Accepted Manuscript

Title: Application of an efficient exponential wide band model for the natural
gas combustion simulation in a 300 kW BERL burner furnace
Author: Linbo Yan, Guangxi Yue, Boshu He
PII:
DOI:
Reference:

S1359-4311(15)01036-4
http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2015.09.109
ATE 7106

To appear in:

Applied Thermal Engineering

Received date:
Accepted date:

28-3-2015
5-9-2015

Please cite this article as: Linbo Yan, Guangxi Yue, Boshu He, Application of an efficient
exponential wide band model for the natural gas combustion simulation in a 300 kW BERL
burner furnace, Applied Thermal Engineering (2015),
http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2015.09.109.
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Application of an efficient exponential wide

band model for the natural gas combustion
simulation in a 300 kW BERL burner
furnace
Linbo Yana; Guangxi Yuea; Boshu Heb,
a

Department of Thermal Engineering, Key Laboratory for Thermal Science and Power
Engineering of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

Institute of Combustion and Thermal System, School of Mechanical, Electronic and Control
Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China

Highlights

Natural gas combustion in a 300 kW BERL furnace is simulated and

analyzed.
Counter flow due to swirl velocity will be generated and is beneficial to stable
combustion.
Calculation results of simulations with the E-EWB and the WSGG models are
compared.
The simulation results with the E-EWB model are closer to the measured
data.
The simulation speed with E-EWB model is about 1.8 times slower than that
with WSGG model.

Corresponding author. E-mail: hebs@bjtu.edu.cn; Tel.: +86-10-5168-8542; Fax: +86-10-5168-8404.

1

Page 1 of 34

Graphical Abstract

Abstract:
Methane is one of the most important radiation participating medium. However, the
weighted-sum-of-gray-gas (WSGG) model which is widely used in the recent
commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software cannot address the
contribution of methane to the effective absorption coefficient (EAC) when
simulating the natural gas combustion. In this work, an efficient exponential wide
band (E-EWB) model which accounts for the effects of many species including H2O,
CO2, CO and CH4 on EAC is proposed and numerical simulations are carried out for
the natural gas combustion in a 300 kW BERL (Burner Engineering Research
Laboratory) burner. The results including the distributions of axial velocity, gas
temperature and the O2 mass fraction in the furnace obtained by the simulations with
2

Page 2 of 34

both the WSGG model and the E-EWB model are then analyzed and validated against
the experimental data. The calculation efficiencies of the two simulations with the
WSGG and E-EWB models are also compared. It is found that simulation with the
E-EWB model generates much better results, although its calculation speed is about
1.8 times slower than that of the simulation with the WSGG model.

Keywords: Exponential wide band (EWB); Weighted-sum-of-gray-gas (WSGG);

Methane combustion mechanism; Computational fluid dynamics; User defined
function
Nomenclature
Parameters
ai

temperature-dependent
weighting factor

density

Stefan-Boltzmann constant

scattering coefficient

general scalar

Adomain

total surface area

(T)

temperature dependent intermediate

bj

polynomial coefficients

mass-path length product

Ir

radiation intensity

(T)

temperature dependent intermediate

ki(r)

absorption coefficient

solid angle

path length

Abbreviations

total pressure

BERL

Burner Engineering Research Laboratory

position vector

CFD

computational fluid dynamics

direction vector

DO

discrete ordinates

gas phase source term

DTRM

discrete transfer radiation model

time

EAC

effective absorption coefficient

Tg

gas tempterature

EDC

eddy-dissipation concept

velocity vector

E-EWB

efficient exponential wide band

Vdomain

total volume

LBL

line by line

Greek symbols

NBM

narrow band model

reference band intensity

RKE

Realizable

in

integrated band intensity

reference mean line width to
spacing ratio

RSM

Reynolds Stress model

SKE

Standard k- model

parameter for calculating in

parameter for calculating in

Page 3 of 34

in

mean line width to spacing

ratio
effective diffusivity

S2S

surface-to-surface

UDF

user defined function

WSGG

weighted-sum-of-gray-gas

effects of the photon

d

transition on the vibrational

quantum number

phase function

1 Introduction
The consumption of natural gas can emit 50% less pollution compared to other
fossil fuels

[1]

, and it accounts for 23.7% global energy consumption

[2]

. It is also

reported that natural gas will gradually take the place of coal as an important fuel for
power generation

[3]

and many natural gas burners have been designed

[4]

. Numerical

simulation is usually an effective and economical way for the burner design and
optimization before its practical operation. However, in terms of the turbulent flow,
the gas-phase chemical reactions, and the heat transfer and so on, numerical
simulation of the natural gas combustion is usually complex. Many turbulent models
including the Standard k- model (SKE) [5], the Realizable k- model (RKE) [6] and the
Reynolds Stress model (RSM)

[7]

embedded in the commercial computational fluid

dynamics CFD software can address the turbulence flow well. The eddy-dissipation
concept (EDC) is also a good model to account for the turbulence-chemistry
interaction
mechanism

[8]

. For the methane combustion, GRI-3.0 has listed the detailed kinetic

[9]

, but this mechanism is too CPU-intensive so it usually needs

simplification in order to be used in the CFD calculation. Since the natural gas flame
temperature are usually very high, radiation heat transfer will play an important role.
4

