Flame speed predictions in planar micro/mesoscale combustors with conjugate heat transfer

An analytical model for flame stabilization in meso-scale channels is developed by solving the two-dimensional partial differential equations associated with heat transport in the gas and structure and species transport in the gas. It improves on previous models by eliminating the need to assume values for the Nusselt numbers in the pre and post-flame regions. The effects of heat loss to the environment, wall thermal conductivity, and wall geometry on the burning velocity and extinction are explored. Extinction limits and fast and slow burning modes are identified but their dependence on structure thermal conductivity and heat losses differ from previous quasi one-dimensional analyses. Heat recirculation from the post-flame to the pre-flame is shown to be the primary mechanism for flame stabilization and burning rate enhancement in micro-channels. Combustor design parameters like the wall thickness ratio, thermal conductivity ratio, and heat loss to the environment each influence the flame speed through their influence on the total heat recirculation. These findings are used to propose a simple methodology for preliminary micro-combustor design.     

The features of ignition and combustion of composite propane-hydrogen fuel: Modeling study

The extensive numerical analysis of the features of self ignition and formation of NO and CO during combustion of blended fuel, consisting of propane and hydrogen, with air is considered on the basis of extended detailed kinetic model involving both high and low temperature submechanisms of propane oxidation. It has been shown that for the blended C₃H₈–H₂ fuel there exists the temperature region, where the ignition of the C₃H₈–H₂–air mixture occurs faster compared to pure propane. However, this region is not broad enough and has low and high temperature boundaries (T_b and T_h, respectively). At the initial temperature of fuel–air mixture T₀ < T_b, the induction time of blended C₃H₈–H₂ fuel is greater than that of pure propane and, at T₀ > T_h, the admixture of a small amount of propane (1 ∼ 5% per volume) to hydrogen accelerates the ignition. The values of T_b and T_h depend on the composition of blended fuel and initial pressure. It has been revealed that the addition of hydrogen to propane increases the flame speed and extends the flammability thresholds both in fuel-lean and in fuel-rich regions, but doesn't result in the substantial change of the concentrations of main pollutants NO and CO in the combustion exhaust. However, the addition of hydrogen to fuel-lean propane–air mixture allows one to provide the stable combustion of leaner fuel–air mixture and, thus, to reduce notably the emission of NO and CO compared to that for the combustion of pure propane–air mixture.     

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.     

Study of heat transfer between an over-bed oil burner flame and a fluidized bed during start-up: Determination of the flame to bed convection coefficient

A study of the heat transfer processes between an over-bed burner flame and a fluidized bed during start-up as been conducted. Owing to the difficulty of estimating the flame to bed convection coefficient in an industrial boiler, convection coefficients were determined using a laboratory bench scale unit. Such convection heat transfer coefficients are obtained for 3 kg, 4 kg and 5.5 kg initial bed inventories by combining measured temperatures and flow rates with a mathematical model representing the complex energy exchange in the system. Results show that the height of the fluidized bed and its distance to the flame are an important factor in the overall heat transfer process, both by convection and radiation. For 5.5 kg, 4 kg and 3 kg initial bed inventories, the convection coefficients obtained, at the end of start-up, are 180 ± 30 W/m² K, 150 ± 20 W/m² K and 95 ± 10 W/m² K respectively. The determined convection coefficients can be utilized in the future as guides in the design of start-up systems for BFB boilers. The energy analysis performed also identified the major sources of heat losses in the bubbling fluidized bed.     

The thermal problem of friction during braking for a three-element tribosystem with a composite pad

The analytical solution to a thermal problem of friction during braking with constant retardation for a three-element system (a foundation/strip/semi-space) is obtained. The solution allows to find the evolution and distribution of transient temperature in the caliper/pad/disk tribosystem. Unlike known solutions for three-element tribosystem, this one is obtained on the assumption that material of the pad (strip) is the periodic composite. The every unit cell of the composite contains four sub-cells with rectangular cross-section and with different thermo-physical properties. It is assumed, that intensity of the heat generation on the contact surface is equal to power of friction and through this surface the heat transfer takes place. The influence of the geometrical dimensions and thermo-physical properties of composite sub-cells on the maximum temperature in the system has been investigated.     

Numerical heat transfer studies of the fatty acids for different heat exchanger materials on the performance of a latent heat storage system

Theoretical investigations of fatty acids as a phase change material (PCM) for energy storage system have been conducted in this study. The selected fatty acids were capric acid, lauric acid, myristic acid, palmitic acid and stearic acid. For the two-dimensional simulation model based on the enthalpy approach, calculations have been made for the melt fraction with conduction only. Glass, stainless steel, tin, aluminium mixed, aluminium and copper were used as heat exchanger materials in the numerical calculations. Theoretical results show that capric acid was found good compatibility with latent heat storage system. The large value of thermal conductivity of heat exchanger materials did not make significant contribution on the melt fraction.     

