Skip to main content
OSTI.GOVU.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
 

Computational fluid dynamics modeling and analysis of silica nanoparticle synthesis in a flame spray pyrolysis reactor

Journal Article · · Combustion and Flame
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations
Flame Spray Pyrolysis (FSP) is a method for large-scale production of nanoparticles and nanoscale powders employed in a wide range of industrial applications. Particle size and morphology are complex functions of the physicochemical phenomena occurring in the FSP reactor. An extensive study of FSP-related phenomena can be utilized to develop effective strategies for achieving desired particle size/morphology and scaling up the overall yield of an FSP system. In this work, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of an FSP reactor is developed to simulate the coupling of key phenomena involved in the particle synthesis process: liquid spray breakup and evaporation, mixing, combustion, and particle formation/growth of silica nanoparticles. Herein, the particle sizes and their distributions from the CFD simulations are validated against experimental data. Subsequently, the simulations are utilized to investigate the impact of process parameters on the resultant flame dynamics and particle growth. Firstly, the CFD results show that the particle sizes are strongly correlated with the precursor concentration in the solvent. At lower precursor concentrations, the spread of the distribution is relatively insensitive to the value of the concentration. At higher concentrations, the spread is higher as the collision probability between particles is higher. Secondly, increasing the pilot flow rate increases the length of the pilot flames impacting the local ignition location of the spray flame. Lastly, it is shown that the dispersion gas flow rate strongly influences the spray flame shape. This shape can be used for control of particle growth as it helps determine the regions of high temperature and the residence time of the particles in the high temperature region enabling the design and process optimization of the FSP reactor.
Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1881018
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1868571
Journal Information:
Combustion and Flame, Journal Name: Combustion and Flame Vol. 236; ISSN 0010-2180
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (40)

A detailed chemical kinetic model for high temperature ethanol oxidation journal January 1999
Flame Synthesis of Nanoparticles journal June 2001
Large-eddy simulation modeling of turbulent flame synthesis of titania nanoparticles using a bivariate particle description journal November 2013
Nanoparticle evolution in flame spray pyrolysis—Process design via experimental and computational analysis journal December 2019
Influence of angled dispersion gas on coaxial atomization, spray and flame formation in the context of spray-flame synthesis of nanoparticles journal April 2021
Nanoparticle Formation and Behavior in Turbulent Spray Flames Investigated by DNS journal May 2020
Direct Numerical Simulation of Turbulent Spray Combustion in the SpraySyn Burner: Impact of Injector Geometry journal June 2020
Dynamics of discrete distribution for Smoluchowski coagulation model journal November 1985
Aerosol dynamics modeling using the method of moments journal July 1987
Volume of fluid (VOF) method for the dynamics of free boundaries journal January 1981
Population balance modeling of flame synthesis of titania nanoparticles journal June 2002
Nanoparticle synthesis at high production rates by flame spray pyrolysis journal May 2003
Controlled synthesis of nanostructured particles by flame spray pyrolysis journal February 2002
Fluid-particle dynamics during combustion spray aerosol synthesis of ZrO2 journal May 2012
Combustion kinetic analysis of flame spray pyrolysis process journal July 2018
Numerical investigation of DQMoM-IEM as a turbulent reaction closure journal March 2010
Effect of nozzle geometry and processing parameters on the formation of nanoparticles using FSP journal November 2014
Spatially resolved flame zone classification of a flame spray nanoparticle synthesis process by combining different optical techniques journal March 2014
Application of the direct quadrature method of moments to polydisperse gas–solid fluidized beds journal January 2004
Process control for the synthesis of ZrO2 nanoparticles using FSP at high production rate journal September 2013
Numerical simulation of TiO 2 nanoparticle synthesis by flame spray pyrolysis journal April 2018
Numerical investigation of the process steps in a spray flame reactor for nanoparticle synthesis journal January 2015
A detailed kinetic study of the thermal decomposition of tetraethoxysilane journal January 2015
Large eddy simulations of nanoparticle synthesis from flame spray pyrolysis journal January 2017
Gas-phase synthesis of functional nanomaterials: Challenges to kinetics, diagnostics, and process development journal January 2019
SciPy 1.0: fundamental algorithms for scientific computing in Python journal February 2020
Flame spray pyrolysis: An enabling technology for nanoparticles design and fabrication journal January 2010
SpraySyn—A standardized burner configuration for nanoparticle synthesis in spray flames journal August 2019
Development of turbulence models for shear flows by a double expansion technique journal July 1992
Direct numerical simulations of nanoparticle formation in premixed and non-premixed flame–vortex interactions journal September 2020
Sintering Time for Silica Particle Growth journal January 2001
A Novel Aerosol Combustion Process for the High Rate Formation of Nanoscale Oxide Particles journal January 2001
A Simple Model for the Evolution of the Characteristics of Aggregate Particles Undergoing Coagulation and Sintering journal January 1993
Aerosol generation to simulate specific industrial fine particle effluents journal February 1980
Design of Nanomaterial Synthesis by Aerosol Processes journal July 2012
Liquid Jet Instability and Atomization in a Coaxial Gas Stream journal January 2000
Flame-made Ceria Nanoparticles journal June 2002
Drop Dynamics in Heterogeneous Spray Flames for Nanoparticle Synthesis journal January 2020
Multiscale Simulation of the Formation of Platinum-Particles on Alumina Nanoparticles in a Spray Flame Experiment journal November 2020
The Tab Method for Numerical Calculation of Spray Droplet Breakup
  • O'Rourke, Peter J.; Amsden, Anthony A.
  • 1987 SAE International Fall Fuels and Lubricants Meeting and Exhibition, SAE Technical Paper Series https://doi.org/10.4271/872089
conference November 1987

Figures / Tables (19)

Figure 1(p. 7)figure Figure 1
Table 1(p. 7)table Table 1
Figure 2(p. 9)figure Figure 2
Figure 3(p. 12)figure Figure 3
Figure 4(p. 13)figure Figure 4
Table 2(p. 13)table Table 2
Figure 5(p. 14)figure Figure 5
Figure 6(p. 15)figure Figure 6
Figure 7(p. 17)figure Figure 7
Figure 8(p. 18)figure Figure 8
Figure 9(p. 20)figure Figure 9
Figure 10(p. 21)figure Figure 10
Figure 11(p. 22)figure Figure 11
Table 3(p. 22)table Table 3
Table 4(p. 23)table Table 4
Figure 12(p. 24)figure Figure 12
Figure 13(p. 25)figure Figure 13
Figure 14(p. 26)figure Figure 14
Figure 15(p. 27)figure Figure 15

Similar Records

Flame stability analysis of flame spray pyrolysis by artificial intelligence
Journal Article · Tue Apr 06 20:00:00 EDT 2021 · International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology · OSTI ID:1798171

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
Computational fluid dynamics
Flame spray pyrolysis
Multiphase turbulent reacting flows
Nanoparticle synthesis
Numerical modeling