Combus lab: software to study and analysis the combustion processes in systems powered by solid, liquid and gaseous fuels

Abstract

The Combus Lab (Combustion Laboratory) software has been developed for the study,testing and analysis of combustion systems powered by solid, liquid, and gaseous fuels. Thesoftware has been developed entirely on Python platform due to its versatility and widespreaduse in developer communities. Combus Lab allows a very high degree of configurability interms of defining fuel components, in addition, it can solve a wide variety of combustion casessuch as: Complete combustion Combustion under stoichiometric mixture Incomplete combustion (with defect or excess of air) Combustion with dry or wet oxidant And it can be solved the problems in prediction mode (all combustion parameters areknown) and in diagnostic mode (all or part of the combustion parameters are unknown).Combus Lab was developed for use in an educational environment: laboratories andclassrooms, it is easy to use for teachers, researchers, and students, and it is optimized to carryout multiple tests in the shortest possible time. It presents a single frame with a simple layout.The definition of the problems it solves is carried out in phases whose content is shownprogressively as the definition of the problem to be solved is completed. The software allows,among other tasks, modification, control, creation of new analyzes and exporting data forfurther analysis or comparison with other tools.Below, for demonstration purposes, a simple example solved with Combus Lab is presented,which allows graphical and sequential visualization of the software's working mode: it isrequired to burn methane CH4 in a complete stoichiometric combustion process with dry air at25ºC.The successive images show the steps corresponding to (1) Fuel configuration, in theexample it is 100% methane; (2) Oxidant configuration, in this case, since it is treated as dryair, the molar fraction of water in the air is specified as zero, (3) Combustion chamberconfiguration, the stoichiometric mixture parameter is set equal to one, and since it is completecombustion, the combustion parameters are specified equal to one; (4) Results, where the resultsof the combustion stoichiometry are shown. In this phase, the information can be displayed by the smoke sensors, if any, and a percentage diagram for a verification of the coherence of the test.