Thermal Simulations of a New Experimental Chamber for Catalytic Reaction Studies at the MIRAS Beamline of the ALBA Synchrotron

Abstract The ALBA synchrotron is presently developing an experimental chamber tailored for catalytic reaction studies by means of synchrotron-based infrared spectroscopy. This chamber will be integrated into the spectrometer of MIRAS experimental line at ALBA (The Infrared Microspectroscopy Beamline) and is slated for installation in 2025. Within this project’s framework, the design poses various engineering challenges: the chamber must accommodate a gas mixture (O 2 , H 2 , CO, and an inert gas like Ar) under 20 bar working pressures; the sample must attain a temperature between 480 and 500°C. Under these conditions, coupled phenomena of forced and natural convection occur within the gas mixture zone, along with forced convection in the water-cooling area, and Stefan-Boltzmann radiation effects between the high-temperature regions surrounding the sample and the chamber walls. Quantifying the power required by two interior heaters to reach the requisite 480-500°C in the sample is imperative under these circumstances. This study primarily focuses on design aspects derived from numerical engineering simulations. Thermal results under different operational scenarios will be presented using the ANSYS WORKBENCH software suite.