MATHEMATICAL MODELLING OF FLOW AND HEAT/MASS TRANSFER DURING REACTIVE SPRAYING DEPOSITION TECHNOLOGY (RSDT) PROCESS FOR HIGH TEMPERATURE FUEL CELLS

A three-dimensional mathematical model of flow and heat/mass transfer coupling with chemical reactions for fuel gas and droplet combustion during reactive spraying deposition technology (RSDT) is presented in this paper. The RNG k- epsilon model is employed in the numerical simulation of turbulent combustion gas flow. The droplet particle is tracked and analyzed in a Lagrangian frame. The heating and vaporization histories of the injected droplet are also calculated during its movement. The three-dimensional distributions of velocity, species concentration and temperature are numerically obtained. The results indicate that the droplet will disappear over a very short distance and the vaporized fuel gas will burn immediately. Both the methods and the results described in this paper will help in the control of the final catalyst particle size and the optimization of the microstructure of the catalyst layer.