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To simulate the radiation heat transfer in the furnace, many mathematical models have
been developed, such as the discrete transfer radiation model (DTRM)
radiation model

[11]

, the Rosseland radiation model

[12]

[10]

, the P-1

, the surface-to-surface (S2S)

radiation model [13], and the discrete ordinates (DO) radiation model [12]. To solve any
of these radiative transfer equations, the effective absorption coefficient (EAC) of the
participation medium must be given or calculated. In the recent commercially
available CFD software, the weighted-sum-of-gray-gas (WSGG) model

[14]

is

generally used to calculate EAC. The WSGG model, however, only allows for the
contribution of H2O and CO2, prone to cause great error when large amount of other
radiation absorptive species like CO and CH4 appeared in the gas mixture. In fact, one
can add the additional species in the reference database for the WSGG model so that
the effects of these species on EAC can also be considered. However, it would be hard
for the WSGG model to consider the effects of these additional species because there
will be too many combinations of the species mole ratios for the actual
implementation of the WSGG model. In addition, the WSGG model cannot calculate
the EAC for the continuous species mole ratios. It is therefore very meaningful to
develop such an EAC calculation method that can consider the effects of multiple
radiative species and, in the meantime, is efficient enough to be used in the CFD
calculation.
Many researchers have focused on the modification and development of the
WSGG model to make this model justified for more and more cases and the
exponential wide band (EWB) model and other complex models are usually chosen as
5

Page 5 of 34

the reference model. Kangwanpongpan once optimized the WSGG model for the
oxy-combustion of coal particles in a furnace and found that the results calculated
with the optimized WSGG model were much better [15]. Yin once did detailed research
on the chemistry and radiation in the numerical simulations of oxy-combustion of
natural gas and developed a new WSGG model in their work

[16]

. Their simulation

results were validated and their methodology was proved to be justified.

Krishnamoorthy once formulated a new WSGG model for the radiation calculation in
an oxy-fuel combustion boiler and found that the new WSGG model with 4 band
intervals perform well [17]. In this work, the efficient exponential wide band (E-EWB)
model developed in our lab

[18]

is embedded into the commercially available CFD

software to calculate EAC through the user defined function (UDF) interface. In order
to evaluate the E-EWB model in the CFD calculation, numerical simulations are
carried out to predict the natural gas flame in the 300 kW BERLBurner Engineering
Research Laboratoryburner. Some researchers [19] once did a series simulations of the
same burner and their work has great reference value to this research. However, some
of their simulation results, especially the gas temperature, are found deviating much
from the measured data. Thus, the more advanced EAC calculation model is used in
this work in the hope that the accuracy of the calculation results can be improved. The
calculation results of simulations with both the E-EWB model and the WSGG model
are compared and validated against the measured data. The time consumptions of the
simulations with the two models are also compared.

Page 6 of 34

2 Description of the WSGG and the E-EWB models

In this section, the methodologies of the WSGG and the E-EWB models are
simply explained. The WSGG model was firstly proposed by Hottel and Sarofim

[14]

and has been further developed and modified by many other researchers in the recent
years

[20]

. This model represents a good compromise in terms of computational

efficiency and accuracy

[21]

and has been widely used in the commercially available

CFD software. Although the calculation speed of the WSGG model is very fast and
generates acceptable errors for the ranges of temperatures and pressures that cover
almost all the traditional combusting processes, there are also a lot of limitations

[22]

The E-EWB model [18] was developed based on the EWB model in our lab. The EWB
model was firstly developed by Edwards & Menard
[24]

[23]

and Edwards & Balakrishnan

. Although the EWB model is more accurate and flexible than the WSGG model

and is much faster than the line by line (LBL) method [25] and the narrow band model
(NBM)

[25]

, it is still too CPU-intensive when used in the CFD calculation for

engineering application. That is why the E-EWB model needs to be developed. The
E-EWB model inherits almost all the advantages of the EWB model but it can be
about 350 times faster than the EWB model [18], which makes it very prospective to be
implemented in the CFD calculations.

2.1 Methodology of the WSGG model

Detailed description of the WSGG model can be found in literature

[14]

. The total

emissivity is calculated by the WSGG model with Eq. (1).

7

Page 7 of 34

a i ( T g ) (1 e

ki P L

(1)

i0

where, ai(Tg) is the temperature-dependent weighting factor for the ith gray gas at gas
temperature Tg; ki is the absorption coefficient of the ith gray gas; P is the total
pressure of the participating gases; and L is the path length. To solve Eq. (1), ai(Tg)
and ki should be known. These two parameters can be obtained by fitting the
emissivity data to those calculated by other models like the EWB model or the LBL
method. The fitting procedure can be found elsewhere [23]:
The original set of ai and ki used in Fluent can be found in some literature [26].

