微型热光电系统多孔介质燃烧器性能的实验研究

为保证微型热光电动力系统能稳定、高效地工作,燃烧器壁面需有较高的温度,且分布均匀．对采用多孔介质结构的微型燃烧器进行了实验研究,分析了孔隙率、CH_4/O_2混合比等因素对燃烧器性能的影响．结果表明,采用多孔介质结构可以改善燃烧器内的燃烧传热过程；合理选择孔隙率和工况参数,可以优化燃烧器壁面温度分布,提高系统工作性能．     

Enhancement of thermal performance by converging-diverging channel in a micro tube combustor fueled by premixed hydrogen/air

As the core component of the micro thermophotovoltaic (MTPV) system, the micro combustor with a high and uniform wall temperature distribution is beneficial to improve the energy conversion efficiency. In this paper, a micro tube combustor with converging-diverging channel is proposed and the thermal performance is numerically investigated, compared with that of the micro combustor with cylindrical channel. The effects of inlet velocity of H₂/air mixture, dimensionless position and diameter of throat, and solid material on the thermal performance are widely analyzed. Results show that the outer wall temperature and emitter efficiency of the micro combustor with converging-diverging channel are higher than that of the micro combustor with cylindrical channel, and the converging-diverging channel has more uniform temperature distribution. The converging-diverging micro combustor with dimensionless throat position l = 0.375 and dimensionless throat diameter β = 0.4 is more suitable for the application of MTPV system. When H₂/air inlet velocity is 11 m/s and H₂/air equivalence ratio is 1.0, the mean wall temperature is increased by 82.39 K and the emitter efficiency is increased by 6.59%, while the normalized temperature standard deviation is reduced by 65.85%. Additionally, the use of SiC as wall material can improve the thermal performance of the micro combustor. It is worth noting that this work will offer us significant guidelines for the optimized work of micro tube combustor.     

Experimental study on micro modular combustor for micro-thermophotovoltaic system application

As one of the key components of micro modular thermophotovoltaic power generators, every micro combustor should be able to produce a high and uniform temperature distribution on the surface. In this work, three micro modular combustors with different fuel supply systems were designed and tested. The results indicated that the in-line design with only one fuel supply tube could not equally distribute H₂/air mixture to every combustor. The wall temperatures of the two central combustors were obviously higher than the two side combustors. However, both the in-line design with two fuel supply tubes and the parallel design could equally deliver the fuel/air mixture to every combustor, and an uniform temperature distribution could be obtained for every combustor. The total radiation energy and radiation efficiency of the micro modular combustors were also calculated for various flow speeds and H₂/air equivalence ratios. A radiation efficiency of 27.3% could be achieved when the H₂/air equivalence ratio was 0.8 and the flow speed was 6 m/s.     

Influence of hole size and number on pressure drop and energy output of the micro-cylindrical combustor inserting with an internal spiral fin with holes

Targeting at optimizing the energy output and thermal performance of the micro combustor in the application of micro-thermophotovoltaic (MTPV) systems, but the introduction of spiral fins brings higher pressure loss. Thus, a novel design of the micro combustor with the spiral fin opening is developed. The influence of inlet velocities, the hole size and hole number of the spiral fin on the pressure drop and thermal characteristic and energy characteristic are numerically investigated. It's illustrated that the spiral fin opening is conductive to decrease the pressure loss and optimize the outer wall temperature distribution, but has a negative influence on increasing the mean outer wall temperature of the micro combustor and energy output in the MTPV systems. With the increase of the hole size and hole number of the spiral fin, the pressure loss decreases and the outer wall temperature uniformity increases significantly, while the mean outer wall temperature drops and total energy output decreases. The better performance obtains when the micro combustor with spiral fin with four 0.5 mm holes.     

