Refined weighted sum of gray gases model for air-fuel combustion and its impacts

Radiation is the principal mode of heat transfer in utility boiler furnaces. Models for radiative properties play a vital role in reliable simulations of utility boilers and simulation-based design and optimization. The weighted sum of gray gases model (WSGGM) is one of the most widely used models in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of air-fuel combustion processes. It represents a reasonable compromise between an oversimplified gray gas model and a comprehensive approach addressing high-resolution dependency of radiative properties and intensity upon wavelength. The WSGGM coefficients evaluated by Smith et al. for several partial pressures of CO2 and H2O vapor are often used for gas temperatures up to 2400 K, which is supplemented by the coefficient values presented by Coppalle and Vervisch for higher temperatures until 3000 K. This paper refines the air-fuel WSGGM in terms of accuracy, completeness, and implementation and demonstrates the use and impacts of the refined model in CFD simulation of a conventional air-fuel utility boiler. The refined model is found to make a remarkable difference from the existing models in CFD results, when the particle−radiation interaction is negligible and not taken into account (e.g., in gaseous fuel combustion). Comparatively, the impacts of the refined model are greatly compromised under a solid-fuel combustion scenario because of the important role of the particle−radiation interaction. As the conclusion, the refined air-fuel WSGGM is highly recommended for use in CFD simulation of any air-fuel combustion process because of its greater accuracy, completeness, and applicability.