Relevance of Turbulence Modulation by Particles for the Simulation of a 60 kW \(_{\textrm{th}}\) Swirling Flame of Pulverized Solid Fuel Under Oxy-Fuel Conditions

Combustion of pulverized solid fuels includes complex interactions between chemical reactions, multiphase flows, and radiation. In particular, the high particle number density near the burner is significantly affected by these interactions. Accurate modeling of these phenomena is crucial for describing flame characteristics. In this study, the impact of turbulence modulation on the characteristics of a swirling pulverized solid fuel flame is investigated by means of Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations. The numerical model is built in Ansys Fluent equipped with user-defined functions that adapt the modeling of combustion sub-processes such as devolatilization and char conversion under oxy-fuel conditions. Simulation results show that two-way coupling is particularly important in the near burner region and, more importantly, that neglecting turbulence modulation does not transport the error to the downstream region.