Bifurcation analysis of a periodically forced pair of tubular catalytic combustors

This paper presents a numerical study of the dynamics of a reactor network (RN) made of a pair of tubular catalytic combustors. The RN is forced with a periodic change of the feed position. which emulates a moving bed. The distributed model is discretized and the resulting, rather large, dynamical system is studied via bifurcation analysis of a proper discrete system, related to its Poincare map through spatiotemporal symmetry. The analysis is made possible by parallel computation. An operating parameter, the switch time, is chosen as the bifurcation parameter. A wide operation region of high-conversion periodic regimes is found, delimited by two saddle-node bifurcations. The influence of the heat capacity of the catalyst phase is also reported and discussed. Particularly, higher heat capacity corresponds to wider stable regions of operation. In the low range of the switch time complex dynamical regimes are detected, including symmetric and non symmetric spatiotemporal patterns.