Combustion characteristics and thermal enhancement of premixed hydrogen/air in micro combustor with pin fin arrays

Targeted at improving the combustion stability and enhancing heat transfer in micro combustor, the combustion characteristics and thermal performance of micro combustor with pin fin arrays are numerically investigated by employing detail H₂/O₂ reaction mechanism. It is shown that the micro combustor with staggered pin fin arrays exhibits the highest average temperature and heat flux of external wall, while the micro combustor with in-line pin fin arrays displays the most uniform temperature distribution of external wall. When the equivalence ratio is 1.1, all micro combustors exhibit the highest mean temperature and heat flux of external wall. The micro combustor materials with high thermal conductivity can not only improve the average temperature and heat flux of external wall, but also enhance heat transfer to the upstream which can preheat the mixed gas. Therefore, the materials with high thermal conductivity, such as red copper and aluminum, can make up for the nonuniform temperature distribution of micro combustor with staggered pin fin arrays, so as to realize uniform high heat flux output of external wall.     

Numerical study on premixed hydrogen/air combustion characteristics and heat transfer enhancement of micro-combustor embedded with pin fins

Aimed at improving the energy output performance of the Microthermal Photovoltaic (MTPV) system, it is necessary to optimize the structure of the micro combustor. In this paper, micro combustor with in-line pin fins arrays (MCIPF) and micro combustor with both end-line pin fins arrays (MCEPF) were presented to realize the efficient combustion and heat transfer enhancement, and the influence of inlet velocity, equivalent ratio, and materials on thermal performance was investigated. The results showed that pin fins embedding is beneficial to improving combustion, and the combustion efficiency of MCIPF and MCEPF reaches 98.5% and 98.7%, which is significantly higher than that of the conventional cylindrical combustor (MCC). However, with the increase of inlet velocity from 8 m/s to 14 m/s, MCIPF exhibits the highest external wall temperature with a range of (1302–1386 K), while MCEPF maintains the best temperature uniformity. As the inlet velocity increases to 10 m/s, the external wall temperature and temperature uniformity reach the optimum. Besides, under the conditions of different equivalence ratios, both external wall temperature and heat flux increases first and then decreases, meanwhile the temperature uniformity of MCEPF is significantly improved compared with that of MCIPF, they all exhibit the highest external wall temperature with an equivalence ratio of 1.1, and the thermal performance is greatly enhanced. By comparing the heat transfer performance of combustors with different materials based on MCEPF, it is interesting to find that the application of high thermal conductivity materials can not only increase the external wall temperature, but also improve the temperature uniformity. Therefore, materials with high thermal conductivity such as Aluminum, Red Copper and Silicon Carbide should be selected for application in micro combustors and their components. The current work provides a new design method for the enhanced heat transfer of the micro combustor.     

材料和喷口直径对多孔介质微燃烧的影响

为了进一步优化微燃烧室的设计,以最大化提高微燃烧室的能量转换效率及微热光电系统的整体工作效率,在前期工作的基础上设计了不同多孔介质材料及喷嘴/燃烧室内径比的多孔介质微燃烧室.通过实验验证,针对多孔介质微燃烧室内的氢氧预混燃烧进行了数值模拟计算,研究结果表明,多孔介质材料,喷嘴/燃烧室内径比对微燃烧室内的微尺度燃烧有重要影响,微燃烧室在多孔介质材料为SiC, 喷嘴/燃烧室内径比为0.27时燃烧效率最高,有利于提高微热光电系统的整体效率.     

微热光电系统中的微燃烧研究

描述了一种新颖的MEMS动力源概念，即微热光电(TPV)系统。该系统将使用氢气作为燃料，每立方厘米体积能够发出1～10W的电力。微燃烧室是该系统中最重要的元件之一，为了获得较高的电能输出，燃烧室壁面的温度分布要求高而且均匀。由于微燃烧室面容比大，热损失显增加；着火困难并使火焰窒熄。为了测试微燃烧室内燃烧的可行性和确定影响燃烧的有关因素，进行了实验和数值模拟。结果表明燃烧室壁面能够得到要求的高温，且温度分布均匀。     

