Effects of structure parameters of tube outlet on the performance of a hydrogen-fueled micro planar combustor for thermophotovoltaic applications

Abstract

In order to obtain high energy output power and energy conversion efficiency for micro-thermophotovoltaic system, in this work, a hydrogen-fueled micro planar combustor with tube outlet is designed. Effects of structure parameters of tube outlet (tube distance, tube cross section and tube number) on the performance of micro planar combustor are numerically investigated for thermophotovoltaic applications. Results suggest that the energy output and energy conversion efficiency of MTPV system is slightly increased with the increment of tube distance, and the pressure loss is slightly reduced. Moreover, compare with the micro planar combustor with the circular tube, the micro planar combustor with square tube is more suitable for MTPV system. Furthermore, with the tube number increasing from two to three, the energy output and energy conversion efficiency of MTPV system is increased by about 8.49%–9.38%, and the pressure loss is significantly reduced by about 44.54%–46.78%.