Modelling of pulverised wood combustion: a comparison of different models

Several models have been proposed in the literature for numerical simulations of pulverised wood drying, pyrolysis, gasification and combustion processes. These models are based on different assumptions and they yield fairly different results. In the present study a pulverised wood flame in a laboratory vertical furnace is chosen as the test case to evaluate the different sub-models including, drying, devolatilisation and shrinkage processes. Numerical results from a base model are first compared with experimental data. Sensitivity of the numerical results to various model parameters and fuel variations such as moisture content, gas compositions, devolatilisation rate constant and shrinkage are examined based on the base model, using the 'changing one separate factor at a time' (COST) approach.