Flame structure and NO emissions in gas combustion of low calorific heating value

Numerical study on addition effects of CO and CO 2 in fuel side (H 2 /Ar) on flame structure and NO emission behaviour in counterflow diffusion flame has been conducted with detailed chemistry to fundamentally understand gas combustion of low calorific heating value. A modified Miller–Bowman reaction scheme including a complementary C 2 ‐reaction subset is adopted. The radiative heat loss term, which is based on an optically thin model and it especially important at low strain rates, is included to cover the importance of the temperature dependence on NO emission. Special interest is taken to estimate the roles of added CO and CO 2 in fuel side on flame structure and NO emission characteristics. Increasing CO concentration in fuel side contributes to the enhancement of combustion due to the increase effect of the concentration of reactive species. The increase of added CO 2 concentration in fuel side suppresses overall reaction rate due to the high heat capacity. It is seen that chemical effects due to the breakdown of added CO 2 in fuel side make C 2 ‐branch chemical species be remarkably formed and the prevailing contribution of prompt NO is a direct outcome of these effects. It is found that in the combined forms of H 2 /CO/CO 2 /Ar fuels the effects of added CO and CO 2 concentrations in fuel side compete contrarily to each other in NO emission behaviour. Particularly the role of added CO is stressed in the side of restraining prompt NO. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.