J0801-4-3 Simplified modeling of auto-ignition in micro flowreactor with controlled temperature profile

A simplified modeling approach is presented for autoignition in a fine micro flowreactor having a gradual temperature increase on the inner surface of the reactor tube wall in the axial direction. Autoignition in the flowreactor is described as a transient, spatially zero-dimensional problem by defining the control volume flowing in the reactor which has convective heat transfer with reactor wall. By this approach, the computational load could be drastically reduced and autoignition temperatures for a stoichiometric methane/air mixture estimated by the proposed model were in qualitative agreement with those obtained by previous experiments. Furthermore, a new normalized sensitivity coefficient for the autoignition temperature in the micro flowreactor was introduced. Sensitivity analysis by this sensitivity coefficient with GRI-mech 3.0 successfully identified essential elementary reactions for autoignition and the cause of the insufficient performance of C1-chemistry for the autoignition process.