Numerical modeling of laminar flow over a porous cylinder under endothermic steam methane reforming reaction

Abstract

This paper deals with the numerical simulation of laminar flow over a porous cylinder under endothermic steam methane reforming reactions. The two-dimensional RANS approach is used to understand the effect of endothermic chemical reactions on the Kármán vortex street and heat transfer coefficient for a wide range of governing temperatures relevant to industrial applications of steam methane reforming. To achieve this goal, a set of calculations is performed for both transient and steady-state regimes, as well as for reactive and non-reactive flows. It was observed that steam methane reforming reactions have an effect on the Kármán vortex parameters. An increase in the catalytic cylinder temperature leads to an increase in the size of the single vortex and the length of the period. Under the analyzed conditions, for a cylinder temperature of 1200 K, the effect of chemical reactions on the Kármán vortex is maximal because the reaction rates strongly depend on temperature. Visualizations of the Kármán vortex formation for reactive and non-reactive flows are provided. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the heat transfer coefficients on the cylinder surface. It was shown that endothermic chemical reactions significantly increase the heat supplied from the surface to the reacting flow.