidth parameter (cm1)
Ak total band absorptance of band k (Hz if frequency is eo zero partial pressure emissivity
used in the integration, lm if wavelength is used, jv spectral absorption coefficient
cm1 if wavenumber is used) rv scattering coefficient
Pe equivalent broadening pressure Uv phase function
X density path-length (g/m2) a integrated band intensity (cm1/(g/m2))
PE effective pressure (bar) x band width parameter (cm1)
ae,i emissivity weighting factors for the grey gas i Dec+w overlap between bands of CO2 and H2O
be,i,j emissivity gas temperature polynomial coefficients g, l, n direction cosine
aa,i absorptivity weighting factors
ca,i,j,k absorptivity polynomial coefficients Abbreviations
Eov C;k spectral blackbody emissive power (W/(m2 Hz), or other DOM discrete ordinates method
units if wavelength or wavenumber is used) RTE radiative transfer equation
LBL line-by-line model
Greek symbols SNB statistical narrow band model
b mean line-width-to-spacing parameter WBM wide band model
e emissivity CFD computational fluid dynamics
ec emissivity of carbon dioxide WSGG weighted sum of grey gases model
eg total gas emissivity EWBM exponential wide band model
ew emissivity of water vapour SLW spectral line-based weighted-sum-of-grey-gases model
ek spectral emissivity SGG simple grey gas model
f partial pressure ratio BA block approximation method
g pressure corrected line-width-to-spacing parameter BEA band energy approximation
k stoichiometric ratio
kmax pressure correction parameter

