Effect of acoustic perturbation on particle dispersion in a swirl-stabilized pulverized fuel burner: Cold-flow conditions

Abstract

Inter-particle distance and particle dispersion during gasification of biomass have been found to significantly affect soot emission. Consequently, enhanced particle dispersion decreases energy losses and the risk for blockages of downstream equipment, increasing the efficiency and reliability of entrained flow reactors (EFRs). In this work, we investigated the interactions between imposed acoustic oscillations and particle dispersion under non-reacting conditions in a co-axial burner for a lab-scale EFR. A flow of air, laden with pulverized stem wood particles (Norwegian Spruce) of three different sizes (63–112 μm, 200–250 μm, and 500–600 μm), was forced axially through the burner center tube at Reynolds numbers ranged from 800 to 1700, and loading ratio of 0.7–4.2. The influences on particle dispersion from variations of the Strouhal number (0.12–0.6), the pressure amplitude at synthetic jet cavity (0.5–4.0 kPap-p), the swirl number (0–2.3), and the center jet velocity (1.9–3.9 m s−1) were investigated. Post-processed shadowgraph images revealed the influence of acoustic perturbations, which generate large structures with high particle concentration for both swirling and non-swirling conditions. Time-averaged contour maps showed a significantly higher particle dispersion, quantified as dispersion angle, for higher values of forcing amplitude and swirl numbers, with a stronger influence from the forcing amplitude, especially at lower Stokes number.