Release Notes > Chemical Reaction Engineering Module

Chemical Reaction Engineering Module
New Functionality in Version 5.2a
New Reacting Flow Multiphysics Interfaces
New Reacting Flow multiphysics interfaces, replacing the previous versions, are available in the Model Wizard. By selecting a Reacting Flow interface under the Chemical Species Transport branch, one of the Single-Phase Flow interfaces and a Transport of Concentrated Species interface are added to the Model Builder. In addition, a multiphysics coupling feature, Reacting Flow, is added under the Multiphysics node. The Reacting Flow feature predefines and controls the couplings between the separate interfaces. Opening an application from an earlier version, the previous Reacting Flow interfaces are used.
Porous Media Transport Properties Feature
A Porous Media Transport Properties feature has been added the Transport of Concentrated Species interface. This feature includes models for computing effective transport properties dependent on the porosity of the material and can be used to study species transport in a fluid mixture propagating through a porous medium.
New and Renamed Reaction Features
A new Reaction feature is available in the Transport of Concentrated Species interface. It defines species source terms from a single chemical reaction, using an Arrhenius or user-defined rate expression. When licensed to the CFD Module, the feature includes the possibility to model the turbulent reaction rate using the eddy-dissipation model.
The Reaction Sources feature corresponds to the previous Reactions feature in the Transport of Concentrated Species interface and the concentrated species version of the Reacting Flow in Porous Media interface. The feature in Transport of Concentrated Species has also been extended with a Reacting Volume section, which can be used to specify the basis for the reaction source terms on porous media domains.
Pseudo Time Stepping for Transport of Concentrated Species
Pseudo time stepping can now be applied for the Transport of Concentrated Species interface. It can be used to improve the convergence of stationary simulations when the flow is dominated by convection — for example, when the flow is turbulent.
Reactive Pellet Bed: Surface Species and Surface Reactions
Surface species functionality has been added to the Reactive Pellet Bed feature (in the Transport of Diluted Species interface and the Transport of Diluted Species in Porous Media interface). Surface species existing within the porous pellet, attached to the solid matrix-fluid interface, can be defined in the Surface Species section of the feature. Adding surface species, the Reactions subfeature includes the possibility to model surface reactions and corresponding heat sources.
Surface reactions, defined in the Reaction Engineering interface, can now be exported to occur within porous pellets in a space-dependent model, using the Generate Space-Dependent Model feature. Selecting to export surface reactions to porous pellets, a Reactive Pellet Bed feature is added (in a Transport of Diluted Species interface or Transport of Diluted Species in Porous Media interface) and automatically set up to include the defined reaction kinetics.