2.2 Methodology of the E-EWB model

Detailed description of the E-EWB model can be found in our former work

[18]

The calculation procedure of the E-EWB model is the same with that of the EWB
model. The main differences between the E-EWB and the EWB models are the
calculations of the integrated band intensity, in, the mean line width to spacing ratio
parameter, in, and the black body fractional function. in and in are recalculated with
the polynomial correlations in the E-EWB model, while these two parameters are
calculated based on the quantum mechanics in the original EWB model as shown by
Eq. (2) and Eq. (3).

in T

where,

1 e x p d d
d 1

e
x
p

0 ,d d
d 1

(2)
T0

describes the effects of the photon transition on the vibrational quantum

8

Page 8 of 34

number and can be found in the reference EWB parameter table

; 0 is the

[25]

reference band intensity and (T) is a temperature dependent parameter.

in T

T
0

T0

0 .5

T0

(3)

where, 0 is the reference EWB parameter and (T) is another temperature dependent
parameter.
In addition, a black body fractional function table is built in the E-EWB model.
Thus, the black body intensity can be obtained quickly by table looking up rather than
iteratively solving the corresponding correlations which is time consuming. The
procedure of the EWB model is listed below [27]:
(1) For each gas i, calculate the mass-path length product as defined by Eq. (4);
i i L

(4)

where, i denotes the density of species i and L is the domain based path length
and is calculated with Eq. (5).
L 0 .9 ( 4

V d o m a in
A d o m ia n

where,

V d o m a in

) 3 .6

V d o m a in

(5)

A d o m ia n

denotes the total volume of the furnace and

A d o m ia n

denotes the total

surface area of the furnace.

(2) For band j of gas i, calculate the effective pressure, bandwidth parameter,
integrated band intensity and the parameter related to the ratio of mean line-width
to spacing, respectively;
(3) For band j of gas i, calculate the total band absorptance;
(4) For band j of gas i calculate the band transmissivity and evaluate the wavenumber
upper and lower limits of each band;
9

Page 9 of 34

(5) When all the band limits are calculated, sort in blocks and arrange in ascending
order;
(6) By comparing whether the limits of a given block belongs to none, one or several
absorption bands, compute the block transmissivity as the product of the band
transmissivity to which the block belongs;
(7) Multiply each block emissivity by the fraction of blackbody radiation in the block
limits and sum over all the blocks. The result of this summation gives the total
emissivity.
The two parameters, in and in, for each fundamental band of species H2O, CO2,
CO and CH4 have been recalculated by fitting the emissivity values to those
calculated by the LBL method with the HITEMP-2010 spectral database in the
temperature range of 500 K-2000 K in our former work

[18]

. In this work, the

temperature range has been expanded to 300 K-2500 K and they can all be fitted with
Eq. (6).
J

bT
j

(6)

j0

where, x denotes in or in and b denotes the polynomial coefficients. The polynomial

coefficients for in and in are listed in Table 1 and Table 2 for gas temperatures
between 300 K and 500 K. The polynomial coefficients for in and in have been
obtained in our former work

[18]

and they are listed in Table 3 and Table 4 for gas

temperatures between 500 K and 2000 K. The polynomial coefficients for in and in
are listed in Table 5 and Table 6 for gas temperatures between 2000 K and 2500 K.
Detailed comparison of the calculation results obtained by the E-EWB model,
10

Page 10 of 34

the LBL model and the EWB model can be found in our former work

[18]

. Before the

application of the E-EWB model in this work, the calculation result for the H2O, CO2,
CO and CH4 mixture under the specific condition is compared with the value
calculated in the reference [27]. The calculated total emissivity from the E-EWB model
is 0.177657453 and the total emissivity given in reference [27] is 0.167256724. The
values are very close to each other. The cause of the deviation is that the EWB
parameters including in and in are recalculated based on the LBL method and the
HITEMP-2010 spectroscopic database. It should be noted that the spectral data of
CH4 have not been added in the HITEMP-2010 database, so the radiation parameters
of CH4 in the E-EWB model are not updated. This is one flaw of the E-EWB model
and can be modified when CH4 and other species are added in the HITEMP-2010
database.

3 Application of the E-EWB model and case description

In this section, both the E-EWB and the WSGG models are used to calculate
EAC during the simulation of the natural gas combustion in a 300 kW BERL burner.
The DEFINE EXECUTE ON LOADING macro

[28]

is used to generate the black

body fractional function table before the simulation. The DEFINE PROPERTY
macro [28] is used to transfer EAC calculated with the E-EWB model to the solver. The
general conservation equation form of the reaction flow for the continuous phase can
be written as Eq. (7) [28].

( V ) ( ) S

(7)
11

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where, t, ,

, and S are the fluid density, time, general scalar, velocity vector,

effective diffusivity, and the gas phase source term, respectively. The general scalar
includes mass, momentum, enthalpy, species mass fraction and the other turbulence
related parameters. The Reynolds Stress model (RSM) is used to calculate the
turbulence properties in the furnace. The DO radiation model, which is justified in a
wide range of optical thicknesses, is used to simulate the radiation heat transfer in the
furnace and the corresponding correlation is shown as Eq. (8).
( I r (r , s )s ) (kr s ) I r (r , s ) ar nr

where,

Ir

is the radiation intensity;

s denotes the beam path length;

ar

rT

I ( r , s ') ( s s ') d '

(8)

is the position vector;

is the direction vector;

is the absorption coefficient; s the scattering

coefficient; r is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant;

is the phase function; and

denotes the solid angle.