Numerical Modeling of the Solidification Phase Change in a Pipe and Evaluation of the Effect of Boundary Conditions

A numerical solution to a two-dimensional model of flow and transient heat transfer involving solidi- fication in a pipe has been established. Where the temperature of pipe wall is below the freezing point of fluid, phase change of flowing fluid and the influence of different boundary condition, such as pipe wall temperature, initial temperature and inlet velocity has been taken into account. Also it has been investigated to elicit proper non-dimensional numbers to show the solidification proceeding results. Additionally comparing the two acceptable inlet conditions, show distinctions between velocity inlet and pressure inlet boundary condition in such problems, which affect the whole freezing process.     

Combustion and flame spread on fuel-soaked porous solids

Fires caused by accidental spillage of flammable liquids have been a major safety concern in industries and urban areas. There has been a recent surge of interest in the research concerning the combustion and flame spread over an inert porous media soaked with flammable liquid. This interest has been driven by the need to better understand fire and its behaviour under these conditions and improve the relevant fire safety and prevention technologies. A review of key studies in this subject area has been conducted and summarised, focussing mainly on the theory plus a notable experimental findings about combustion and the flame spread phenomena of fuel-soaked porous media. The review covers topics such as flame spread behaviour, physical flame propagation aspects, heat transfer, temperature distribution; and fuel consumption over inert porous media. The review concludes with some practical safety and environmental considerations for decontamination of land soaked with flammable liquid.     

Method to improve geometry for heat transfer enhancement in PCM composite heat sinks

Use of composite heat sinks (CHS), constructed using a vertical array of ‘fins’ (or elemental composite heat sink, ECHS), made of large latent heat capacity phase change materials (PCM) and highly conductive base material (BM) is a much sought cooling method for portable electronic devices, which are to be kept below a set point temperature (SPT). This paper presents a thermal design procedure for proper sizing of such CHS, for maximizing the energy storage and the time of operation until all of the latent heat storage is exhausted.For a given range of heat flux, q″, and height, A, of the CHS, using a scaling analysis of the governing two dimensional unsteady energy equations, a relation between the critical dimension for the ECHS and the amount of PCM used (?) is determined. For a ?, when the dimensions of the ECHS are less than this critical dimension, all of the PCM completely melts when the CHS reaches the SPT. The results are further validated using appropriate numerical method solutions. A proposed correlation for chosen material properties yields predictions of the critical dimensions within 10% average deviation. However, the thermal design procedure detailed in this paper is valid, in general, for similar finned-CHS configurations, composed of any high latent heat storage PCM and high conductive BM combination.     

Investigation of the temperature field induced in the process of friction of a composite pad and a homogeneous disc

The analytical model for the determination of transient temperature field and heat fluxes in friction elements of brakes (pad/disc) is presented. It is assumed that one friction element is composed of a multi-layer composite strip, and the second element is a homogeneous semi-space. The solution to a non-stationary thermal problem of friction is obtained for a tribosystem with heat generation on a surface of contact and convective heat exchange with an environment on outer surface of a strip. The influences of composite parameters, for example, reinforcement fraction in the cross-section of periodic cells and the ratio of the conductivities of matrix and fibers, on the maximal temperature are studied.     

Effect of electrohydrodynamic (EHD) on condensation of R-134a in presence of non-condensable gas

Effects of applying EHD and non-condensable (NC) gas contents have been experimentally studied on inter-tubular condensation of refrigerant R-134a flow. Applying of electrical field enhances condensing heat transfer coefficient (CHTC), but presence of NC gas in condensing vapour reduces this coefficient. In competition of these two effective parameters on condensation, it can be observed that at higher concentration of NC gas, the effect of electrical field on enhancement of CHTC is greatly reduced. But at lower concentration of NC gas, the effect of electrical field is more considerable, due to thickness of heat transfer boundary layer.     

Study on the heat transfer and sorption characteristics of a consolidated composite sorbent for solar-powered thermochemical cooling systems

In this paper, a new consolidated composite sorbent made from barium chloride and expanded graphite is presented for solar-powered thermochemical sorption cooling systems. A larger sorption capacity and volume cooling density can be obtained with chemisorption systems when compared with those based on physicosorption. The heat transfer and sorption characteristics of the composite sorbent were investigated. Experimental results showed that the chemical composite sorbent can effectively utilize solar energy or low-grade waste heat sources with temperature ranging from 75 to 90 °C, and it could incorporate 0.61 kg of ammonia per kg of the reactive salt. The temperature evolution in the reactor was strongly influenced by the physicochemical reaction, whereas the transient heat transfer properties in the reactive composite material were different during the decomposition and the synthesis phases owing to the variation of the ammonia content and solid configuration inside the metallic salt complex. The rate of conversion in the reactor was very sensitive to the working temperatures and pressures, and the COP (coefficient of performance) obtained with the consolidated composite sorbent varied between 0.50 and 0.53 when the evaporation temperature ranged from 0 to 15 °C at a generation temperature of 80 °C.     

