A numerical simulation of spontaneous ignition of bagasse

• Main Authors: Naphat Nopsanti, Nathasak Boonmee
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Khon Kaen University 2020-03-01
• Series: Engineering and Applied Science Research
• Subjects: ignition simulation; spontaneous ignition; bagasse; fire safety
• Online Access: https://ph01.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/easr/article/download/189504/163661/

This paper presents a numerical study of spontaneous ignition of a bagasse cube basket inside a convective oven. The study considered a cubicbagasse massas a porous medium allowing oxygen from the surroundings to diffuse into and react with the interior of the bagasse matrix. A set of coupled partial differential equations of heat and mass transfer was solved numerically with a well-known CFD softwarepackage,ANSYS FLUENT. The simulated results were then compared with experimental measurements. In general, good agreement between the simulated and measured centre temperatures of a cubic bagasse basket was obtained. Simulation results demonstrated that as the cubic bagasse basket size and itsinitial moisture content increased the spontaneous ignition time increased. Alternatively, decreasing the porosity increasedthe spontaneous ignition time. The differences between2D and 3D simulation resultswerealso investigated. It was found that the simulated centre temperature in the3D simulation was slightly higher than that obtained from 2D calculations.