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Published October 1974 | public
Journal Article

A stochastic model of turbulent mixing with chemical reaction: Nitric oxide formation in a plug-flow burner

Abstract

A stochastic model of turbulent mixing has been developed for a reactor in which mixing is represented by n-body fluid particle interactions (n = 2, 3, ... 6). The model has been used to justify the assumption made in previous investigations of the role of turbulent mixing on burner generated thermal nitric oxide and carbon monoxide emissions that, for a simple plug flow reactor, composition nonuniformities can be described by a Gaussian distribution function in the local fuel: air equivalence ratio. Rate-limited upper and lower bounds of the nitric oxide produced by thermal fixation of molecular nitrogen and oxidation of organically bound fuel nitrogen are estimated on the basis of the stochastic model for a plug flow burner; these are compared with experimental measurements obtained using a laboratory burner operated over a wide range of test conditions; good agreement is obtained.

Additional Information

© 1974 The Combustion Institute. Received April 1, 1974; revised June 28, 1974. This work was supported in part by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Grant NGR 22-009-378 and by the Environmental Protection Agency under Grant R-800-729-03-01. Part of the work was presented at the A.I.Ch.E. 66th Annual Meeting under the title: Nitric Oxide Formation from Fuel Bound Nitrogen in an Oil Fired Burner. We would like to express our thanks to several of our colleagues for helpful discussions, notably Professor D. P. Hoult, who suggested extending our investigation of the stochastic mixing model beyond the Duo-particle limit. One of us (R. C. F.) wishes to acknowledge partial financial support from MIT for a Sloan Research Traineeship.

Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 23, 2023