Numerical investigation of soot formation in methane/n-heptane laminar diffusion flame doped with hydrogen at elevated pressure.

The addition of hydrogen in a dual-fuel mode based on natural gas and diesel offers great potential for improving engine efficiency and reducing emissions. Therefore, detailed numerical simulations have been used to explore the effects of soot formation characteristics of natural gas-diesel dual-fuel engines doped by hydrogen at elevated pressure. Numerical simulations are compared with available experimental data, the effects of H 2 addition on soot formation in laminar CH 4 + n-heptane, H 2 + CH 4 + n-heptane, FH 2 + CH 4 + n-heptane diffusion flames at 2, 4, 6 and 8 atm are simulated, FH 2 is added to separate the H 2 chemical effects. The results show that the dilution and thermal effects of H 2 inhibit soot formation, while the chemical effects of H 2 promote soot formation under different pressures. The addition of H 2 increases the concentration of H and OH radicals, which promotes the formation of C 2 H 2 and benzene (A1). By simplifying the reaction path and analyzing the production rate of A1, the mechanism of H 2 addition to promote A1 formation is illustrated. The concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) pyrene (A4), benzo(ghi)fluoranthene (BGHIF) and benzo(a)pyrene (BAPYR) are inhibited at higher pressures that result in lower inception and condensation rates. Therefore, the increase of hydrogen abstraction acetylene addition (HACA) rate is the main reason for the increase of soot formation under chemical effects. While the O 2 oxidation rate decreases and the OH oxidation rate increases, that is due to the decrease of O 2 concentration and the increase of OH concentration in the soot formation area under chemical effects. • The dilution, thermal and chemical effects of H 2 addition on soot formation in methane/n-heptane flame were investigated at high pressures. • Key specie A1 formation pathways and related reactions were confirmed when H 2 addition. • The changes of soot formation and oxidation mechanisms with H 2 addition in different pressure were explained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]