CFD Simulation Study on Thermal Runaway Behavior of Continuous Flow Reactors

Abstract

Thermal runaway not only happened in batch reactors but also was a big challenge for continuous flow reactor design. Continuous flow reactors are mainly used for high exothermic reactions due to their advantages of small volume and easy control of reaction conditions. In response to the current lack of thermal safety assessment for continuous flow reactors, this study used a coupled method of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and HJ criterion to investigate the effects of different operating conditions on the thermal runaway. The results indicate that the diameter, jacket temperature, and the initial concentration of the reactants are critical parameters that contribute to the onset of thermal runaway. And this study presents a new method to help identify thermal runaway in continuous flow reactors, which can provide guidance for the safe design and optimization of the reactor.