Experiment on heat storage characteristic of microencapsulated phase change material slurry

Heat storage experiment by natural convection in rectangular enclosures heated from bottom has been conducted with fluid slurry composed of microencapsulated phase change material (PCM). The microencapsulated PCM is prepared by in-situ polymerization method, where the core materials are composed of several kinds of n-paraffin waxes (mainly nonadecane) and the membrane is a type of melamine resin. Its slurry mixed with water is used in this study, and shows a peak value in the specific heat capacity with latent heat at the temperature of about T=31 °C. The influences of the phase change material on heat storage and the heat transfer process, as well as effects of PCM mass concentration C_m on the microcapsule slurry, temperature of heat storage T_H and a horizontal enclosure height H are also investigated. Transient heat transfer coefficient α, heat storage capacity Q and completion time of heat storage t_c are discussed.     

Effects of hydrogen addition on the characteristics of a biogas diffusion flame

This work describes an experimental study of the effect of hydrogen addition on the stability and impingement heat transfer behaviors of a biogas diffusion flame. The amount of hydrogen added was varied from 5% to 10% of the biogas by volume. The results show that upon hydrogen addition in the biogas flame, there is a corresponding change in the appearance, stability and heat transfer characteristics of the flame.     

Modeling of heat transfer and differential diffusion in transported PDF methods

In order to model the conditional diffusive heat and mass fluxes in the joint probability density function (PDF) transport equation of the thermochemical variables, the diffusive fluxes are decomposed into their Favre mean and fluctuation. While the mean flux appears to be closed, the contributions of fluctuating fluxes are modeled with the interaction by exchange with the mean (IEM) model. Usually, the contribution of the Favre averaged diffusive fluxes is neglected at high Reynolds numbers. Here, however, this term is included to account for molecular mixing in regions, where turbulent mixing is negligible. This model approach is applied in steady state Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS)/transported PDF calculations to simulate the heat transfer of wall bounded flows as well as the stabilization of a hydrogen–air flame at the burner tip. For both flow problems it is demonstrated that molecular transport is recovered in regions where turbulent mixing vanishes. In wall bounded flows this is the case in the viscous sublayer. Heat transfer studies show, that “mixing models” based on the high Reynolds number assumption fail to compute correctly the temperature field and the heat flux close to the wall. A similar situation occurs at the flame root of the investigated turbulent hydrogen-air jet flame, where turbulent mixing is still too weak to achieve a fast mixing of reactants. In this area differential diffusion effects are observed in the experiment, i.e. superequilibrium temperatures and nonlinear relations between the elemental mixture fractions of hydrogen and oxygen. It will be shown, that the presented model can successfully reproduce these effects, which underlines the necessity to include Favre averaged molecular diffusive fluxes in transported PDF methods.     

Experimental studies on the behaviours of hydride heat storage system

Experimental studies on the heat transfer characteristics of the heat storage vessel are conducted. Mg₂Ni is used as the heat storage medium. The structure of the heat storage vessel is a single tube in which a number of thermocouples are installed for temperature measurement. The temperature gradient along the axial direction of the tube was not found at the steady state for both heat generation and absorption period. Temperature gradient, however, exists along the radial direction. The overall heat transfer coefficient obtained is about 10 Kcal/m²h deg which implies that heat transfer through the powder bed is a controlling step. The lumped parameter model to describe the performance of the heat storage vessel was derived and it could explain the heat transfer characteristics of the vessel qualitatively.     

Large eddy simulation of reacting flow in a hydrogen jet into supersonic cross-flow combustor with an inlet compression ramp

Large eddy simulation (LES) has been performed to investigate transverse hydrogen jet mixing and combustion process in a scramjet combustor model with a compression ramp at inlet to generate shock train. Partially Stirred Reactor (PaSR) sub-grid combustion model with a skeleton of 19 reactions and 9 species hydrogen/air reaction mechanism was used. The numerical solver is implemented in an Open Source Field Operation and Manipulation (OpenFOAM) and validated against experimental data in terms of mean wall pressure. Effects of a shock train induced by the inlet compression ramp on the flame stabilization process are then studied. It can be observed that the interaction of the oblique shock and the jet mixing layer enhance the combustion and stabilize the flame. Symmetrical recirculation zone, which contributes to the flame anchoring of the supersonic transverse jet combustion, is observed in the near wall region of 10 < x/D < 20. The hydrogen fuel is transported from the center of jet plume to the near wall region on both sides of the central plane (z/D = 0) and thus intense combustion near the wall is observed due to the enhanced mixing and shock compression heating. Besides, the jet penetration in the reacting field is different from that in non-reacting case with the influence of the interaction between the reflected oblique shock and the jet shear layer on the windward side.     

Modeling the free convection heat transfer in a partitioned cavity using ANFIS

In this paper, an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) is used to predict the free convection in a partitioned cavity consisting of an adiabatic partition. The main focus of the present paper is to consider the effects of partition angle and Rayleigh number variation on average heat transfer in the partitioned cavity. The training data for optimizing the ANFIS structure is obtained experimentally. For the best ANFIS structure obtained in this study, the mean relative errors of the train and test data were found to be 0.055% and 1.735% respectively, which shows that ANFIS can predict the experimental results precisely.