The commercially available software, Fluent [28], is used as the solver for the
partial differential governing equations with the SIMPLE solution method. For the
methane reaction kinetics, a four-step global mechanism as listed in Table 7 is used in
this simulation

[29]

. In Table 7, A denotes the pre-exponential factor, E denotes the

activation energy, n is the temperature index in the Arrhenius equation.

3.1 Numerical simulation case description

The 300 kW natural gas combustion furnace is vertically-fired and has an
octagonal cross-section with a conical furnace hood and a cylindrical exhaust duct.
The furnace walls are capable of being refractory-lined or water-cooled. The burner
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Page 12 of 34

has 24 radial fuel inlets and an annular air inlet. Air is introduced through the annular
inlet and movable swirl blades are used to generate swirl. The geometric construction
of the combustor and the close-up of the burner are described in Figures 1 (a) and (b).
Detailed information and further descriptions of the combustor geometry and
boundary conditions can be found in some literature

[30]

. Because the burner and

furnace are axisymmetric, the two dimensional axisymmetric model is used so as to

economize the computation consumption. Before the computation, detailed mesh
independency verification has been implemented. Simulation results obtained from
three meshes, mesh A, mesh B and mesh C, are compared. Mesh A has 4011
quadrilateral cells, mesh B has 9784 quadrilateral cells and mesh C has 39136
quadrilateral cells. The comparison of axial velocity, temperature and O2 mass
fraction along the radial position 27 mm off the Quarl exit are shown in Figures 2
(a)-(c).
From these figures, it can be seen that the calculation results of the three meshes
are close to each other. Thereinto, results from mesh B and mesh C are closer. Thus,
mesh B is chosen in this work to do the following numerical simulations and the grid
resolution used is found to be sufficient to obtain the grid independent results. The
computational domain is then discretized by 9784 quadrilateral cells and the mesh is
shown in Figure 1 (c). The close-up of the mesh in the quarl region is shown in Figure
1 (d). The mesh is locally refined in the quarl region in order to enhance the
prediction of initial combustion steps.

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Page 13 of 34

3.2 Boundary conditions

The fuel composition, the wall thermal conditions and the inlet flow boundary
conditions are shown in Tables 8-10, respectively. In this work, all the alkanes are
considered as CH4 according to the mass balance. It should be noted that the profile
in Table 9 and Table 10 indicates that the specific boundary condition is not a constant
value but varies with the coordinate. The detailed value and the corresponding
coordinate can be found in some literature [30].

4 Simulation results
Numerical simulations with both the E-EWB model and the WSGG model are
done and the results including the axial velocity, the gas temperature and the mass
fracion of O2 are compared and validated against the experimental data. In order to
compare the E-EWB model and the WSGG model directly and precisely, radial
distribution profiles of the absorption coefficients calculated with the two models at
the four locations off the quarl exit in the furnace as shown in Figure 1 are firstly
compared in Figures 3 (a)-3 (d). The axial velocity contours of the two simulations
are shown in Figures 4 (a) and 4 (b). Radial distribution profiles of the axial velocities
at the four locations off the quarl exit are shown in Figures 5 (a)- 5 (d). The
temperature contours of the two simulations are shown in Figures 6 (a) and 6 (b).
Radial distribution profiles of the temperatures at the four locations off the quarl exit
in the furnace are shown in Figures 7 (a)-7 (d). The O2 mass fraction contours of the
two simulations are shown in Figures 8 (a) and 8 (b). Radial distribution profiles of
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Page 14 of 34

the O2 mass fractions at the four locations off the quarl exit in the furnace are shown
in Figures 9 (a)-9 (d).
From Figure 3, it can be seen that the radiation absorption coefficient calcualted
with the E-EWB model is higher than that calculated with the WSGG model in the
near-center zone of the furnace where the natural gas flame prevails. This is because
the E-EWB model allows for the contribution of CO, CH4, H2O and CO2 to the total
EAC, while the WSGG model only considers the contribution of H2O and CO2. High
absorption coefficient implies that radiation heat transfer will be enhanced, so the
radiation heat transfer in the simulation with the E-EWB model will be stronger than
that in the simulation with the WSGG model. Since the natural gas flame temperature
is higher than the wall temperature, heat loss due to radiation will be enhanced in the
simulation with the E-EWB model. In this work, the radiation heat loss through the
furnace and burner wall in the simulations with the E-EWB model and the WSGG
model are 135.944 kW and 129.007 kW, respectively.
From Figure 4, it can be seen that the axial velocity field obtained by the
simulations with the E-EWB model and the WSGG model are very similar to each
other. Because there exists swirl velocity in the inlet air flow, a relatively strong
counter flow is generated in the zone close to the burner outlet. It can also be seen that
the counter flow generated in the simulation with the E-EWB model is a little stronger
than that predicted in the simulation with the WSGG model. In addition, the shapes of
the injection predicted are also different by the two simulations. The counter flow can
circulate the high-temperature flue gas to the root of the burner to ignite and stabilize
15

Page 15 of 34

the natural gas flame.

