Numerical characterization of a premixed flame based annular microcombustor

Thermal inertia of the surrounding hardware or elaborate flow arrangement is used for external recirculation of heat in many microcombustors, increasing the weight and pressure losses. Recent research promotes hydrogen as a promising fuel for microcombustion due to its high heat of combustion. On this background, a hydrogen-fuelled microcombustor of simple construction was designed, which utilized the external thermal recirculation by a hollow nitrogen-filled tube inserted in the flame. The present paper reports stabilization and structure of a well stabilized stoichiometric H₂-air flame established in this microcombustor with the help of a detailed computational fluid dynamics model. Self-sustaining combustion could be achieved without any need for catalytic action. An asymmetric flame composed of two branches was stabilized on the walls at a location where the wall heat losses were balanced by the wall heat conduction. The flame thickness exceeded its characteristic one-dimensional value and flame zone broadened from the base to the tip due to heat losses and differential diffusion of hydrogen. Finally, the performance data for different inlet mass flow rates and wall thermal conductivities revealed useful operating points of the microcombustor for applications including micro-propulsion, heating and portable electric power generation.     

Effects of wall thermal conductivity on entropy generation and exergy losses in a H2-air premixed flame microcombustor

Microcombustion is a promising method for fulfilling the energy requirements of small-scale systems currently powered by portable batteries. However, its applications rely upon mitigation of heat losses, which adversely affect flame stability and performance. Heat losses in turn depend upon wall properties, especially thermal conductivity. It is thus necessary to systematically investigate the relationship between wall thermal conductivity and microcombustor performance using the exergy analysis. In this work, entropy generation rates of different irreversible processes in an annular microcombustor were computed for stoichiometric hydrogen-air mixture using CFD simulations of reactive flow for wall thermal conductivities in the range 0.1-325 W/m K. Chemical reaction, heat conduction, and mass diffusion were the dominant contributors to entropy generation, in the decreasing order. Irreversibilities due to combustion decreased as thermal conductivities increased. Diffusion contributions were most sensitive to the changes in thermal conductivity but chemical reaction and heat conduction contributions changed marginally. Results showed that walls did not contribute significantly to entropy generation, but increased wall heat losses at higher thermal conductivities adversely affected the exergetic performance of microcombustor through availability losses and by influencing the flow gradients. Based on the results of this study, wall thermal conductivity in the range 0.1-1.75 W/m K was found suitable in order to obtain uniform wall temperature profiles and high exergetic efficiencies.     

Flame temperatures along a laminar premixed flame with a non-uniform stretch rate

We investigated experimentally the effects of a spatially non-uniform stretch rate on the flame temperature. A flame surface with a non-uniform stretch rate was formed by creating a wrinkled laminar premixed flame in a spatially periodic flow field of a lean propane/air mixture. The measured flame temperature was lower/higher than the adiabatic flame temperature at flame segments with positive/negative stretch rates. This was a result of the effects of flame stretch and preferential diffusion for Lewis number greater than unity. The flame temperature estimated using the conventional flame stretch theory, which is based on a uniform stretch rate along the flame surface, did not agree quantitatively with the measured temperature. Therefore, we revised the theory, taking into account heat transfer along the flame surface, and then produced estimates that agreed with the measured temperature. We found that the effect of flame stretch and preferential diffusion is changed along the flame surface which has spatially non-uniform stretch rate, causing a temperature gradient along the surface, which in turn transfers heat and changes the flame temperature. Thus, heat transfer along the flame surface is an important factor in estimating flame temperature. In addition, a second temperature gradient appears downstream just behind the flame, because the temperature of the burned gas is also non-uniform. Therefore, conductive heat transfer is believed to occur between the flame and the burned gas. The effect of the downstream heat transfer is not as large as that of the heat transfer along the flame surface.     

Lean hydrogen-air premixed flame with heat loss

In this paper results of large-scale experiments and numerical simulations of premixed lean hydrogen-air spherical flame propagation with and without high heat losses are presented. Experiments were carried out in a cylindrical volume of 4.5 m³ covered with thin polyethylene film. The heat loss surface is a 50 mm layer of steel wool. Analysis of heat loss effect on combustion products expansion and flame surface density is done. The combination of these parameters governs the manner in which the flame accelerates. It is shown that the loss of heat released at the combustion can significantly reduce the speed of flame propagation and suppress the acceleration of the flame front. Comparison of experimental results and numerical simulations are presented. The subject and results of the study are of critical importance for the industrial explosion safety and may be applied in the areas of internal combustion engines and detonation suppression devices.     

