CFD-Experiment, Simulation and Analysis of Technologies for Thermally Expanded Graphite Synthesis by Oxidized Graphite Particles High-Speed Heating in Methane Combustion Products Flow

The paper describes several technologies for producing thermally expanded graphite by means of high-speed heating of oxidized graphite particles in a hot coolant flow. A comparative analysis of reactors operating on the “classical” technology and on the “new type” technology, which were designed and constructed by the authors, has been carried out. For deep analysis of a single particle of oxidized graphite behavior, which changes its density from 2080 to 5 kg/m3 (and turns into thermally expanded graphite) during heating, its computer model with temperature-dependent density was developed. For the most accurate calculation of the heating rate of particles fed into the reactor, specific hydrodynamic conditions arising in the process of methane combustion were taken into account. Computer simulation was carried out in the ANSYS Fluent software package. The combination of field experiment and computer simulation allowed to obtain data that can be easily verified in practice, as well as to obtain data previously unavailable for any measurements.