The Soot generation rate should be accurately predicted in the
flame zone in order to correctly predict the combustion character-
istics inside any combustion system, especially for the case of oxy-
fuel combustion [12]. Changing the energy carrying medium from
nitrogen in case of conventional air combustion to carbon dioxide
in case of oxy-fuel combustion is expected to result in modifica-
tions in the soot generation rate [13]. It has been confirmed, in
many recent publications, that oxy-fuel combustion results in less
amount of soot [14,15].
Predictions of nine total emissivity models against the calcula-
tions conducted using the EWBM were compared by Lallemant
et al. [16]. Hottel et al. [17] showed that the thermal radiation from
water vapour, carbon dioxide, fly ash, soot and carbon monoxide
presents the major contributor of heat transfer from a flame pro-
duced by conventional fuels. Any change of CO2 and H2O concen-
trations results in a change in radiative heat transfer. For air
combustion with conventional partial pressures of CO2 and H2O,
the heat transfer calculations are carried out by using a three
grey-one clear gas model to estimate flame emissivity.
The concentrations of CO2 and H2O gases in oxy-fuel combus-
tion are high in comparison to those of air-fired combustion. Both
CO2 and H2O, unlike N2 which is transparent to thermal radiation,
emit and absorb thermal radiation. Accordingly, the emissivity of
the flue gas increase in the case of oxy-fuel combustion due to
the high concentrations of absorbing/emitting gases. These have
subsequent effects on the radiative heat transfer. Wall [18] stated
that the heat transfer prediction is critical to oxy-fuel technology,
since there are changes in gas properties due to CO2 recycling from
furnace outlet back to the furnace inlet. These changes are attrib-
uted to alteration of gas radiative properties and gas heat capacity.
During oxy-fuel combustion, the flue gas tri-atomic molecules
concentration increases drastically and this leads to changes in
the gas emissivity. In order to assess the suitability of retrofitting
an air-fired boiler to oxy-fuel combustion, Zheng et al. [19,20] cal-
culated the gas emissivity from the correlations suggested by Leck-
ner [21] for total gas emissivity for the water vapour and carbon
dioxide.
Andersson and Johansson [22] studied experimentally the com-
bustion of propane fuel for three test cases: air–fuel combustion
(referenced one) and other two oxy-combustion cases (OF21 @
21% O2 and OF27 @ 27% O2). The difference in total radiation inten-
sity between these cases was determined and compared. In addi-
tion, the difference in combustion environment was described.
They reported that, in case of the OF 21 combustion, the tempera-
ture levels were found to be lower than those of air-fired condition.
This was attributed to two reasons; (1) the higher specific heat
capacity of CO2 compared to N2, and (2) increase in radiation losses
caused by the CO2 with increase the gas emissivity. In a recent
study, Johansson et al. [23] evaluated several approximate gas
radiative property models for oxy-fuel environments in large
atmospheric boiler. These models included statistical narrow band
(SNB) models, WSGG model, spectral line-based weighted-sum-of-
grey-gases model (SLW) and two grey-gas approximations model.
The accuracy of the radiation models is determined by the
importance of the radiative source term. Lallemant et al. [16] indi-
cated that the heat released by combustion dominates the radia-
tive release in regions of intensive combustion. They compared
gas radiation models with measurements of total radiation inten-
sity in a 300 kW non-sooting natural-gas flame. The agreement be-
tween measurements and computed data by the EWBM was
 M.A. Rajhi et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 81 (2014) 83–97
excellent for measurements against cold furnace walls. The WSGG
model is recommended when the influence of the radiative source
term is significant. Porter et al. [24] used the spherical harmonic
(P1) and the discrete ordinates method (DO) to solve the RTE in
multi-dimensional problem. The spectral nature of radiation has
been treated by using non-grey gas full spectrum k-distribution
method (FSCK) and a grey method. The simulation results of air–
fuel and oxy-fuel combustion were compared with the statistical
narrow band model (SNB). They concluded that the non-grey full
spectrum k-distribution method was in good agreement with the
statistical narrow band model (SNB). Significant errors were intro-
duced in the wall heat flux when a grey model was used.
The WSGG model is based on the fitting of air–fuel combustion
characteristics. This model was modified by Johansson et al. [25] to
become suitable to cover the temperature range of 500–2500 K in
order to be used in case of cover oxy-fuel combustion. They have
reported that the modified WSGG is a computationally efficient op-
tion for CFD simulations. Hjärtstam et al. [26] utilized the CFD
method to investigate the influence of gas and gas-soot radiation
mechanisms in air and oxy-fuel flames when propane fuel is burnt
in a 100 kW test furnace. They showed that in the case of Oxy-fuel
combustion both grey and non-grey weighted sum of grey gases
models overestimate the peak temperature. In addition, they sta-
ted that, the inclusion of soot modeling in both grey and non-grey
gas radiation models has a significant impact in the CFD calcula-
tions. In the present work, a CFD model was developed and used
to simulate three different combustion environments based on dif-
ferent gas radiation models.
2. Gas radiation models
In the present study, the radiant energy was calculated from the
RTE solution. This equation is based on the conservation principle
applied to a monochromatic bundle of radiation. The RTE is given
by Viskanta [1] as follows:
Z Z
1 dIv rm
¼ ðjv þ rv ÞIv þ jv n2v Ibv þ s0 ! ~
Um ð~ s; m0
c dt 4p Dm; X¼4p
s0 ÞdX0 dm0
! mÞIv 0 ð~
where the different coefficients and terms of the above equation
are defined as: ‘‘Iv’’ is the spectral radiation intensity, ‘‘c’’ is the
speed of electromagnetic wave in vacuum, ‘‘jv’’ is the spectral
absorption coefficient, ‘‘rv’’ is the scattering coefficient, ‘‘Ibv’’ is
the Planck’s spectral blackbody intensity of radiation, ‘‘nv’’ is the
spectral index of refraction of the medium and ‘‘Uv’’ is the phase
function. The spectral radiation intensity is a function of three spa-
tial coordinates, time and two angles, in addition to the radiation
frequency or the wavelength. Solution of radiative transfer requires
models to account for the directional and spectral natures of radi-
ation. One of the popular methods to treat the directional nature of
radiation is the discrete ordinates method (DO). The method is
originally suggested by Chandrasekhar [27] for astrophysical appli-
cations. This method was applied in the present calculations and
its solution was obtained through the solution of Eq. (1) for a set
of discrete directions spanning the total solid angle range of 4p.
The spectral nature of radiation is very important aspect in the
gas radiation treatment. In general, there are three different mod-
els used to define the radiative properties of combustion gases
[28]. Those models are the Spectral line-by-line models, the Spec-
tral band models and the Global model. The complexity of the
models decreases from the line model to the global model. In the
line-by-line (LBL) model, the RTE is integrated over detailed molec-
ular spectrum for the gases. This model is used only for benchmark
solutions due to the enormous amount of computational require-
ments. The statistical narrow band model (SNB) provides the
85
spectral transmissivity averaged over a narrow band. This model
is suitable for the radiation heat transfer prediction in high tem-
perature mediums. The wide band model (WBM) is a simplification
of the SNB model; it yields wide band absorptance and requires the
knowledge of the path length in the model as well as the spectral
parameters associated with the path length. In the following sub-
sections, the details of the considered gas radiation models in the
present work are presented.
2.1. Simple grey gas model (SGG)
The simple grey gas model (SGG), in addition to being simple, it
requires low execution time. The model considers the effective
absorption coefficient as the main parameter controlling the radi-
ative properties of a gas mixture and assumes that radiant absorp-
tion and emission by gas molecules to be independent of the
frequency of the radiation. Under the grey gas assumption, and
neglecting scattering of radiation, the RTE for the radiation inten-
sity (integrated over the entire spectrum) in 3-D Cartesian coordi-
nates is expressed as follows:
@I @I @I
n þ g þ l ¼ je I þ je Ib ð2Þ
@x @y @z
In the full modeling of a gas-fired furnace, the RTE is solved for
known temperature field and species concentration that are deter-
mined by conservations equations of motion, energy and mass of
species. At the start of the solution, an initial guess is made for
all of the parameters. Then, iterative methodology is used in order
to get the final converged solution. The RTE is solved based on the
calculations of temperature and species concentrations from the
previous step. A good estimation of the effective absorption coeffi-
cient from the known properties (a mean beam length Lm and a
characteristic gas temperature) of emission by the gas can be ob-
tained from interpretation of the total emissivity of the gas upon
the bounding surface. The characteristic temperature can be the
volume–average gas temperature Tm, as given in the following
equation:
je ¼ ð1=Lm ÞIn½1  eg ðT m ; Lm Þ ð3Þ
ð1Þ
Or the local temperature, T, giving a locally varying value,
je ¼ ð1=Lm ÞIn½1  eg ðT; Lm Þ ð4Þ
The mean beam length is estimated as
Lm ¼ 3:6V=S ð5Þ
where V represents volume of furnace and S is the wall surface area.
2.2. Exponential wide band model (EWBM)
The exponential wide band model is based on a physical analy-
sis of gas absorption. This model provides a set of semi-empirical
expressions to predict the total band absorptance of infrared active
molecules. This model can be used to predict radiative properties
in a wide range of temperature, total pressure range, volumetric
fraction and path length [29]. In this model, it is assumed that
the total absorption of a vibration–rotation band can be approxi-
mated with correlations dependent on three parameters: the inte-
grated band intensity, a, the band width parameter, x, and the
mean line-width-to-spacing parameter, b. These parameters de-
pend on temperature, but pressure effects are also accounted for
through the equivalent broadening pressure, Pe. The parameters
yield asymptotic relations for the total band absorptance Ak. These
relations are known as the four-region expression, which is defined
as linear, square root, log-root and logarithmic regions.
The expressions of the band transmissivity, sk, are derived from
the relation:
86 M.A. Rajhi et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 81 (2014) 83–97