Geometric influence of perforated plate on premixed hydrogen-air flame propagation

Geometrical influence of the perforated plate on flame propagation in hydrogen-air mixtures with various equivalence ratios and initial pressures was experimentally investigated in a channel with the length of 1 m and the cross-section of 7 cm × 7 cm. The perforated plate has the same cross section and three thicknesses of 40 mm, 80 mm and 120 mm. High-speed schlieren photography was employed to capture the flame shape evolution and derive the flame tip velocity. High-speed piezoelectric pressure transducers were flush-mounted upstream and downstream of the perforated plate to measure the pressure transient. It was found that, with the perforated plate in the path of flame, flame undergoes either “go”, or “quench” propagation mode. The limit between these two was dependent on the geometrical size of the perforated plate and the initial conditions of mixtures. Both velocity and pressure were effectively attenuated with the increase in the perforated plate length. Moreover, for “go” propagation mode, the flame process through the perforated plate was characterized by three obvious stages: laminar flame stage, jet flame stage and turbulent flame stage. Whereas, only laminar flame stage was observed in the “quench” mode.     

Dynamics of premixed hydrogen-air flame propagation in the duct with pellets bed

Hydrogen, as the promising clean alternative energy in the future, is in the spotlight now all over the world. However, its flammable and explosive hazards should be highly considered during its practical application. In this study, the experiments are performed to study premixed hydrogen-air flame propagation in the duct with pellets bed, especially for fuel-rich condition. High-speed schlieren photography is employed to capture flame front development during the experiments. As well as the pressure transducer, is used to track the pressure buildup in the flame propagation process. Different diameters of pellets and different concentrations of gas mixture are considered in this experimental study. The typical evolutions about the tulip flame are similar in all cases, although the tulip flame formation time caused by the laminar flame speed are different. The flame propagation velocity is pretty enhanced in fuel-lean mixture under the effect of large diameter pellets bed, but it is significantly suppressed in fuel-rich conditions. While for the small diameter pellets (d = 3 mm), the suppression effect on flame propagation and pressure is obtained over a wider range of equivalence ratios, especially a better suppression effect is generated near the stoichiometric condition.     

Flame dynamics of a meso-scale heat recirculating combustor

The dynamics of premixed propane–air flame in a meso-scale ceramic combustor has been examined here. The flame characteristics in the combustor were examined by measuring the acoustic emissions and preheat temperatures together with high-speed cinematography. For the small-scale combustor, the volume to surface area ratio is small and hence the walls have significant effect on the global flame structure, flame location and flame dynamics. In addition to the flame–wall thermal coupling there is a coupling between flame and acoustics in the case of confined flames. Flame–wall thermal interactions lead to low frequency flame fluctuations (∼100 Hz) depending upon the thermal response of the wall. However, the flame–acoustic interactions can result in a wide range of flame fluctuations ranging from few hundred Hz to few kHz. Wall temperature distribution is one of the factors that control the amount of reactant preheating which in turn effects the location of flame stabilization. Acoustic emission signals and high-speed flame imaging confirmed that for the present case flame–acoustic interactions have more significant effect on flame dynamics. Based on the acoustic emissions, five different flame regimes have been identified; whistling/harmonic mode, rich instability mode, lean instability mode, silent mode and pulsating flame mode.     

Numerical simulations of premixed flame cellular instability for a simple chain-branching model

Two-dimensional direct numerical simulations are performed to investigate the non-linear dynamics of low Lewis number premixed flames, in the context of a two-step chain-branching chemistry model. This consists of a thermally-neutral, but temperature sensitive, chain-branching step which produces intermediates such as radicals and an exothermic, zero activation energy chain-completion step which converts the intermediates into products. Emphasis is on examining the role of intermediates in the flame structure on the cellular instability and in comparing and contrasting with previous one-step chemistry model solutions. When intermediates are present only in small concentrations in the underlying one-dimensional flame structure, the two-step cellular dynamics are qualitatively similar to those of the one-step model, including cell-splitting and re-merging, symmetry breaking bifurcations and formation of asymmetric cells, localized quenching of the flame front and a significant enhancement of the flame speed. However, a higher peak value of the intermediates concentration, corresponding to a more distributed heat release, is shown to have a significant stabilizing effect, e.g., in a domain of fixed transverse size, the fully developed cellular structure and flame speed remain closer to those of the one-dimensional flame.     