From Figure 5, it can be seen that the axial velocity predicted by the simulations
with the E-EWB model and the WSGG model are very close to the measured data. In
the near burner zone, the contour flow is embraced by the relatively high speed flow
injection due to the swirl velocity of the inlet air flow. Hence, a peak of the axial
velocity will apear in the radial position of about 0.1 m off the axis of the furnace.
When the radial position is larger than 0.1 m, the axial velocity will then decrease
quickly, which is the classical profile of the swirl injection.
From Figure 6, it can be seen that a stable high temperature zone has been
generated around the axis of the furnace. In this zone, strong chemical reactions take
place and, due to the reaction mechanism used in this work, intermediate species
including H2 and CO will be generated and then consumed. The high temperature
zone predicted by the simulation with the WSGG model is longer than that predicted
by the simulation with the E-EWB model. This is caused by the following reasons.
First, the contour flow in the simulation with the E-EWB model is stronger, so the
reactions mainly take place in the near burner zone. Second, the heat loss due to
radiation in the simulation with the E-EWB model is more than that in the simulation
with the WSGG model. This also leads to lower gas temperature predicted by the
simulation with the E-EWB model than that predicted by the simulation with the
WSGG model. It can be seen from Figure 6 (a) that a there is a relatively high
temperature zone after the main combustion zone. This is caused by the reaction of
some residual intermediate species.
16

Page 16 of 34

From Figure 7, it can be seen that the natural gas flame temperature predicted by
the simulation with the E-EWB model is a little lower than that predicted by the
simulation with the WSGG model and is closer to the measured data. This is because
the absorption coefficient calculated by the E-EWB model is larger than that
calculated with the WSGG model. Thus, the radiation heat transfer from the natural
gas flame to the furnace wall in the simulation with the E-EWB model will be larger
than that in the simulation with the WSGG model and more heat will be lost due to
radiation.
From Figure 8, it can be seen that the mass fraction of O2 decreases along the
axial coordinate. Fresh air is injected into the furnace and transferred to the contour
flow area due to the pressure difference between the inside and outside of the
injection and, at the same time, is heated to a very high temperature and consumed
quickly in the natural gas flame. Small part of O2 brought by the air injection flow
also diffuses to the near wall area where the chemical reactions are much weaker.
Thus, the O2 concentration is the highest in the injection flow and lowest in the
natural gas flame. It can also be seen that the O2 concentration predicted by the
simulation with the E-EWB model is lower than that predicted by the simulation with
the WSGG model near the furnace outlet. This may be because the counter flow is
strong in the simulation with the E-EWB model and more O2 is circulated to the
strong chemical reaction zone and consumed there.
From Figure 9, it can be seen that simulation with the E-EWB model is more
accurate in the prediction of the O2 mass fraction peak value. The simulation result
17

Page 17 of 34

with the WSGG model is prone to over predict the peak, while the simulation with the
E-EWB model is prone to underestimate the O2 mass fraction after the peak.
In addition to evaluating the accuracy of the E-EWB model when it is practically
implemented for the CFD calculation, the efficiency of this model is also tested. In
order to count the time consumed by the two simulations with the E-EWB model and
the WSGG model, an UDF is used to record the Windows system local time. The
difference between the staring time and the time after 100 iterations is considered as
the time consumption samples of the two simulations. It is found that the time
consumption of the simulations with the E-EWB model and the WSGG model are 57
s and 32 s, respectively, which indicates that the calculation speed of the simulation
with the E-EWB model is about 1.8 times slower than that of the simulation with the
WSGG model.

5 Conclusions
A new EAC calculation method, the E-EWB model developed in our lab, is
implemented in the commercial CFD software to simulate the natural gas flame in a
300 kW BERL burner. The calculation results including the axial velocity, the gas
temperature and the mass fraction of O2 obtained by the simulations with the E-EWB
and the WSGG models are analyzed and compared with the measured data. The time
consumption of the two simulations are also compared to evaluate the calculation
efficiency of the E-EWB model. The main contribution of this work to the present
state of knowledge is that the EWB model parameters are renewed and an E-EWB
18

Page 18 of 34

model which is more advanced than the WSGG model and can be practically used in
the CFD calculation is proposed. The conclusions of this work can be drawn as:
1) The absorption coefficient calculated with the E-EWB model is a little higher
than that calculated with the WSGG model especially in the strong reaction zone
near the burner.
2) A relatively strong counter flow is generated in the zone close to the burner outlet.
A stable high temperature zone is generated around the axis of the furnace. The
O2 mass fraction decreases along the axial coordinate and it is the highest in the
injection flow and lowest in the natural gas flame.
3) The axial velocities calculated by the simulations with the E-EWB model and the
WSGG model are very similar and both of them are close to the measured data.
4) The natural gas flame temperature predicted by the simulation with the E-EWB
model is a little lower than that predicted by the simulation with the WSGG
model in the high temperature zone and is closer to the measured data.
5) Simulation with the E-EWB model is more accurate in the prediction of the peak
value of the O2 mass fraction. The simulation with the WSGG model is prone to
over predicting the peak values, while the simulation with the E-EWB model is
prone to underestimating the O2 mass fraction after the peak.
6)

The calculation speed of the simulation with the E-EWB model is about 1.8 times
slower than that of the simulation with the WSGG model in this work.

19

Page 19 of 34

Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (NSFC, 51176009) and the China Postdoctoral Science
Foundation (2015M570096) for this work for this work.