多孔介质回热微燃烧器的扩散燃烧

设计了多孔介质回热微燃烧器.进行了微燃烧器的扩散燃烧特性实验研究,得到了其燃烧效率、出口尾气温度、壁面温度和热损失率随燃烧热功率和过量空气系数的变化规律.实验发现,在较宽的操作范围内,微燃烧器具有较高的燃烧效率和出口尾气温度,而且随着燃烧功率和过量空气系数的增大,微燃烧器的壁面温度和热损失率反而减小.分析表明,采用回热夹层和多孔介质相向的进气方式,使得反应气体的流动方向与散热方向相反,有效回收了热量损失,提高了微燃烧器的热效率和出口尾气温度.所设计的多孔介质回热微燃烧器对开发微燃烧透平发电系统具有重要应用价值.     

Numerical study on methane/air combustion characteristics in a heat-recirculating micro combustor embedded with porous media

Micro-combustor is a portable power device that can provide energy efficiently, heat recirculating is considered to be an important factor affecting the combustion process. For enhancing the heat recirculating and improving the combustion stability, we proposed a heat-recirculating micro-combustor embedded with porous media, and the numerical simulation was carried out by CFD software. In this paper, the effect of porous media materials, thickness and inlet conditions (equivalence ratio, inlet velocity) on the temperature distribution and exhaust species in the micro combustor are investigated. The results showed that compared with the micro combustor without embedded porous media (MCNPM), micro-combustor embedded with porous media (MCEPM) can improve the temperature uniformity distribution in the radial direction and strengthen the preheating capacity. However, it is found that the embedding thickness of porous media should be reasonably arranged. Setting the thickness of porous media to 15 mm, the combustor can obtain excellent comprehensive capacity of steady combustion and heat recirculating. Compared the thermal performance of Al₂O₃, SiC, and ZrO₂ porous media materials, indicating that SiC due to its strong thermal conductivity, its combustion stabilization and heat recirculating capacity are obviously better than that of Al₂O₃ and ZrO₂. With the porous media embedded in the micro combustor, the combustion has a tempering limit of more than 10 m/s, and the flame is blown out of the porous media area over 100 m/s. The reasonable equivalence ratio of CH₄/air combustion should be controlled within the range of 0.1–0.5, and “super-enthalpy combustion” can be realized.     

Investigation on hydrogen-fueled combustion characteristics and thermal performance in a micro heat-recirculation combustor inserted with block

Numerical investigation on the premixed H₂/air combustion in a micro heat-recirculation combustor inserted with/without block is conducted. Effects of block setting, heat-recirculation, and flow rate on combustion characteristics and thermal performance are depicted and analyzed. The results demonstrate that the block enhances the flame stability and preheating effect, which also reduces the heat loss via exhaust gas, while it shortens reactants residence time. The combustor setting with a transverse block gains a better thermal performance than that inserted with a longitudinal block. With the increase of transverse block height, the high-temperature zone is broadened and radiation is improved. However, the block with a height of 10 mm separates the fluid field and weakens the effects of heat recirculation, leading to a lower outer wall temperature. Furthermore, the appropriate block insertion method and height contribute to the significant improvement of heat transfer, radiant efficiency and further optimization of micro power generator.     

Comparative investigation of combustion and thermal characteristics of a conventional micro combustor and micro combustor with internal straight/spiral fins for thermophotovoltaic system

The energy output and energy conversion efficiency of MTPV system are relatively low due to the energy loss. In order to improve the energy output of micro-thermophotovoltaic (MTPV) system, the internal straight and spiral fins are introduced into the micro combustor. The impact of hydrogen mass flow rate, equivalence ratio, and materials on the thermal performance are investigated. The increase of hydrogen mass flow rate brings higher average outer wall temperature, but the temperature difference also increases and the temperature uniformity becomes worse. The equivalence ratio of 1 is suggested to obtain higher average outer wall temperature and better temperature uniformity. The materials with higher thermal conductivity can obtain better thermal performance. Meanwhile, the higher thermal conductivity can also reduce the impact of introduction of internal fins.     