The anchoring mechanism of a bluff-body stabilized laminar premixed flame

The objective of this work is to investigate the mechanism of the laminar premixed flame anchoring near a heat-conducting bluff-body. We use unsteady, fully resolved, two-dimensional simulations with detailed chemical kinetics and species transport for methane–air combustion. No artificial flame anchoring boundary conditions were imposed. Simulations show a shear-layer stabilized flame just downstream of the bluff-body, with a recirculation zone formed by the products of combustion. A steel bluff-body resulted in a slightly larger recirculation zone than a ceramic bluff-body; the size of which grew as the equivalence ratio was decreased. A significant departure from the conventional two-zone flame-structure is shown in the anchoring region. In this region, the reaction zone is associated with a large negative energy convection (directed from products to reactants) resulting in a negative flame-displacement speed. It is shown that the premixed flame anchors at an immediate downstream location near the bluff-body where favorable ignition conditions are established; a region associated with (1) a sufficiently high temperature impacted by the conjugate heat exchange between the heat-conducting bluff-body and the hot reacting flow and (2) a locally maximum stoichiometry characterized by the preferential diffusion effects.     

Sub-critical stable hydrogen-air premixed laminar flames in micro gaps

Sub-critical burning of lean hydrogen-air mixtures in micro gaps between two quartz disks was investigated both experimentally and numerically. Stationary regimes for different compositions and gap sizes were found when sub-critical flames remained in a stable position relative to the disk surfaces. The burning velocity in the micro gaps was observed to reach values much larger than the laminar burning velocity. A reaction-diffusion numerical model was proposed to corroborate experimental results. Different factors, such as boundary conditions for velocity, irradiation of the disk surfaces contacting the gas, and an increase in the chemical reaction rate near disk surfaces were modeled numerically in order to explain the increase in burning velocities. The best correlation between the numerical results and experimental data was observed in the scenario proposing as increased chemical reaction rate near the disk surfaces. Numerical simulations also showed that for large flame front velocities and wider sub-critical gaps, the flame front becomes unstable. The reason for this instability is the asynchronization of the combustion near the disk surfaces and the subsequent turbulization of the flame.     

Experimental studies on dynamics of methane–air premixed flame in meso-scale diverging channels

The propagation characteristics of a laminar premixed flame front in meso-scale straight and diverging channels of 5°, 10° and 15° with inlet dimension of 25 mm × 2 mm are reported in this paper. The downstream part of the channels was heated with an external heat source, to maintain a positive wall temperature gradient along the direction of fluid flow. These investigations show that planar flames are observed near flash back limits. Negatively stretched flames were observed for moderate flow rates and rich mixtures and for high flow rates, flames were positively stretched. These flames were either symmetric or asymmetric in nature. Partially stable flames were observed at high velocities for rich mixtures, whereas for lean mixture partially stable flames were observed for all flow rates. All the divergent channels showed an improvement in high velocity limits compared with the straight channel for the same mixture. Planar flames observed in the experiments helped in determining the laminar burning velocities for these mixtures at different preheat temperatures. A co-relation of laminar burning velocity with mixture preheat temperature is also obtained for a stoichiometric methane–air mixture. This co-relation S_u/S_u,o = (T_u/T_u,o)^1.558 is in good agreement with the earlier co-relations.     

Combustion synthesis of SiO2 nanoparticles using flat premixed flame

Recently, numerous researches have actively progressed for producing nanoparticles such as SiO₂, TiO₂, and Al₂O₃ used in various commercial applications. In particular, SiO₂ nanoparticle is widely used for the fiber optics, pigment and dye, ceramic semiconductor industries. Synthesis of SiO₂ by combustion process using gas-phase silane as a precursor is very attractive because the flame aerosol method can be easily scaled up to mass production and economically feasible. Therefore it is necessary to investigate the fundamental research such as nuclei inception, coagulation, coalescence, and morphology during combustion synthesis for the nanoparticle formation. In this study, we performed experimental research to generate the SiO₂ nanoparticle using the methane - hydrogen flat premixed flame which can show the effect of hydrogen on the formation of SiO₂ nanoparticles especially. We found out the effect of the H₂ content in the fuel mixture on the characteristics of SiO₂ particle formation when the optimum condition of the flat surface flame is satisfied. Measurements of the particle morphology and size by TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy) showed that the hydrogen enhancement in fuel mixture was likely to prevent aggregation process of SiO₂ primary particles effectively.     

