[m.kurjata]

Hello everyone,

I'm struggling with coming up with a right approach to model a melting parcel. My project revolves around pyrolysis of shredded plastic particles in a fluidized bed. I've chosen coalChemistryFoam solver, where reactingMultiphaseParcels are used.

To make the simulation more realistic, I would like plastic to melt (at ca 200 °C) before it reacts (at ca. 500 °C), which would consume some of the sensible enthalpy of the surrounding gas. As far as I know, there is no available model for mass transfer between phases in reactingMultiphaseParcels and generally, no melting model for any other Lagrangian parcels.

By default, available solids in reactingMultiphaseParcels are C, CaCO3 and ash. My idea was to use C as plastic, after changing its properties and implement an additional solid, C_liq, representing melted plastic and set its initial mass share to 0%. I've already done that. Now I want to implement a model which sets in when parcel's temperature reaches 200°C and transfers mass in the parcel from C to C_liq, during which the parcel temperature stays constant.

The idea in itself seems simple, but I have little OpenFOAM coding experience beyond copying stuff from A to B and slightly changing it, so I ask for your help. I guess it would make sense to implement it in one of the surfaceReaction models, so I duplicated one of them, COxidationKineticDiffusionLimitedRate and renamed it to Pyrolysis. Now I'm stuck.

Does it make sense to go with this idea or are there other, better options? I haven't found any cases similar to mine in the forum or Google.