On the surface chemisorption of oxidizing fine iron particles: Insights gained from molecular dynamics simulations

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are performed to investigate the thermal and mass accommodation coefficients (TAC and MAC, respectively) for the combination of iron(-oxide) and air. The obtained values of TAC and MAC are then used in a point-particle Knudsen model to investigate the effect of chemisorp-tion and the Knudsen transition regime on the combustion behavior of (fine) iron particles. The thermal accommodation for the interactions of Fe with N 2 and FexOy with O 2 is investigated for different surface temperatures, while the mass accommodation coefficient for iron(-oxide) with oxygen is investigated for different initial oxidation stages ZO, which represents the molar ratio of O/(O + Fe ) , and different surface temperatures. The MAC decreases fast from unity to 0.03 as ZO increases from 0 to 0.5 and then di-minishes as ZO further increases to 0.57. By incorporating the MD-informed accommodation coefficients into the single iron particle combustion model, the oxidation beyond ZO = 0 . 5 (from stoichiometric FeO to Fe3O4) is modeled. A new temperature evolution for single iron particles is observed compared to results obtained with previously developed continuum models. Specifically, results of the present simula-tions show that the oxidation process continues after the particle reaching the peak temperature, while previous models predicting that the maximum temperature was attained when the particle is oxidized to ZO = 0 . 5 . Since the rate of oxidation slows down as the MAC decreases with an increasing oxidation stage, the rate of heat loss exceeds the rate of heat release upon reaching the maximum temperature, while the particle is not yet oxidized to ZO = 0 . 5 . Finally, the effect of transition-regime heat and mass transfer on the combustion behavior of fine iron particles is investigated and discussed.& COPY; 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of The Combustion Institute. This is an open access article under the CC BY license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )

Automated summary

Molecular dynamics simulations were used to study thermal and mass accommodation coefficients for the combination of iron(-oxide) and air. The obtained coefficients were applied in a point-particle Knudsen model to investigate the combustion behavior of (fine) iron particles, considering chemisorption and the Knudsen transition regime.