Large-scale flame structures in ultra-lean hydrogen-air mixtures

The paper discusses the peculiarities of flame propagation in the ultra-lean hydrogen-air mixture. Numerical analysis of the problem shows the possibility of the stable self-sustained flame ball existence in unconfined space on sufficiently large spatial scales. The structure of the flame ball is determined by the convection processes related to the hot products rising in the terrestrial gravity field. It is shown that the structure of the flame ball corresponds to the axisymmetric structures of the gaseous bubble in the liquid. In addition to the stable flame core, there are satellite burning kernels separated from the original flameball and developing inside the thermal wake behind the propagating flame ball. The effective area of burning expands with time due to flame ball and satellite kernels development. Both stable flame ball existence in the ultra-lean mixture and increase in the burning area indicate the possibility of transition to rapid deflagrative combustion as soon as the flame ball enters the region filled with hydrogen-air mixture of the richer composition. Such a scenario is intrinsic to the natural spatial distribution of hydrogen in the conditions of terrestrial gravity and therefore it is crucial to take it into account in elaborating risk assessments techniques and prevention measures.     

Heat transfer characteristics of an impinging inverse diffusion flame jet. Part II: Impinging flame structure and impingement heat transfer

This paper is the second part of the experimental study on exploring the feasibility of inverse diffusion flame (IDF) for impingement heating. The structures and heat transfer characteristics of an impinging IDF jet have been studied. Four types of impinging flame structure have been identified and reported. The distributions of the wall static pressure are measured and presented. The influences of the global equivalence ratio (), the Reynolds number of the air jet (Re_air), and the non-dimensional burner-to-plate distance (H/d_air), on the flame structure, and the local and averaged heat transfer characteristics, are reported and discussed. The highest heat transfer occurs when the tip of the flame inner reaction zone impinges on the plate. The heat transfer rate from the impinging IDF is found to be higher than that in the premixed flame jet due to the augmented turbulence level originated from the flame neck. This high heat transfer rate, together with its in-born advantage of no danger of flashback and low level of nitrogen oxides emission, demonstrates the blue, dual-structured, triple-layered IDF is a desirable alternative for impingement heating.     

Experimental investigation on flame pattern formations of DME-air mixtures in a radial microchannel

Flame pattern formations of premixed DME-air mixture in a heated radial channel with a gap distance of 2.5 mm were experimentally investigated. The DME-air mixture was introduced into the radial channel through a delivery tube which connected with the center of the top disk. With an image-intensified high-speed video camera, rich flame pattern formations were identified in this configuration. Regime diagram of all these flame patterns was drawn based on the experimental findings in the equivalence ratio range of 0.6-2.0 and inlet velocity range of 1.0-5.0 m/s. Compared with our previous study on premixed methane-air flames, there are several distinct characteristics for the present study. First, Pelton-wheel-like rotary flames and traveling flames with kink-like structures were observed for the first time. Second, in most cases, flames can be stabilized near the inlet port of the channel, exhibiting a conical or cup-like shape, while the conventional circular flame was only observed under limited conditions. Thirdly, an oscillating flame phenomenon occurred under certain conditions. During the oscillation process, a target appearance was seen at some instance. These pattern formation characteristics are considered to be associated with the low-temperature oxidation of DME.     

Spatially distributed flame transfer functions for predicting combustion dynamics in lean premixed gas turbine combustors

The present paper describes a methodology to improve the accuracy of prediction of the eigenfrequencies and growth rates of self-induced instabilities and demonstrates its application to a laboratory-scale, swirl-stabilized, lean-premixed, gas turbine combustor. The influence of the spatial heat release distribution is accounted for using local flame transfer function (FTF) measurements. The two-microphone technique and CH^∗ chemiluminescence intensity measurements are used to determine the input (inlet velocity perturbation) and the output functions (heat release oscillation), respectively, for the local flame transfer functions. The experimentally determined local flame transfer functions are superposed using the flame transfer function superposition principle, and the result is incorporated into an analytic thermoacoustic model, in order to predict the linear stability characteristics of a given system. Results show that when the flame length is not acoustically compact the model prediction calculated using the local flame transfer functions is better than the prediction made using the global flame transfer function. In the case of a flame in the compact flame regime, accurate predictions of eigenfrequencies and growth rates can be obtained using the global flame transfer function. It was also found that the general response characteristics of the local FTF (gain and phase) are qualitatively the same as those of the global FTF.     