 
sH @Ak p pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
sk ¼ ð6Þ PE ¼ PT 1 þ 4:9 w 273=T ð16Þ
Ak @ sH pT
The optical depth at the band head sH and the pressure correc-  
p
tion parameter g are calculated from: PE ¼ PT 1 þ 0:28 c ð17Þ
pT
aX
sH ¼ ð7Þ The total emissivity of the gas mixture of H2O and CO2 for the
x
desired partial and total pressures is equal to the sum of emissiv-
g ¼ bPe ð8Þ ities of the two gases minus a correction term Decw due to overlap
in some spectral regions. The overlap between the two gases is
where X is the density path-length. The parameters a and b are cal- approximated by the following equation:
culated according to the simplified relations presented by Lallemant 
and Weber [29], while x is given by a correlation dependent on f
Decw ¼  0:0089f10:4  k2:76 ð18Þ
temperature. In order to calculate the total emissivity of H2O–CO2 10:7 þ 101f
mixtures, band energy approximation (BEA) is used. In this method,
In which the partial pressure ratio f is given by
it is assumed that the blackbody emissive power is constant over
each absorption band. The total emissivity is given by the following pw
f¼ ð19Þ
equation [30]: pw þ pc

X o
k¼N E and the parameter k is defined as
v C;k
eg ffi  Ak  Decþw ð9Þ
k ¼ log10 ððpw þ pc Þ  LÞ ð20Þ
k¼1 r  T4

The correction term, Dec+w, accounts for the overlap between

the 2.7 and 15 lm bands for mixtures of CO2 and H2O. The simpli- 2.4. Perry model
fied procedure proposed by Modak [31] is used in the present
study to calculate this overlapping. Empirical correlations for the emissivities of water vapour, car-
bon dioxide, and four mixtures of the two gases were developed in
2.3. Leckner model the 8th edition of the Perry’s Chemical Engineering Handbook [32].
They are valid to be used for pressure-path-length of range .005–
The model was developed by Leckner in 1972 [21]. The CO2 and 10 m-atm. The emissivities at three temperatures of 1000, 1500
H2O emissivities are treated separately. Then, the total emissivity and 2000 K at six values of partial pressure ratios of H2O/CO2,
of the mixture is determined by taking a total band overlap correc- namely, 0, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and 1 can be calculated by Eq. (21).
tion term into consideration. The advantage of this model is that it Empirical constants for different partial pressure ratios of H2O/
can be applied for any arbitrary partial pressures of CO2 and H2O. CO2 are given in [32]. These correlations were developed based
The total emissivity for a mixture of CO2 and H2O is calculated from on the data in Hottel emissivity charts [17] and were adjusted to
the following equation: the more recent data from cross-handler [33]. Linear interpolation
or extrapolation of the emissivities determined at 1000, 1500 and
eg ¼ ec þ ew  Decw ð10Þ 2000 K is used in order to obtain the emissivity at different tem-
In this model, a zero partial pressure emissivity for either CO2 or perature and it is given by the following equation:
H2O is given by: eg T H ðT g  T L Þ þ eg T L ðT H  T g Þ
eg T g ¼ ð21Þ
X
i¼M 500
i
ln eo ¼ ao þ ai k ð11Þ where TH and TL are the higher and the lower temperature,
i¼1
respectively.
In which:
2.5. Weighted sum of grey gas model (WSGG)
X
j¼N
ai ¼ C oi þ C ji sj ð12Þ
j¼1 There are several gas radiative properties models, called global
models; they are based on the concept of weighted sum of grey
k ¼ log 10ðpi LÞ ð13Þ gases. Example of these models is Hottel and Sarofim’s gas radia-
tive properties model [17]. Eq. (22) is used for the evaluation of to-
where pi L is the pressure path length of either H2O or CO2 (given in
tal emissivity in terms of the weighted sum of grey gases and it is
bar.cm) and s = T/1000 (the gas temperature T is given in K). The
useful especially for the zonal method of analysis of radiative
coefficients Cji are found in Ref. [21]. The pressure correction term
transfer.
is determined using the relation:
   X
i¼I
ei ei e¼ ae;i ðTÞ½1  eji PL  ð22Þ
1 1 ¼ expfnðkmax  kÞ2 g ð14Þ
eo eo max i¼0

where ei is the emissivity of either CO2 or H2O. At high pressures the where ae,i is the emissivity weighting factors for the grey gas i. The
emissivity follows an asymptotic behavior according to: weighting factors are dependent on gas temperature T. ji, is the
  absorption coefficient, P is the sum of partial pressures of absorbing
ei A  PE þ B gases and L is the thickness of gas layer, or path length. The weight-
¼ ð15Þ
eo max PE þ A þ B  1 ing factor for clear gas, i.e. for i = 0, is defined as:
The parameters n, kmax, A and B are given in Ref. [21]. The effec-
X
i¼I
tive pressure PE is defined in Eqs. (16) and (17) for H2O and CO2 ae;0 ðTÞ ¼ 1  ae;i ð23Þ
respectively. i¼1
 M.A. Rajhi et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 81 (2014) 83–97 87

A common representation of the temperature dependency of

the weighting factors is a polynomial of order J  1 given as:

