Simulation of multidimensional unsteady heat transfer with aluminothermic reaction and phase transition.

• Use of exothermic thermite reactions is seen as a game-change technology to be developed for plug and abandonment of mature oil wells. • Multi-domain simulation of termite reaction using advanced chemical kinetics reproduced experimental data for temperature levels and reaction front propagation speed. • Heat losses affected the melting of the species as a small portion of alumina remained entirely solid during the reaction. Thermite reactions are self-sustained exothermic reactions commonly employed in welding processes of railway tracks, material synthesis and pyrotechnics, to mention a few applications. More recently, this reaction has been assessed to plug depleted oil wells. Motivated by the foregoing, this work numerically investigates a Fe 2 O 3 /Al thermite reaction. A two-dimensional axisymmetric domain with a thermite layer compressed between a PMMA lid and a stainless-steel disk is considered. A first-order kinetic is assumed and the reaction is controlled by the hematite consumption. A computational solver is developed based on the open-source OpenFOAM® software. Numerical results showed good agreement with experimental data for temperature levels. Numerical results further indicated thermal losses next to the thermite-steel interface. These heat losses affected the melting of the species as a small portion of alumina remained entirely solid during the reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]