Abstract: A mathematical model is proposed to describe the three-dimensional gas flow dynamics in a reactor for pyrolysis of alkanes to olefins (Snytnikov et al., 2009, 2012, 2014) with allowance for thermal effects of the absorbed laser radiation. The model is intended to explore the possibility of controlling the conversion of reagents using continuous CO2 laser radiation. The absorption of radiation by ethylene is accompanied by the transformation of radiation energy into thermal energy. The pyrolysis under laser radiation with a power density up to 2*103 W/cm2 was modeled. The numerical model was developed using the ANSYS Fluent package (Fluent, 2012) with user modules supplemented with a stiff set of ordinary differential equations describing a kinetic scheme of radical chain reactions, and with user modules for refining physicochemical processes. Verification of the mathematical model of gas dynamics with chemical reactions in the reactor without regard to radiation was reported in (Stadnichenko et al., 2014, Nurislamova et al., 2014). The model was devised to explore the possibility of using laser radiation energy with high intensity and limited power for initiation of chemical reactions of alkane pyrolysis at low near-wall temperatures, and upscaling the process to greater weights and sizes of the reactor with the maintained laminar flow regime.

Cite: Stadnichenko O.A. , Snytnikov V.N. , Snytnikov V.N. , Masyuk N.S.
Mathematical Modeling of Alkane Pyrolysis in a Wall-Less Reactor with Allowance for Laser Radiation Effects
Международная конференция «Актуальные проблемы вычислительной и прикладной математики 2015» (АПВПМ-2015), посвященная 90-летию со дня рождения академика Гурия Ивановича Марчука 19-23 Oct 2015