X
j¼J
ae;i ðTÞ ¼ be;i;j T j1 ð24Þ
j¼1

where be,i,j is referred to as the emissivity gas temperature polyno-

mial coefficients. The absorption coefficients ji and the polynomial
coefficients be,i,j are obtained by fitting Eq. (22) to a table of total
emissivities previously calculated from the EWBM. The total emis-
sivities for various gas mixtures can be obtained utilizing experi-
mental measurements, by calculation based on spectral lines or
bands based on Hottel’s charts, etc. The total absorptivity is calcu-
lated as follows:

X
i¼I
a¼ aa;i ðT; T s Þ½1  eji PL  ð25Þ
i¼1

where aa,i is the absorptivity weighting factor, T is the gas temper-

ature and Ts is the surface irradiation temperature. The weighting
factors for a CO2/H2O/clear gas mixture with PCO2 = 0.1P, PH2O = 0.2-
P, and P = 101.3 kPa, have been reported by Truelove [34].
All the WSGG model parameters, i.e. weighting factors and
absorption coefficients, are intended for air-combustion condi-
tions, and their validity to be used in oxy-fuel combustion is lim-
ited. Pressure path-lengths and ratios of H2O to CO2 in oxy-fuel
combustion are drastically different from that of conventional
combustion. Therefore, there is a need to derive new parameters
to be used in these models. Johansson et al. [23] have developed
two WSGG models, the first consist of three grey one clear gas,
and the second of four grey one clear gas.
3. Boiler description and CFD modeling
3.1. Boiler description
CFD modeling of a full scale fossil-fuel fired furnace is con-
ducted in this study. The objective of this modeling is to investigate
the influence of radiation models on combustion characteristics
and to analyze the impact of replacing air with a mixture of O2–
CO2 in the combustion. The boiler is manufactured by Mitsubishi
Heavy Industries (MHI) and is operated in Saudi Aramco refineries.
A brief summary of design data is given in Table 1. The layout of
this boiler is depicted in Fig. 1. It consists of D-type tubes that ex-
tend from the mud drum (lower drum) through the bottom wall,
the side wall, top of furnace and ends at the upper drum. The tubes
forming the bottom wall are thermally insulated. Tubes on the
front wall extend from lower to upper drum while the tubes form-
ing the side walls extend from a lower header to an upper header.
The water-steam mixture inside the tube is, under steady state
conditions, normally saturated having a saturation temperature
corresponding to the drum pressure. Accordingly, the furnace walls
provide a constant temperature (538.6 K) boundary condition. As
shown in Fig. 1, the boiler consists of 6 burners located in two lev-
els. Each burner has eight fuel nozzles with 24 fuel jets in each noz-
zle. The burner construction is shown in Fig. 2. Methane fuel (CH4)
is burnt in the furnace with stoichiometric ratio of about 1.16 (16%
Table 1
Design data of the boiler.
Mass flow rate of Drum pressure, Steam Number of
steam, lb/h psig temperature, F burners
750,000 750 750 6 on two
levels
Fig. 1. Layout of the furnace of the present boiler.
excessive air). It is assumed that all fuel is converted to combustion
products of CO2 and H2O and the total heat input into the furnace is
295 MW. The fuel mass flow rate through each burner is about
0.98 kg/s. Primary and secondary air passing through each burner
are equal to 8.87 kg/s and 10.7 kg/s respectively. The combustion
process takes place in environment of atmospheric pressure. The
volume of the furnace was discretized into 1,335,180 control vol-
umes. This analysis covers three different combustion environ-
ments; (1) AF21 (21% O2 and 79% N2), (2) OF21 (21% O2 and 79%
CO2) and (3) OF27 (27% O2 and 73% CO2).
3.2. CFD modeling
The set of governing differential equations, i.e. continuity,
momentum, energy and conservation of chemical species, together
with the boundary conditions were numerically solved. The stea-
dy-state mass, momentum, energy and species conservation equa-
tions for Newtonian fluids were considered:
r  ðqUÞ ¼ 0 ð26Þ
r  ðqUUÞ ¼ rP þ lr2 U ð27Þ
ðqC P ÞU  rT ¼ r  ðkrTÞ ð28Þ
r  ðqUY i Þ  r  ðqDi rY i Þ ¼ 0 ð29Þ
where u is the velocity vector, q is the fluid density, p is the pres-
sure, l is the dynamic viscosity, k is the thermal conductivity, Di
is the diffusion coefficient, and Yi is the scalar species mass fraction.
The CFD Fluent package [35] utilizing the finite volume method is
used for representing and evaluating partial differential equations
in the form of algebraic equations. The CFD calculations normally
provide detailed results including velocity, temperature, species
concentrations and heat flux that are not easily obtained through
experimental measurements. The models that used in the solution
are [36–40]; (1) Incompressible ideal gas assumption, (2) Standard
k–e turbulent model, (3) Temperature-dependent properties, (4)
Two-step oxy-combustion volumetric reactions for species trans-
port, (5) Finite-rate/Eddy-dissipation turbulence-chemistry interac-
tion, and (6) Discrete Ordinate Radiation Model (DO). The
discretization of the governing equations was conducted through
the use of a segregated solver (each equation is solved separately.
In order to couple the calculations of pressure and velocity, a
Semi-Implicit Method for Pressure-Linked Equations (SIMPLE)
88 M.A. Rajhi et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 81 (2014) 83–97

Fig. 2. The burner construction.

Table 2
Modified two-step methane–oxygen combustion mechanisms with kinetic rate data [41].

