Methane and air mixing times under nonreacting and reacting conditions

Mixing times of methane and air under nonreacting or reacting conditions in the presence of a constant rate of temperature or pressure are examined using a mixing model based on the ideal gas law and the equation of continuity. The model is valid for low pressure ratios combustors under nonreacting conditions. The model is also valid under reacting conditions for the fresh mixture which contains only trace amounts of combustion products. The effects of initial pressure, temperature, velocity divergence and initial fluid composition on mixing time are also analyzed. Results show that under both reacting and nonreacting conditions, the mixing time is directly proportional to the initial pressure and temperature of mixture and inversely proportional to rates of pressure and temperature and to the velocity divergence. The mixing time is shorter for the case of fuel dispersing into the surrounding air, than for the case of air penetrating into the fuel flow. The rates of pressure of less than 1 atm/s alone can provide a mixing time in excess of one second which is unacceptably long for many applications, particularly gas turbine combustion. Rates of temperature produced by flame may provide mixing times of less than 0.1 s. To assure mixing times of a few milliseconds for efficient combustion, coupled with low pollutants emission, high velocity gradients between the fuel and air flows are required. The results show that a combination of several effects must be used in parallel for achieving this goal