Numerical Simulation of the Effect of Magnetic Fields on Soot Formation in Laminar Non-Premixed Flames

Characteristics of non-premixed flames such as flame height and lift-off height are affected by the presence of magnetic fields due to the paramagnetic properties of some combustion species. However, it is unknown whether magnetic fields can be used to reduce the emission of pollutants in non-premixed flames. In general, pollutant emissions are reduced in combustion systems if the mixing of combustion species is enhanced during the process. Since paramagnetic combustion species such as O2, O, OH, HO2, etc have a preferential motion direction in the presence of magnetic fields, there is a potential to harness this effect of mixing by imposing a magnetic field on the flame. This study seeks to provide some insights on the effect of magnetic field on pollutants generated in a laminar non-premixed flame numerically. The non-premixed flame is simulated using a detailed chemical mechanism for propane-air combustion and a modified Moss-Brookes soot model. To simulate the effect of magnetism on the paramagnetic chemical species, the species paramagnetic susceptibility is computed using the Curie relation. The non-premixed flame is placed at three different locations within the magnetic field. The computation predicted that the amount of average pollutants reduction is dependent on the location of the flames within the magnetic fields with respect to magnetic gradients. The mass weighted average of the soot volume fraction over the computational domain decreased when the non-premixed flame is located at certain locations within the magnetic field of the solenoid with respect to the absence of the magnetic fields, but increases in other locations.