Reaction number Reactions A b Ea (J/kmole) Reaction orders

Reaction 1 CH4 + 1.5O2 ? CO + 2H2O 1.59  1013 0 1.998  108 [CH4]0.7[O2]0.8
Reaction 2 CO + 0.5O2 ? CO2 3.98  108 0 4.18  107 [CO][O2]0.25[H2O]0.5
Reaction 3 CO2 ? CO + 0.5O2 6.16  1013 0.97 3.277  108 [CO2][H2O]0.5[O2]0.25

scheme was applied. The solution was converged when the summa- Table 3
Different grids for furnace modeling.
tion of the residual in the governing equation at all the domain
nodes was less than 0.01%. The ideal gas law was used to determine Grid name Number of cells Percentage of increasing
the gas density and the pressure staggered scheme (PRESTO) was 1 Grid-1 935,805 –
applied. Thermal conductivity, viscosity, and specific heat of the 2 Grid-2 1,095,555 +17
gas were determined as a mass fraction-weighted average of all 3 Grid-3 1,335,180 +43
the species. For each species, the specific heat was determined
through the application of a temperature piecewise polynomial
fit. To obtain more accurate results, the second-order upwind dis- 2000
cretization scheme was applied for the solution of momentum, spe-
cies and energy equations. A constant temperature boundary 1800 Grid-1
Grid-2
condition was applied to all furnace walls, 538.6 K, and the combus- Grid-3
1600
tion is conducted under atmospheric conditions. Methane (CH4)
Temperature (K)

was used as the operating fuel with a rate of 0.98 kg/s and an excess 1400
air factor of 1.16% was applied during the combustion process. For
1200
each burner, the primary and secondary air flows were set to
8.87 kg/s and 10.7 kg/s, respectively. 1000
The solution of the RTE cannot be obtained unless the absorp-
tion coefficient is known. It can be determined from the computed 800
emissivity at each computational cell by employing the Beer–Lam-
600
bert’s law and taking the mean beam length of the geometry as the
path length. SGG model, WSGG model, the EWBM, Leckner model 400
and Perry model are applied in the solution. They are coded and
200
compiled as User-defined functions (UDFs). Among these models,
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
the EWBM provided close results to the experimental data for
Distance along Z-axis (m)
the present boiler combustion application. The standard k–e model
is a semi-empirical model based on model transport equations for Fig. 3. Temperature profile at line (x = 4.539, y = 2.135) along Z-axis.
the turbulence kinetic energy (k) and its dissipation rate (e). The
model transport equation for k is derived from the exact equation, wall treatment. However, in the present combustion modeling,
while the model transport equation for e was obtained using phys- the most important zone is the close region to the burner not that
ical reasoning and bears little resemblance to its mathematically zone close to the wall. Based on accurate calculations of the turbu-
exact counterpart. On the other hand, for the realizable model, lence interaction and the reaction rates in this zone, the whole
the term ‘‘realizable’’ means that the model satisfies certain math- combustion characteristics can be properly calculated. Based on
ematical constraints on the normal stresses. The RNG model ac- that, the standard k–e model was applied in all of the present
counts for the flow curvature and considers additional terms for calculations.
 M.A. Rajhi et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 81 (2014) 83–97 89

-6.0E+04 present work for the calculations of the reaction kinetics. The mod-
-8.0E+04 el was modified to handle the increased CO2 concentration under
Grid-1 oxy-fuel conditions. The two step reaction kinetics model has been
-1.0E+05 Grid-2
considered in this work for simplification of the reactions kinetics
Total Heat Flux (W/m2)

-1.2E+05
-1.4E+05
-1.6E+05
-1.8E+05
-2.0E+05
-2.2E+05
-2.4E+05
-2.6E+05
-2.8E+05
-3.0E+05
1 2 3 4
Distance along Z-axis (m)
Fig. 4. Total heat flux profile at line (x = 0, y = 3) along Z-axis.
3.3. Reaction kinetics model
CFD modeling in combustion application using the global mech-
anisms can be found in the literature [41,6,42]. The simplest oxida-
tion mechanism assumes that products of the chemical reactions
consist only of CO2 and H2O and is used in case of air combustion.
The physical situation that this assumption reasonably approxi-
mates is a diffusion flame suspended in the flow field at relatively
high temperature. Here, the oxygen diffuses across the boundary
layer to meet methane in a small well-defined reaction zone. The
high temperature of the flame accelerates the local homogeneous
kinetics, and mostly produces CO2 and H2O. The replacement of in-
ert N2 with a chemically reactive compound, CO2, in case of oxy-
fuel combustion influences the importance of some of the elemen-
tary reactions governing the combustion and requires a modifica-
tion of the global multistep reaction mechanisms to make them
valid under oxy-fuel conditions [43]. The modified two-step hydro-
carbon oxidation mechanism by Andersen et al. [41] is used in the
Grid-3
calculations with reasonable results regarding the species concen-
trations as compared to the detailed model [41]. For this model, the
modified reactions rates data by Andersen et al. [41] are listed in
Table 2.
3.4. Grid independence tests
It is a very important issue in the numerical solution to ensure
that the obtained results are grid independent. For this purpose,
three different discretized geometries were examined in this study.
They are listed in Table 3. It is found that the deviation of the re-
5 6 sults with increasing the level of discretization above 1,335,180
cells did not exceed 0.01%. The temperature profiles along Z-axis
for the three grids were plotted in Fig. 3. The maximum variation
in temperature between Grid-1 and Grid-3 is calculated to be
1.6% however; it is reduced to 0.2% in case of Grid-3 as compared
to Grid-2. Furthermore, total heat flux has been checked in the
analysis. The profiles of the total heat flux along Z-axis at front wall
and y = 3 m are plotted in Fig. 4. The difference between Grid-3 and
Grid-1 is found to be 0.9%. The deviation of 0.4% is computed for
Grid-2 related to Grid-3. It should be mentioned from the above
discussion that the variation in the results if Grid-3 is used in the
solution will be insignificant.
4. Results and discussions
4.1. Models validation
Validation of the computational models applied in this study is
obtained through comparisons with the measurement of Anders-
son experimental work for air–fuel and oxy-fuel combustion
[22,44]. The experiment was conducted on the100 kW oxy-fuel
combustion test unit that connected to the Chalmers 12 MW re-
search boiler. The combustor is down-fired with a cylindrical