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F40/y/11, International Flame Research Foundation, The Netherlands, 1994.

23

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Figure captions:
Figure 1. Geometry and mesh of the natural gas combustion furnace
Figure 2. Comparisons of the results obtained from three sets of meshes
Figure 3. Radial distribution profiles of radiation absorption coefficient at the
four locations off the quarl exit
Figure 4. Axial velocity contours of the simulations with the E-EWB and the
WSGG models
Figure 5. Radial distribution profiles of the axial velocity at the four locations off
the quarl exit
Figure 6. Temperature contours of the simulations with the E-EWB and the
WSGG models
Figure 7. Radial distribution profiles of gas temperatures at the four locations off
the quarl exit
Figure 8. O2 mass fraction contours of the simulations with the E-EWB and the
WSGG models
Figure 9. Radial distribution profiles of O2 mass fraction at the four locations off
the quarl exit

Table captions:

Table 1 Polynomial coefficients for in(T) in the temperature range of 300 K-500 K
b0

b1

b2

1.49E+02

-5.46E-01

5.65E-04

,1 6 0 0

2.31E+04

-9.69E+01

1.03E-01

2O

,3 7 6 0

2.49E+01

-2.60E-04

3.86E-07

2O

,5 3 5 0

3.05E+00

-3.38E-04

6.01E-07

2O

,7 2 5 0

2.50E+00

-3.53E-06

5.15E-09

2 O ,1 4 0

2O

H
H
H

CO

,6 6 7

9.98E-01

2.32E-01

-4.19E-04

CO

,9 6 0

1.33E-02

-1.02E-04

2.06E-07

CO

,1 0 6 0

1.34E-02

-1.04E-04

2.08E-07

CO

,2 4 1 0

9.06E+04

-3.87E+02

4.18E-01

24

Page 24 of 34

 CO

,3 6 6 0

4.11E+00

-7.91E-04

1.50E-06

CO

,5 2 0 0

6.95E-02

-2.55E-05

4.85E-08

C O ,2 1 4 3

1.22E+02

-4.89E-01

5.43E-04

C O ,4 2 6 0

1.42E-01

-1.10E-05

1.74E-08

CH

,4 2 2 0

2.97E+00

-5.56E-04

1.10E-06

CH

,5 8 6 1

4.39E-01

-1.41E-04

2.67E-07

Table 2 Polynomial coefficients for in(T) in the temperature range of 300 K-500 K
b0

b1

b2

,1 4 0

1.37E-01

-2.34E-04

1.76E-07

2O

,1 6 0 0

8.75E-02

-1.55E-04

1.87E-07

2O

,3 7 6 0

2.24E-01

-4.00E-04

4.42E-07

2O

,5 3 5 0

7.62E-02

-1.37E-04

1.67E-07

2O

,7 2 5 0

1.10E-01

-1.96E-04

2.16E-07

2O

CO

,6 6 7

5.59E-02

-8.18E-05

4.64E-07

CO

,9 6 0

5.02E-02

-1.42E-04

4.02E-07

CO

,1 0 6 0

1.08E-01

-1.82E-04

8.53E-07

CO

,2 4 1 0

2.38E-01

-4.18E-04

1.70E-06

25

Page 25 of 34

 CO

,3 6 6 0

1.24E-01

-2.38E-04

1.06E-06

CO

,5 2 0 0

4.53E-01

-1.30E-03

4.27E-06

C O ,2 4 1 3

7.20E-02

-1.31E-04

1.28E-07

C O ,4 2 6 0

1.61E-01

-3.00E-04

3.06E-07

CH

,1 3 1 0

9.66E-02

-2.84E-04

5.89E-07

CH

,3 0 2 0

7.64E-02

-2.17E-04

4.34E-07

CH

,4 2 2 0

4.06E-01

-1.24E-03

2.53E-06

CH

,5 8 6 1

8.30E-01

-2.72E-03

5.59E-06

Table 3 Polynomial coefficients for in(T) in the temperature range of 500 K-2000 K
H

