Numerical modelling of flows in a solar-enhanced vortex gasifier: Part 1, comparison of turbulence models

Abstract

The present paper reports the evaluation of performance of a series of turbulence models for an isothermal flow in a solar chemical reactor. This chemical reactor has similar swirling flow patterns to those in a solar, enhanced vortex gasifier, SVG, and measurements of velocity in this reactor are available in literature. Three turbulence models, namely, standard k, ε model, baseline, BSL, Reynolds stress model, and shear, stress, transport, SST, model are used to simulate the flows in the solar chemical reactor. It is found that the predictions of the three models are in reasonable agreement with the experimental data, although none are entirely satisfactory, with the predictions of the SST model being slightly better than those of the other models. However, even the SST model is not able to predict the anisotropic Reynolds stresses in the flow. More detailed measurements of flow fields in SVG type reactors are required for further evaluation.