Experimental study on induced accelerated combustion of premixed hydrogen-air in a confined environment

The study on induced accelerated combustion of premixed hydrogen-air in a confined environment is of great significance for the efficient utilization of hydrogen energy in internal combustion engines. The accelerated flame induced by the orifice plate is more stable and easy to control, which is beneficial to achieve controlled and rapid turbulent combustion. In this work, the accelerated combustion process induced by the orifice plate, and the influence of the orifice structure and initial conditions on the flame propagation and combustion characteristics were investigated by constant volume combustion bomb and schlieren method. The results show that the combustion process induced by the orifice plate consists of three stages: the initial stage of propagation, the accelerated stage of the orifice plate, and the end combustion stage. The reduction in aperture induces greater turbulence intensity and increases the perturbation of the orifice plate to the flame, resulting in a substantial increase in flame propagation speed through the orifice plate. As the initial pressure and the equivalence ratio increase, the velocity of turbulent flame induced by the orifice plate and the change rate of the velocity before and after the orifice plate increase. As the initial temperature increases, the turbulent flame propagation velocity does not change much, and the velocity change rate before and after the orifice plate decreases. The effect of the initial conditions on flame acceleration induced by the orifice plate is essentially the influence of flame propagation speed and instability. The greater the flame propagation speed and the stronger the flame instability, the stronger the induced turbulence and the greater the influence of the turbulent flow disturbance, and the greater the velocity of the turbulent flame induced by the orifice plate. There exists an optimum aperture for the shortest combustion duration at any initial conditions, but the optimal diameter is not sensitive to changes in initial conditions. The effect of orifice-induced combustion acceleration is remarkable, and the combustion durations induced by each orifice plate are shortened by more than 50%.     

Heat transfer from an impinging premixed butane/air slot flame jet

Experiments were performed to study the heat transfer characteristics of a premixed butane/air slot flame jet impinging normally on a horizontal rectangular plate. The effects of Reynolds number and the nozzle-to-plate distance on heat transfer were examined. The Reynolds number varied from 800 to 1700, while the nozzle-to-plate distance ranged from 2d_e to 12d_e. Comparisons were made between the heat transfer characteristics of slot jets and circular jets under the same experimental conditions. It was found that the slot flame jet produces more uniform heat flux profile and larger averaged heat fluxes than the circular flame jet.     

Propagation of premixed hydrogen-air flame initiated by a planar ignition in a closed tube

Numerical simulations were used to study the dynamics of premixed flames propagating after planar ignition in a closed tube filled with stoichiometric hydrogen-air mixture. The two-dimensional fully compressible reactive Navier–Stokes equations coupled to a calibrated chemical-diffusive model were solved using a high-order numerical method and adaptive mesh refinement. The results show that the flame evolves from an initially planar flame to a double-cusped tulip flame, subsequently to a multi-cusped tulip flame, and finally to a series of distorted tulip flames (DTFs). The DTF forms one after another until the end of combustion. The initial flame lips of the double-cusped tulip flame are produced due to the stretching effect of nonuniform flow caused by the wall friction. The multi-cusped tulip flame forms as secondary cusps are created on the leading flame tips near the sidewalls. The formation of DTFs here is thought to be closely connected to pressure waves generated in the flame propagation process. The first DTF is caused by the combined effects of the vortex motions and the Rayleigh–Taylor (RT) instability driven by pressure waves, while the subsequent DTFs form due to reverse flows and RT instability. Nevertheless, both the vortex motions and reverse flows are essentially induced by the interactions between pressure waves and flow fields. Furthermore, the numerical results were compared to that in the case with a semicircular ignition. It was found that although there are significant differences in the early flame acceleration and tulip formation stages between the two differently shaped ignitions, the dynamics of DTFs are substantially consistent.