Theoretical study of the real-fluid laminar flame propagation under supercritical conditions by using the virial equation of state and the Enskog transport model

A real-fluid computation model using the Virial equation of state and the Enskog transport model was developed in this work to simulate real-fluid laminar flame propagations , and it was also compared with the Redlich-Kwong-Ely-Hanley/Takahashi real-fluid model in literature. The real-fluid effects of equation of state , thermodynamics, chemical potential, thermal conductivity , and mass diffusion have been investigated on the freely propagating flame simulations of different fuels. The contribution and the source of uncertainties by different real-fluid properties are also comprehensively discussed. The overall effects of real-fluid behaviors on the laminar flame speed simulations in H 2 O-dilute mixtures can reach 35 % at 100 atm, which reveal that accurate descriptions of real-fluid effects are crucial for flame speed predictions, especially using dilute gas with a high polarization, such as H 2 O. The Redlich-Kwong-Ely-Hanley/Takahashi model shows severe over-predictions of the hydrogen laminar flame speeds due to its significant weakness in predictions of thermal conductivities of mixtures by comparing with the NIST data, while the present Virial-Enskog model exhibits more reasonable predictability. The real-fluid simulations of the laminar flame speeds of DME and n-heptane flames by using the Virial-Enskog model and the Redlich-Kwong-Ely-Hanley/Takahashi model are compared with the available experimental data. It shows a crucial real-fluid effect on the simulations of DME and n-heptane flame speeds, up to 8 % discrepancy from the ideal-gas flame speed prediction, even at 20–25 atm. Overall, the Virial-Enskog model provides better estimations of the real-fluid behaviors than the empirical Redlich-Kwong-Ely-Hanley/Takahashi model, especially at high pressures.