Fig. 5. Combustion chamber of the Chalmers 100 kW oxy-fuel unit with details of the burner [26].
90 M.A. Rajhi et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 81 (2014) 83–97

2000
EXP
1900 EWBM
SGG(0.2 1/m)
1800 SGG(0.4 1/m)
WSGG[Smith(1982)]
1700
Temperature (K)

1600
1500
1400
1300
1200
1100
1000
900
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
Radial distance from center line (m)
Fig. 9. CO2 concentration at distance 0.384 m from the burner, OF21 combustion.
Fig. 6. Temperature profile at distance 0.384 m from the burner with different
radiation models, air combustion.

2000

0.2
EXP 1900
0.175 EWBM
Temperature (K)
0.15
CO2 concentration

1800
0.125

0.1 1700
EWBM
SGG(0.1 1/m)
0.075 SGG(0.18 1/m)
1600 SGG(0.25 1/m)
WSGG
0.05

0.025 1500
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 Distance along Z-axis (m)
Radial distance from center line (m) Fig. 10. Temperature profile at line (x = 3.264, y = 1.0675) along Z-axis, air
combustion.
Fig. 7. CO2 concentration at distance 1.4 m from the burner, air combustion.

1450 1700
EXP
1400 EWBM
SGG(0.2 1/m)
SGG(0.4 1/m)
1350 WSGG[Andersson(3+1)] 1600
WSGG[Andersson(4+1)]
Temperature (K)

1300 WSGG[Smith(1982)]
Temperature (K)

SGG(0.31 1/m)

1250 1500

1200
EWBM
1150 1400 Leckner
Perry
1100 SGG(0.1 1/m)
SGG(0.18 1/m)
1050 1300
SGG(0.25 1/m)
WSGG4
1000

950 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 Distance along Z-axis (m)
Radial distance from center line (m)
Fig. 11. Temperature profile at line (x = 3.264, y = 1.0675) along Z-axis, OF21
Fig. 8. Temperature profile at distance 0.553 m from the burner with different combustion.
radiation models, OF21 combustion.

combustion test unit with details of the burner. Three test condi-
refractory lined reactor which measures 0.8 m in inner diameter tions were considered in their work. The parameters of these three
and 2.4 m in inner height. Fig. 5 illustrates the schematic of the cases are: (1) Air-firing (O2 @ 21% Vol and N2 @79% Vol), (2) OF21
 M.A. Rajhi et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 81 (2014) 83–97 91

1800
EWBM
Leckner
1700 Perry
SGG(0.1 1/m)
SGG(0.18 1/m)
Temperature (K)

SGG(0.25 1/m)
1600 WSGG4

1500

1400

1300

1200
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Distance along Z-axis (m)

Fig. 12. Temperature profile at line (x = 4.539, y = 4) along Z-axis, OF27 combustion.

Fig. 13. Temperature profiles at line (x = 3.264, y = 1.0675) along Z-axis for
different combustion cases, EWBM.

Fig. 14. Specific thermal capacity profiles at line (x = 3.264, y = 1.0675) along Z-
axis for different combustion cases, EWBM.

(O2 @ 21% Vol and CO2 @79% Vol) and (3) OF27 (O2 @ 27% Vol and
CO2 @73% Vol). All tests were performed for propane gas fuel
(C3H8) burnet at an excess air factor of 1.15 (15% excessive air).
Fig. 15. Contours for temperature of vertical plane passing through the middle
The feed gas temperature is between 25 and 30 °C. Heat input is burners 2 and 5 (x = 4.539 m), EWBM.
92 M.A. Rajhi et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 81 (2014) 83–97

Fig. 17. Contours for CH4 mass fraction of vertical plane passing through the middle
burners 2 and 5 (x = 4.539 m), EWBM.

adjusted to be 80 kW h. The fuel mass flow rate through the fuel

lance is 1.74 g/s. flows having volume rates of 37 m3/h and
Fig. 16. Contours for temperature of horizontal plane passing through the upper 54 m3/h are fed through primary and secondary air lances, respec-
burners (y = 0 m), EWBM. tively. The total heat absorption is 48.7 kW in the air case and
 M.A. Rajhi et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 81 (2014) 83–97 93

Fig. 18. Turbulent viscosity profiles at line (x = 3.264, y = 1.0675) along Z-axis for
different combustion cases, EWBM.

