Eur. Phys. J. AP 16, 71-84 (2001)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjap:2001195

Chemical efficiency of reactive microflows with heterogeneous catalysis: a lattice Boltzmann study

¹ Istituto di Applicazioni Calcolo, CNR, viale Policlinico 137, 00161 - Roma, Italy
² Visiting Scholar, Lyman Laboratory, Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge MA 02138, USA
³ INFM, Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma “La Sapienza”, P.le A. Moro 2, 00185 - Roma, Italy
⁴ Lyman Laboratory, Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge MA 02138, USA

Corresponding author: andrea@pil.phys.uniroma1.it

Received: 15 March 2001
Revised: 13 June 2001
Accepted: 13 June 2001
Published online: 15 October 2001

Abstract

We investigate the effects of geometrical micro-irregularities on the conversion efficiency of reactive flows in narrow channels of millimetric size. Three-dimensional simulations, based upon a Lattice-Boltzmann-Lax-Wendroff code, indicate that periodic micro-barriers may have an appreciable effect on the effective reaction efficiency of the device. Once extrapolated to macroscopic scales, these effects can result in a sizeable increase of the overall reaction efficiency.