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Reduction of the fire hazard of polymeric materials is one of the important scientific and technical problems. Since complexity of experimental procedures associated with flame spread, establishing reacting flows theoretical basics turned out to be crucial field of modern fundamental science. In order to determine parameters of flame spread over solid combustible materials numerical modelling methods have to be improved. Large amount of physical and chemical processes taking place needed to be resolved not just separately one by one but in connection with each other in gas and solid phases.

Upward flame spread over vertical solid combustible material is followed by unsteady eddy structures of gas flow in the vicinity of flame zone caused by thermal instability and natural convection forces accelerating hot combustion products. At every moment different amount of heat energy is transferred from hot gas-phase flame to solid material because of eddy flow structures. Therefore, satisfactory heat flux and eddy flow modelling are important to estimate flame spread rate.

In the current study we evaluated parameters of numerical method for flame spread over solid combustible material problem taking into account coupled nature of complex interaction between gas phase, solid material and eddy flow resulted from natural convection. We studied aspects of different approximation schemes used in differential equations integration process over space and time, of fields relaxation during iterations procedure carried out inside time step, of different time step values.

Mathematical model formulated allows to simulate flame spread over solid combustible material. Fluid dynamics is modeled by Navier – Stokes system of equations, eddy flow is described by combined turbulent model RANS–LES (DDES), turbulent combustion is resolved by modified turbulent combustion model Eddy Break-Up taking into account kinetic effects, radiation transfer is modeled by spherical harmonics method of first order approximation (P1). The equations presented are solved in OpenFOAM software.

The article presented the computational algorithm developed to study chemical processes in the internal flows of a multicomponent gas under the influence of laser radiation. The mathematical model is the gas dynamics’ equations with chemical reactions at low Mach numbers. It takes into account dissipative terms that describe the dynamics of a viscous heat-conducting medium with diffusion, chemical reactions and energy supply by laser radiation. This mathematical model is characterized by the presence of several very different time and spatial scales. The computational algorithm is based on a splitting scheme by physical processes. Each time integration step is divided into the following blocks: solving the equations of chemical kinetics, solving the equation for the radiation intensity, solving the convection-diffusion equations, calculating the dynamic component of pressure and calculating the correction of the velocity vector. The solution of a stiff system of chemical kinetics equations is carried out using a specialized explicit second-order accuracy scheme or a plug-in RADAU5 module. Numerical Rusanov flows and a WENO scheme of an increased order of approximation are used to find convective terms in the equations. The code based on the obtained algorithm has been developed using MPI parallel computing technology. The developed code is used to calculate the pyrolysis of ethane with radical reactions. The superequilibrium concentrations’ formation of radicals in the reactor volume is studied in detail. Numerical simulation of the reaction gas flow in a flat tube with laser radiation supply is carried out, which is in demand for the interpretation of experimental results. It is shown that laser radiation significantly increases the conversion of ethane and yields of target products at short lengths closer to the entrance to the reaction zone. Reducing the effective length of the reaction zone allows us to offer new solutions in the design of ethane conversion reactors into valuable hydrocarbons. The developed algorithm and program will find their application in the creation of new technologies of laser thermochemistry.

Technical carbon (soot) is a product obtained by thermal decomposition (pyrolysis) of hydrocarbons (usually oil) in a stream of heat carrier gas. Technical carbon is widely used as a reinforcing component in the production of rubber and plastic masses. Tire production uses 70% of all carbon produced. In furnace carbon production, the liquid hydrocarbon feedstock is injected into the natural gas combustion product stream through nozzles. The raw material is atomized and vaporized with further pyrolysis. It is important for the raw material to be completely evaporated before the pyrolysis process starts, otherwise coke, that contaminates the product, will be produced. It is impossible to operate without mathematical modeling of the process itself in order to improve the carbon production technology, in particular, to provide the complete evaporation of the raw material prior to the pyrolysis process. Mathematical modelling is the most important way to obtain the most complete and detailed information about the peculiarities of reactor operation.

A three-dimensional mathematical model and calculation method for raw material atomization and evaporation in the thermal gas flow are being developed in the FlowVision software package PC. Water is selected as a raw material to work out the modeling technique. The working substances in the reactor chamber are the combustion products of natural gas. The motion of raw material droplets and evaporation in the gas stream are modeled in the framework of the Eulerian approach of interaction between dispersed and continuous media. The simulation results of raw materials atomization and evaporation in a real reactor for technical carbon production are presented. Numerical method allows to determine an important atomization characteristic: average Sauter diameter. That parameter could be defined from distribution of droplets of raw material at each time of spray forming.

The article presents the numerical modeling and study of the kinetic model of propane pyrolysis. The study of the reaction kinetics is a necessary stage in modeling the dynamics of the gas flow in the reactor.

The kinetic model of propane pyrolysis is a nonlinear system of ordinary differential equations of the first order with parameters, the role of which is played by the reaction rate constants. Math modeling of processes is based on the use of the mass conservation law. To solve an initial (forward) problem, implicit methods for solving stiff ordinary differential equation systems are used. The model contains 60 input kinetic parameters and 17 output parameters corresponding to the reaction substances, of which only 9 are observable. In the process of solving the problem of estimating parameters (inverse problem), there is a question of non-uniqueness of the set of parameters that satisfy the experimental data. Therefore, before solving the inverse problem, the possibility of determining the parameters of the model is analyzed (analysis of identifiability).

To analyze identifiability, we use the orthogonal method, which has proven itself well for analyzing models with a large number of parameters. The algorithm is based on the analysis of the sensitivity matrix by the methods of differential and linear algebra, which shows the degree of dependence of the unknown parameters of the models on the given measurements. The analysis of sensitivity and identifiability showed that the parameters of the model are stably determined from a given set of experimental data. The article presents a list of model parameters from most to least identifiable. Taking into account the analysis of the identifiability of the mathematical model, restrictions were introduced on the search for less identifiable parameters when solving the inverse problem.

The inverse problem of estimating the parameters was solved using a genetic algorithm. The article presents the found optimal values of the kinetic parameters. A comparison of the experimental and calculated dependences of the concentrations of propane, main and by-products of the reaction on temperature for different flow rates of the mixture is presented. The conclusion about the adequacy of the constructed mathematical model is made on the basis of the correspondence of the results obtained to physicochemical laws and experimental data.