Numerical Simulation of Forced and Static Smoldering Combustion

S. Singer[1], W. H. Green[1]
[1]Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
Published in 2013

Transient, two-dimensional (axisymmetric) simulations of a cigarette subject to realistic static and forward smoldering cycles were performed. The computational domain consists of a porous packed bed of tobacco and a filter surrounded by a thin, porous paper and a region of surrounding air. The governing equations include overall mass conservation, momentum conservation, conservation equations for individual gas species, separate thermal energy conservation equations for the gas and solid phases and evolution equations for various solid densities. Many sub-models and auxiliary equations are required to determine the thermo-physical, reaction and transport properties of the system. The predictions of the reacting flow model have been validated against experimental data for solid and gas temperatures and oxygen mass fraction profiles with good agreement.