Numerical simulation of photocatalytic oxidation of gaseous pollutants using low Reynolds number turbulence models

Introduction: Photocatalytic oxidation of gaseous pollutants in differential reactors is simulated using computational fluid dynamics. Materials and methods: The momentum equation and pollutant transport are solved by using ANSYS Fluent. The SIMPLE algorithm is used to treat the pressure-velocity coupling. The laminar flow and low Reynolds k−ε models are used to describe turbulence. Results: Velocity field distribution and degradation efficiency of different models at various flow rates were obtained and compared with the experimental data. The simulation results of degradation efficiency under different models are basically consistent. Conclusion: Although low Reynolds k-ε models have better simulation results for high inlet flow rates, in terms of computation complexity, laminar flow is recommended for simulation.