45.8 kW for the OF21 case. Fig. 6 illustrates radial temperature dis-
tribution at distance 0.384 m from the burner. It is found that the
temperatures are over-estimated by all models. The maximum dis-
crepancy is about 20%. The effective absorption coefficient of 0.4
(1/m) predicts higher temperature by 17% compared to the mea-
surements whereas the absorption coefficient of 0.2 (1/m). Those
differences in the results between experimental and numerical
model using the SGG radiation model may be attributed to the cal-
culations of the absorption coefficient as shown in the figure. Basi-
cally, an optimal value of SGG model effective absorption
coefficient for a given situation can be found by trial and error by
comparing the numerical results obtained using the SGG model
with experimental data. Thus, the SGG radiation model absorption
coefficient can be optimized using the experimental data. The com-
parison in Fig. 6 supports this concept. The experimental data are
in good agreement with the EWBM except in the region near the
center of the furnace. The difference between the EWBM and the
WSGG model is less than 1%. In addition, CO2 concentrations are
considered in the validation, they are under-predicted in numerical
solution. However, the difference is about 3% as shown in Fig. 7. In
general, temperature, velocity and species concentration can be
predicted using CFD models with error of about 20% in the air–fuel
combustion case.
In case of OF21 combustion, Fig. 8 shows the temperature pro-
file at distance 0.553 m from the burner. It is found that the tem-
perature predicted by the EWBM is above the measured values
by 3.8%. In addition, three grey one clear gas WSGG model, which
is introduced by Andersson and Johansson [22], leads to tempera-
ture results with error of 4%. The absorption coefficient of 0.2 (1/m)
over-predicts the temperature by 7.5%. The more accurate results
are obtained if the absorption coefficient of 0.4 (1/m) is used in
the solution, the difference will not exceed +4%. As discussed in
description part for the basic assumptions for the SGG radiation
model, the optimal value of the absorption coefficient for any
one situation is not generally optimal for another. That’s why there
are fewer differences in comparison with the experimental data in
Fig. 3 as compared to those large differences in Fig. 6. The WSGG
model over-predicts the temperature by 5.5%. It is noted in Fig. 9
that the computed CO2 concentrations are in good agreement with
experimental data and the error less than 5%.
In addition, a comparison between experimental and numerical
results was made using the same radiation model, EWBM, in our
previous work (see Ref. [36]). In this work [36], an atmospheric dif-
fusion oxy-combustion flame in a gas turbine model combustor Fig. 19. Contours for CO2 mass fraction of vertical plane passing through the middle
has been investigated experimentally and numerically. burners 2 and 5 (x = 4.539 m), EWBM.
94 M.A. Rajhi et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 81 (2014) 83–97

Oxy-combustion and emission characterization, flame stabilization

and oxy-combustion model validation analyses were the main
goals of this research work. The combustor was fuelled with CH4
and a mixture of CO2 and O2 as oxidizer. The same modified two-
step oxy-combustion reaction kinetics model for methane-oxygen
combustion has been used like the present study and the same
radiation model, EWBM, was applied in order to predict accurately
the oxy-combustion characteristics. Both experimental and
numerical results were in a very good agreement.

4.2. Performance of gas radiation models

It was found, in the air–fuel combustion as shown in Fig. 10,

that the weighted sum of grey gas model (WSGG) introduced by
Smith et al. [45] predicts higher temperatures by 0.39% compared
to the EWBM. The SGG model with absorption coefficient equal to
0.25 (1/m) under-predicts the temperature by 4.5% while the
absorption coefficient of 0.18 (1/m) leads to lower results by
3.3%. The deviation in the temperature is reduced to 0.37% in case
of the absorption coefficient has a value of 0.1 (1/m). In the case of
OF21 combustion, Fig. 11 represents the temperature profiles at
line located between first and second columns of burners in the
mid-way between the rows of burners along Z-axis (i.e.
x = 3.264 m, y = 1.0675 m), the results of four grey one WSGG
model developed by Andersson and Johansson et al. [22] are in
good agreement with those obtained in case of the EWBM. It
over-predicts the temperature by 1.2%. Leckner model results in in-
creased temperature values by about 7.9% whereas Perry model
over-estimates the temperature by 2.8%. Simple grey gas model
with absorption coefficient of 0.18 (1/m) exhibits more accurate
results with difference of less than 0.89%. The results of simple grey
gas model with the absorption coefficient equal to 0.25 (1/m) are
under-predicted by 2.1%. In addition, temperature distributions
at x = 4.539 m and y = 4 m along Z-axis are shown in Fig. 12. In
the same trend, Leckner model, Perry model, and WSGG model
over-predict the temperature by 15%, 5% and 1.2% respectively.
Simple grey gas model leads to error of 2.8% when absorption
coefficient of 0.25 (1/m) is used. This error is reduced to 1.35%
in case the absorption coefficient equal to 0.18 (1/m). It should
be emphasized that the maximum difference in the result when
the absorption coefficient is selected from the range of 0.25 (1/
m) to 0.1 (1/m) will not exceed 4.3%.

4.3. Characteristics of oxy-fuel and air–fuel combustion processes

The effects of replacing N2 by CO2 as in the oxy-fuel combustion

are discussed for this boiler in this section. It is clear from the tem-
perature profiles in Fig. 13 that the temperatures are lower in the
case of oxy-fuel combustion compared to air–fuel combustion;
reduction reaches up to 21% for OF21 and 18% for OF27. It is
thought that the reason of this reduction is attributed to the higher
thermal capacity of CO2 compared to N2. Fig. 14 demonstrates the
specific thermal capacity profiles at line (x = 3.264, y = 1.0675)
along Z-axis for the air–fuel combustion and the oxy-fuel combus-
tion cases, it indicates higher specific thermal capacity in the case
of the oxy-fuel combustion in comparison to that of air–fuel com-
bustion. This explains the lower temperature levels in oxy-fuel
combustion. Increasing the CO2 recirculation percentage results
in higher specific thermal capacity in the combustion products
and, thus, resulting in lower temperature levels. In addition to this
reason, the radiative emissivity and absorptivity of the CO2 is high-
er when it is compared to N2 which is transparent to the radiation
energy and because of this, flame cooling effects exhibited in the
oxy-fuel combustion cases.
Figs. 15 and 16 show a comparison between the temperature Fig. 20. Contours of radiation heat flux for air–fuel and oxyfuel combustion at the
contours of the air–fuel case and the two oxy-fuel combustion front, top and left walls of the furnace, EWBM.
 M.A. Rajhi et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 81 (2014) 83–97 95

