Ignition and Combustion of Methane Flowing Along an Array of Thin Catalytic Plates

Abstract

In this paper, the ignition and combustion of a methane/air mixture flowing along an infinite array of catalytic parallel plates has been studied by inclusion of the gas expansion effects and the finite heat conduction on the plates. The system of equations considers the full compressible Navier-Stokes equations coupled with the energy equations of the plates. The gas expansion effects which arises from temperature changes has been considered. The limits of large and small thermal conductivity of the plate material are analyzed and the critical conditions for ignition are obtained. The governing equations are solved numerically using finite differences.