Investigation of laminar flows of a chemically active gas-dust medium in a circular tube

Laminar flows of a gas-dust medium with chemical reactions in an axisymmetric tube are studied in detail through numerical experiments. The study focuses on non-oxidative reactions of catalytic synthesis of hydrocarbons from methane. The hot walls of the tube warm up a two-phase flow of methane and catalytic nanoparticles. Heating of this flow enables endothermic conversion of methane into hydrocarbons and hydrogen. The presence of catalytic nanoparticles in the tube, which activate heterogeneous-homogeneous reactions, causes a significant deviation of the two-phase medium flow from the Poiseuille flow profile known for a single-component gas due to changes in the medium volume and viscosity. The change in the heat regime along the tube with variation in thermal conductivity of the reactive medium is investigated. Calculations are conducted for various values of the wall temperature, particle concentration, laminar flow velocity, and other parameters. It is discovered that the medium velocity and the gas component distributions in the tube volume and at the tube outlet are strongly affected by the methane activation energy on the catalytic nanoparticle surface, particle diameter, and particle concentration.