A detailed numerical study of the evolution of soot particle size distributions in laminar premixed flames

In this work, two numerical techniques, viz. the method of moments and a di screte h-p-Cralerkin method, have been applied for numerical simulation of soot formation in a laminar premixed acetylene/oxygen/argon flame. From the evolution of the PAH and the soot particle size distributions, new insight into the different processes of soot formation is provided. For this, the single submodels have been examined with respect to their influence on the PAH and the soot particle size distributions. The particle inception step w as studied in detail by comparing the simulated PAH size distributions with experimental results. Additionally, an estimation of the interaction energ y of layered PAH dimers was performed by quantum chemical calculations. Fro m these results, some evidence for the particle inception model employing c oalescence of PAH molecules has been found. The numerical results for the g as phase chemical species, the particle number densities and volume fractio ns of soot as well as for the soot particle size distributions are compared with experimental data. Thereby, the consistency of the entire model is de monstrated. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.