The influences of thermophysical properties of porous media on superadiabatic combustion with reciprocating flow

The influences of thermophysical properties of porous media on superadiabatic combustion with reciprocating flow is numerically studied in order to improve the understanding of the complex heat transfer and optimum design of the combustor. The heat transfer performance of a porous media combustor strongly depends on the thermophysical properties of the porous material. In order to explore how the material properties influence reciprocating superadiabatic combustion of premixed gases in porous media (short for RSCP), a two‐dimensional mathematical model of a simplified RSCP combustor is developed based on the hypothesis of local thermal non‐equilibrium between the solid and the gas phases by solving separate energy equations for these two phases. The porous media is assumed to emit, absorb, and isotropically scatter radiation. The finite‐volume method is used for computing radiation heat transfer processes. The flow and temperature fields are calculated by solving the mass, moment, gas and solid energy, and species conservation equations with a finite difference/control volume approach. Since the mass fraction conservation equations are stiff, an operator splitting method is used to solve them. The results show that the volumetric convective heat transfer coefficient and extinction coefficient of the porous media obviously affect the temperature distributions of the combustion chamber and burning speed of the gases, but thermal conductivity does not have an obvious effect. It indicates that convective heat transfer and heat radiation are the dominating ways of heat transfer, while heat conduction is a little less important. The specific heat of the porous media also has a remarkable impact on temperature distribution of gases and heat release rate. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 35(5): 336–350, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.20120     

Effects of injection strategies on thermal performance of a novel micro planar combustor fueled by hydrogen

As a high and uniform wall temperature is desired for thermophotovoltaic applications, a novel micro planar combustor with multi inlets and outlets is designed in this work. Effects of injection strategies on thermal performance of the novel micro planar combustor fueled by hydrogen are analyzed and discussed. It is found that there are two straight flames under Injection Strategy A (Coflow mode), while there are two curved flames under Injection Strategy B and C (Counterflow mode), which is negative to the flame stabilization. In addition, the flame interactions under Injection Strategy B and C are much stronger than that under Injection Strategy A which benefits flame stabilization. Moreover, favorable and unfavorable effects of flame interactions under Injection Strategy B and C on flame stabilization are analyzed. Furthermore, the effects of inlet velocity, hydrogen/air equivalence ratio and solid wall materials on the thermal performance of the micro planar combustor are numerically examined under different injection strategies, the application conditions of the injection strategies are determined. This work will provide us significant suggestions for micro-thermophotovoltaic applications.     

Effects of major parameters on micro-combustion for thermophotovoltaic energy conversion

For a micro-thermophotovoltaic (TPV) energy conversion device, high surface to volume ratio in the micro-combustor provides a great potential to achieve high surface radiation power output per unit energy input. This work investigated experimentally the effects of three major parameters on micro-combustion, namely hydrogen to oxygen mixing ratio, nozzle to combustor diameter ratio, and wall thickness to combustor diameter ratio. The results show that the high average wall temperature can be achieved at slightly oxygen rich mixing ratios. Nozzle to combustor diameter ratio affects both the magnitude and uniformity of wall temperature distribution. The newly designed thin wall combustor which yields a reduction of axial heat conduction loss is able to increase wall temperature more than 150 K. Optimized design of these parameters will have significant impact on the enhancement of radiation heat output in micro-TPV energy conversion.     