2O

b0

b1

b2

b3

b4

b5

b6

b7

b8

b9

,1 4 0

-28119.6

199.5666

-0.53632

0.0007868

-6.72E-07

3.303E-10

-8.6E-14

9.26E-18

--

--

594.3822

-4.39809

0.013095

-2.02E-05

1.769E-08

-8.89E-12

2.38E-15

-2.62E-19

--

--

2O

,1 6 0 0

2O

,3 7 6 0

24.90321

-6.5E-05

4.75E-08

1.718E-10

-2.12E-13

1.141E-16

-3.1E-20

3.3613E-24

--

--

2O

,5 3 5 0

3.104651

-0.00055

6.09E-07

7.648E-10

-9.68E-13

5.106E-16

-1.4E-19

1.4812E-23

--

--

2O

,7 2 5 0

2.495858

-2.7E-05

3.03E-07

-8.77E-10

1.102E-12

-6.27E-16

1.74E-19

-1.929E-23

0.030733

-5.7E-05

6.82E-08

-5.3E-11

2.71E-14

-8.7E-18

1.6E-21

-1.3E-25

CO

,6 6 7

CO

,9 6 0

0.069745

-0.0005

1.24E-06

-1.25E-09

7.304E-13

-2.53E-16

4.83E-20

-3.91E-24

--

--

0.070363

-0.0005

1.25E-06

-1.25E-09

7.318E-13

-2.54E-16

4.87E-20

-3.97E-24

--

--

0.16175

-0.000205

1.544E-07

-6.86E-11

1.66E-14

-1.7E-18

--

--

CO

,1 0 6 0

CO

,2 4 1 0

1300.236

14692.34

-9.50528

-71.3231

26

Page 26 of 34

 CO

,3 6 6 0

4.162493

-0.00089

8.28E-07

2.395E-09

-2.8E-12

1.442E-15

-3.7E-19

3.968E-23

--

--

CO

,5 2 0 0

0.072587

-4.2E-05

7.55E-08

-1.17E-11

-7.33E-15

7.894E-18

-2.7E-21

3.396E-25

--

--

-4.4E-11

-2.37E-15

5.36E-18

-9.9E-22

--

--

C O ,2 1 4 3

-2.62492

0.086348

-0.000162

1.317E-07

C O ,4 2 6 0

0.134803

5.227E-05

-1.97E-07

3.39E-10

-2.7E-13

1.206E-16

-2.9E-20

2.92E-24

--

--

CH

,4 2 2 0

3.049165

-0.001

1.99E-06

-5.8E-10

-7.6E-14

1.25E-16

-4.1E-20

4.71E-24

--

--

CH

,5 8 6 1

0.459851

-0.00025

4.75E-07

-1.4E-10

1.1E-14

2.23E-17

-1E-20

1.38E-24

--

--

Table 4 Polynomial coefficients for in(T) in the temperature range of 500 K-2000 K
b0
H

2O

b1

b2

b3

b4

b5

b6

b7

,1 4 0

0.143246

-0.00033

5.63E-07

-6.1E-10

4.222E-13

-1.77E-16

4.152E-20

-4.1E-24

2O

,1 6 0 0

0.087998

-0.00021

4.53E-07

-4.7E-10

3.452E-13

-1.49E-16

3.564E-20

-3.6E-24

2O

,3 7 6 0

0.224847

-0.00051

1.01E-06

-9.9E-10

6.943E-13

-2.83E-16

6.426E-20

-6.2E-24

2O

,5 3 5 0

0.077023

-0.00018

3.94E-07

-4E-10

2.98E-13

-1.26E-16

2.916E-20

-2.9E-24

2O

,7 2 5 0

0.113097

-0.00027

5.34E-07

-5.3E-10

3.879E-13

-1.62E-16

3.749E-20

-3.7E-24

CO

,6 6 7

3.83E-02

3.51E-05

2.09E-07

1.78E-10

1.35E-14

-2.3E-17

7.7E-21

-9.4E-25

CO

,9 6 0

2.60E-02

1.34E-05

1.06E-07

1.16E-10

1.04E-13

-5.8E-17

1.46E-20

-1.5E-24

CO

,1 0 6 0

7.93E-02

2.47E-05

3.54E-07

2.82E-10

3.6E-13

-2E-16

5.01E-20

-5.2E-24

CO

,2 4 1 0

1.65E-01

7.43E-05

6.19E-07

6.63E-10

3.37E-13

-2.3E-16

6.4E-20

-6.9E-24

27

Page 27 of 34

 CO

,3 6 6 0

8.74E-02

3.36E-05

3.8E-07

4.36E-10

4.31E-13

-2.7E-16

7.08E-20

-7.5E-24

CO

,5 2 0 0

2.40E-01

1.88E-04

8.91E-07

1.95E-09

1.59E-12

-1E-15

2.78E-19

-3E-23

C O ,2 4 1 3

0.0796287

-0.000223

4.67E-07

-5.21E-10

3.58E-13

-1.5E-16

3.49E-20

-3.5E-24

C O ,4 2 6 0

0.1805136

-0.000522

1.12E-06

-1.23E-09

8.38E-13

-3.5E-16

8.06E-20

-8E-24

CH

,1 3 1 0

0.081379

-0.00023

7.25E-07

-7.2E-10

8.13E-13

-1.7E-16

2.59E-20

-2E-24

CH

,3 0 2 0

0.066498

-0.00019

5.68E-07

-5.7E-10

5.88E-13

-9E-17

8.44E-21

-2.8E-25

CH

,4 2 2 0

0.340122

-0.001

3.01E-06

-2.8E-09

2.93E-12

-4.7E-17

-6.6E-20

9.28E-24

CH

,5 8 6 1

0.683294

-0.00215

6.5E-06

-6.1E-09

6.23E-12

4.61E-16

-3.2E-19

3.99E-23

Table 5 Polynomial coefficients for in(T) in the temperature range of 2000 K-2500 K
b0
H

