Simcha L Singer
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Assistant Professor
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
Marquette University
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414-288-6189
We study heterogeneous combustion, with a focus on porous char particles, multicomponent fuel droplets, and pyrolysis and gasification of biomass. We aim to develop both fundamental understanding and predictive capabilities at the scale of individual particles and droplets, with the goal of improving efficiency, sustainability, and reliability at larger scales.
We perform 3-D, pore-resolving combustion and gasification simulations using real, complex char particle geometries obtained from high-resolution micro-CT. We then use the insights obtained to inform simpler models amenable for use in reactor-scale codes.
Our lab uses nonisothermal thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) to study pyrolysis and gasification kinetics of solid fuels, such as wastewater biosolids.
We have developed a novel “hybrid” continuous thermodynamics-discrete species method for modeling droplet vaporization and adaptive surrogate formulation in a unified manner. The efficient hybrid method allows CFD spray combustion codes to capture the impacts of preferential vaporization on gas-phase combustion behavior with greater accuracy and flexibility than state-of-the-art surrogate approaches.