Abstract:
An analysis of irreversibilities generated due to combustion in an adiabatic combustor burning wood was
conducted. This was done for a reactant mixture varying from a rich to a lean mixture. A non-adiabatic
non-premixed combustion model of a numerical code was used to simulate the combustion process
where the solid fuel was modelled by using the ultimate analysis data. The entropy generation rates due
to the combustion and frictional pressure drop processes were computed to eventually arrive at the
irreversibilities generated. It was found that the entropy generation rate due to frictional pressure drop
was negligible when compared to that due to combustion. It was also found that a minimum in irreversibilities
generated was achieved when the AireFuel mass ratio was 4.9, which corresponds to an
equivalence ratio of 1.64, which are lower than the respective AireFuel mass ratio and equivalence ratio
for complete combustion with theoretical amount of air of 8.02 and 1.
