What is Residence Time Reactor?
Reacts the whole gas for a given time. The gas given at the start reacts with nothing fed or withdrawn on the way.
It suits studying how reactions proceed in time and how fast species such as NO, CO and NH₃ form or are consumed.
With a reaction time of 2 seconds, it gives the temperature and composition of the starting gas after it has reacted for 2 seconds.
The inlet stream's temperature, pressure and composition are the initial state; Cantera's ReactorNet integrates to the given time (constant pressure or constant volume, adiabatic or isothermal). The time histories of temperature, pressure and species, and the formation and consumption rates, are shown as charts and tables. The inlet and outlet connections only pass the states before and after; they do not represent a continuous flow. The outlet mass flow carries the inlet value for the CAD connections and is not a physical flow. At constant volume the pressure changes: check that it suits the blocks downstream.
Compared with the CSTR
- Inflow / outflow: none while reacting / continuous in a CSTR
- Meaning of time: the given reaction time / the mean residence time
- Mixing with new gas: no / yes
- Main result: the state after the given time / the steady outlet state
- Main use: kinetics and time behaviour / continuous reactors
At constant pressure (IdealGasConstPressureReactor)
\frac{dY_k}{dt} = \frac{\dot{\omega}_k W_k}{\rho}
with constant h when adiabatic; at constant volume (IdealGasReactor) constant u. Isothermal: the energy equation is not solved and the temperature is kept. For a first-order reaction A \to B, x_A = e^{-k t}.
The time history is stored at evenly spaced times (the integrator takes its own steps in between).