cases. The contours are taken in a vertical plane passing through

the middle burners (x = 4.539 m) and horizontal plane passing
through the upper burners (y = 0 m). It is clear from the figures
that the temperature levels in the oxy-fuel combustion cases are
lower in comparison to the air–fuel combustion case. As ex-
plained above, the specific heat capacity in the oxy-fuel com-
bustion is higher than that of air–fuel combustion. However,
as CO2 mass percentage increases, the temperature levels are re-
duced, as indicated by Figs. 15b and 16b. It is noted that the
combustion rate is slower in the case of oxy-fuel combustion
as compared to that of air-fired combustion, and this leading
to extending the burning zone causing the flame length to in-
crease. It is also shown that the temperature rise is slower in
the oxy-fuel combustion cases in comparison to air–fuel com-
bustion and this is attributed to the higher specific heat of
CO2. In Fig. 16 and for burner number 3, left burner, the flame
is extended due to the effects of the exit flow. The left burner is
the closest burner to the exit section of the boiler and that’s
why the flame is extended and the combustion is delayed. In
the same figure and for the right burner, burner number 2,
it’s far away from the exit section and the flow velocity around
this burner is small. This may justify the short and wide flame
for the right burner.
The fuel burning rate is also affected by replacing N2 by CO2.
Fig. 17 shows the contours of CH4 concentration in the air–fuel
combustion and oxy-fuel combustion. It is noted that the fuel
consumption rate is slower in the oxy-fuel combustion cases.
Fig. 17b indicates further reduction in fuel burning rate as the
CO2 percentage is increased. In order to clarify the influence
of oxy-fuel combustion on the burning rate, the turbulent vis-
cosity for the cases of air–fuel and oxy-fuel combustion were
computed and are presented. Fig. 18 shows the turbulent viscos-
ity profiles at line (x = 3.264, y = 1.0675) along Z-axis for the
three combustion cases. It is noted that the higher turbulent
viscosity and hence higher mixing rates in the case of the
oxy-fuel combustion in comparison to those of air–fuel combus-
tion accelerates the reduction in flame temperature and there-
fore decreases the fuel consumption rate (i.e. CO2 acts as a
cooling gas). This explains the lower levels of temperature in
the oxy-fuel combustion. In our previous work [36], an oxy-
combustion gas turbine combustor flame has been characterized
in details through the measurement of by measuring the ex-
haust gas temperatures and species concentrations and compar-
ing them with those from the numerical model. In this work, it
is found that the combustion stability is improved with increas-
ing the percentage of O2 at inlet however there is a limitation in
temperature (see Ref. [35] for more details).
Fig. 19 shows the contours of the CO2 concentrations of vertical
plane passing through the middle burners 2 and 5 (x = 4.539 m).
The CO2 concentrations rise from around 14% in the case of air–fuel
combustion to above 80% in the oxy-fuel combustion in most of the
furnace volume. Figs. 20 and 21 show the contours of total heat
flux (radiative + convective) and radiation heat flux for air–fuel
and oxy-fuel combustion at the front, top and left walls of the fur-
nace. The negative sign of the heat flux means the flux from the
walls to the adjacent gases. It is found that the radiation heat flux
represents more than 80% of the total heat flux in the furnace in
case of air–fuel combustion and about 70% in oxy-fuel combustion
and this is justifying the importance of selecting the appropriate
gas radiation models in order to quantify its value. Finally, it is
found that the total heat flux on the walls in case of air–fuel com-
bustion is higher than that of oxy-fuel combustion (OF21 and
OF27) and this is due to the higher temperature in the air–fuel
combustion. Total heat flux profiles on the front wall (x = 0) and
y = 1.0675 along Z-axis for air–fuel and oxy-fuel combustion are Fig. 21. Contours of total heat flux for air–fuel and oxyfuel combustion at the front,
plotted in Fig. 22. top and left walls of the furnace, EWBM.
96 M.A. Rajhi et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 81 (2014) 83–97
Fig. 22. Total heat flux profiles at line (x = 0, y = 1.0675) along Z-axis for different
combustion cases, EWBM.
5. Conclusion
Different gas radiation models were used in CFD modeling of
the typical industrial water tube boiler and their influence on the
results was investigated. It is found that Leckner model and Perry
model over-predict the temperature compared to the exponential
wide band model. Weighted-sum-of-grey-gases model can predict
accurate results compared to the benchmark model, however, it re-
quires new parameters for different ratios of H2O and CO2. It is a
computationally efficient option for CFD simulation where there
is a need for a simple and accurate gas radiation model. One of
the limitations of Weighted-sum-of-grey-gases model and Perry
model is that they are not applicable for pressures other than
one atmosphere. The exponential wide band model and Leckner
model are valid for use for various pressure and ratios of CO2 and
H2O. The influence of these models on the prediction of gases con-
centrations is very limited. An optimal value of the absorption
coefficient can be determined by comparing the results to the more
accurate model (i.e. EWBM). The influence of the CO2 circulation on
the oxy-fuel combustion characteristics was investigated. It is
found that the temperature levels are reduced in the case of oxy-
fuel in comparison to the air–fuel combustion case. It is also found
that higher specific thermal capacity in the combustion products
are obtained as the CO2 recirculation is increased. Thus, lower tem-
perature levels are exhibited in the case of oxy-fuel combustion.
The fuel consumption rates are slower in the oxy-fuel combustion
case in comparison to the air–fuel combustion case. It is also
shown that the energy absorbed is much higher in the case of
the air–fuel combustion along the surfaces.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge the support received from
King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) through
The Vice-Rectorship of Applied and Scientific Research at KFUPM
under KACST project# AT-29-89.
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