2O

b1

b2

b3

b4

,1 4 0

-1.73E+05

2.98E+02

-1.91E-01

5.44E-05

-5.87E-09

2O

,1 6 0 0

1.78E+03

-2.81E+00

1.73E-03

-4.81E-07

5.04E-11

2O

,3 7 6 0

2.49E+01

3.20E-05

6.02E-08

-1.37E-11

1.25E-15

2O

,5 3 5 0

2.83E+00

-9.59E-05

7.38E-07

-1.46E-10

1.19E-14

2O

,7 2 5 0

2.83E+00

-7.76E-04

5.75E-07

-1.03E-10

7.71E-15

CO

,6 6 7

-3.36E+05

5.95E+02

-3.93E-01

1.16E-04

-1.27E-08

CO

,9 6 0

-1.13E-01

2.48E-04

-6.03E-08

1.11E-11

-8.33E-16

CO

,1 0 6 0

-1.19E-01

2.60E-04

-6.66E-08

1.29E-11

-1.04E-15

CO

,2 4 1 0

5.85E+04

-1.02E+02

6.74E-02

-1.98E-05

2.17E-09

28

Page 28 of 34

 CO

,3 6 6 0

3.31E+00

5.56E-04

1.11E-06

-2.37E-10

2.04E-14

CO

,5 2 0 0

5.29E-02

5.22E-06

3.22E-08

1.72E-12

-2.08E-16

C O ,2 1 4 3

-9.29E+01

1.86E-01

-1.26E-04

3.75E-08

-4.17E-12

C O ,4 2 6 0

1.31E-01

-1.44E-05

4.42E-08

-9.52E-12

8.33E-16

CH

,4 2 2 0

2.49E+00

3.36E-04

7.64E-07

-1.58E-10

1.33E-14

CH

,5 8 6 1

3.98E-01

-5.69E-05

2.32E-07

-8.24E-12

8.33E-16

Table 6 Polynomial coefficients for in(T) in the temperature range of 2000 K-2500 K
b0
H

2O

b1

b2

b3

b4

,1 4 0

6.51E-02

-2.81E-05

7.25E-09

-7.41E-13

-6.48E-27

2O

,1 6 0 0

1.09E-02

5.49E-05

-6.04E-10

2.83E-11

-2.08E-15

2O

,3 7 6 0

1.43E-01

-7.99E-05

1.11E-07

3.76E-11

2.01E-26

2O

,5 3 5 0

6.68E-02

-5.39E-05

6.05E-08

1.54E-11

-2.87E-26

2O

,7 2 5 0

-7.21E-02

2.17E-04

-1.26E-07

8.00E-11

-6.25E-15

CO

,6 6 7

1.24E-01

-1.67E-04

3.92E-07

1.17E-10

-4.17E-15

CO

,9 6 0

1.77E-02

1.48E-05

6.54E-08

2.30E-10

-1.25E-14

CO

,1 0 6 0

3.09E-01

-4.13E-04

4.97E-07

5.91E-10

-2.71E-14

CO

,2 4 1 0

6.22E-01

-9.42E-04

1.35E-06

7.04E-10

-3.13E-14

29

Page 29 of 34

 CO

,3 6 6 0

5.88E-01

-1.01E-03

1.03E-06

6.11E-10

-2.71E-14

CO

,5 2 0 0

2.21E+00

-4.09E-03

3.79E-06

2.36E-09

-1.10E-13

C O ,2 4 1 3

-8.29E-02

2.09E-04

-1.26E-07

3.73E-11

-4.17E-15

C O ,4 2 6 0

7.79E-02

-5.15E-06

5.21E-08

-1.79E-11

2.08E-15

CH

,1 3 1 0

-8.64E-01

2.25E-03

-2.06E-06

1.02E-09

1.40E-13

CH

,3 0 2 0

-9.42E-01

2.32E-03

-2.05E-06

9.16E-10

1.04E-13

CH

,4 2 2 0

-7.30E+00

1.73E-02

-1.48E-05

5.84E-09

9.42E-13

CH

,5 8 6 1

-1.87E+01

4.44E-02

-3.83E-05

1.48E-08

2.31E-12

Table 7 Four-step global mechanism for CH4 combustion

Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4

Reactions

E (J/kmol)

CH4+0.5O2=CO+2H2
CH4+H2O=CO+3H2
H2+0.5O2=H2O
CO+H2O=CO2+H2

4.4e14
3.0e11
2.5e19
2.75e12

1.9955e8
1.9955e8
2.6606e8
1.3303e8

0
0
-1
0

30

Page 30 of 34

Table 8 Fuel composition

Species

Mole Fraction

CH4
N2
C2H 6
C3H 8
C4H10
CO2

0.965
0.013
0.017
0.001
0.001
0.003

31

Page 31 of 34

Table 9 Wall thermal conditions

Boundary

Temperature (K)

Emissivity

Walls near the inlet ducts

Bluff body front wall
Inlet duct insert
Quarl wall
Furnace bottom wall
Furnace cylinder wall
Furnace top wall
Chimney wall

312
1173
1173
1273
1100
profile
1305
1370

0.6
0.6
0.6
0.6
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5

32

Page 32 of 34

Table 10 Inlet flow boundary conditions

Boundary

Air

Natural Gas

Mean Axial Velocity (m/s)

Axial Velocity (m/s)
Radial Velocity (m/s)
Mean Tangential Velocity (m/s)
Tangential Velocity (m/s)
Temperature (K)
Turbulence Intensity (%)
Turbulence Length Scale (m)

31.35
profile
0
20.97
profile
312
17
0.0076

0
0
157.25
0
0
308
5
0.0009

33

Page 33 of 34

34

Page 34 of 34