Microscale combustion research for microthermophotovoltaic systems

A novel power MEMS concept, a micro thermophotovoltaic (TPV) system, is described in this work, which would use hydrogen as fuel and would be capable of delivering 1–10 W electrical power in a package less than 1 cubic centimeter in volume. A micro combustor is one of the most important components of a micro TPV system. A high and uniform temperature distribution along the wall of a micro combustor is required to get a high electrical power output. However, sustaining combustion in a MEMS‐sized combustor will be largely affected by the increased heat losses due to the high surface‐to‐volume ratio, which tends to suppress ignition and quench the reaction. In order to test the feasibility of combustion in micro devices and determine relevant factors affecting micro combustion, numerical and experimental work was carried out. Results indicated that a high and uniform temperature could be achieved along the wall of a flame tube. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 34(6): 369–379, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.20078     

基于多孔介质燃烧的端部辐射器的实验研究

设计了基于多孔介质燃烧技术的端部辐射器,研究不同预混气体流速(功率)下当量比对燃烧器燃烧稳定性、多孔介质内部温度、辐射器表面温度及其均匀性、污染物排放、辐射效率等特性的影响.结果表明,燃烧器辐射表面的温度均匀性较好.最大相对温差小于3%:多孔介质燃烧器可实现最低当量比0.33的稳定可持续燃烧;小功率燃烧时.多孔介质内部温度及端部辐射表面温度都随当量比增大而增加,且流量越大增加程度越大,可据此提出实现更高辐射表面温度的方案.实验工况范围内.最大辐射效率达23%;NO<,x>排放体积分数低于25×10<'6>,在当量比大于0.45时,CO排放体积分数均低于10×10<'6>.     

Combustion characteristics and radiation performance of premixed hydrogen/air combustion in a mesoscale divergent porous media combustor

To improve flammability and radiation efficiency, a divergent porous media combustor is proposed and numerically studied. The local thermal non-equilibrium model is used to consider the temperature difference between gas and solid matrix. Effects of equivalence ratio, the wall thermal conductivity, solid matrix thermal conductivity, and divergent ratio on combustion characteristics, radiation efficiency, and flammability limits are studied. The results show that the divergent channel extends the blowout limit by 186% and obtains a maximum radiation efficiency of 29.3%, increased by 70% compared with the straight channel. A smaller wall thermal conductivity is recommended considering the flammability range and radiation efficiency. A careful choice of solid matrix thermal conductivity and the divergent ratio is suggested to balance their opposing effects on the radiation efficiency and the flammability.     

Effects of rectangular rib on exergy efficiency of a hydrogen-fueled micro combustor

In order to further optimize the working performance of micro-cylindrical combustor, the combustion chamber of the micro-cylindrical combustor is inserted in a rectangular rib. Extensive numerical investigations are conducted to compare the exergy efficiency of non-ribbed and rectangular-ribbed micro combustors under various hydrogen mass flow rates and hydrogen/air equivalence ratios. Moreover, the effects of dimensionless rib positions and heights on the exergy efficiency of micro-cylindrical combustor are also widely investigated. Results suggest that the exergy efficiency of the rectangular-ribbed micro combustor is significantly higher than that of the non-ribbed micro combustor under different inlet conditions. Moreover, the exergy efficiency of the rectangular-ribbed micro combustor is significantly affected by the dimensionless positions l. The optimum dimensionless l is increased with the increase of hydrogen mass flow rate. This work offers us significant reference for optimizing the micro combustor in energy utilization.     

A novel technique to optimize combustor geometry for micro thermophotovoltaic system by combining numerical simulation and machine learning

Optimizing the combustor geometry of micro thermophotovoltaic system can improve combustion conditions of the fuel and performance of the system. To accelerate the optimization process, a novel technique is proposed in this work by combining numerical simulation and machine learning. The influences of combustor geometric parameters on flame shape, wall temperature and combustor performance are investigated via numerical simulations which have been validated by experiment. Results show the length and diameter of inlet passage are important factors in affecting the flame shape. Also, all geometric parameters have great impacts on the performance of combustor. The data from simulations are then used to train the artificial neural network and the output of the network is compared with the simulations to determine whether the optimization is successful. Finally, the radiation power of combustor is optimized to 34.51 W from its initial value of 24.8 W using only 197 data samples.