Comparisons of two commercial computational fluid dynamics codes in modelling pulverised coal combustion for a 2.5 MW burner

This paper reports an investigation into the performance of two commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes for pulverised coal combustion pre diction. The two codes employed were FLUENT and FLOW3D 3.2 (now called CFX) . The experimental ease considered was a 2.5 MW Aerodynamically Air Staged Burner (AASB) fired in isolation into a rectangular furnace. Predictions we re compared to velocity, temperature and species concentration experimental data. Some slight differences were noted between the two CFD codes predict ions beyond one burner diameter downstream of the burner exit. Discrepancie s between the predictions of the two CFD codes were concluded to be due to differences in the physical models used to describe devolatilisation and ga seous combustion. This paper therefore concludes that, for this case, the t wo commercial CFD codes were capable of predicting good 'trend' answers. (C ) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.