Experimental and Numerical Simulation of New Aluminum and Steam Vortex Combustor

Abstract

In this paper, we report an experimental research on a vortex combustor for aluminum and steam combustion. High-temperature and high-pressure steam is obtained by combining alcohol with the combustion of oxygen and water, powder from a conventional piston drive, and nitrogen as fluidizing gas. The experimental results show that the vortex combustor can maintain aluminum-steam combustion. However, combustion product deposition is a challenge to the experiment. A new vortex combustor configuration, in which aluminum particles enter the combustor from the end face, is hence proposed, and a numerical simulation is conducted. Results suggest that three vortexing zones exist in the vortex combustor, namely, outer, intermediate, and internal vortex zones. Besides, influencing factors such as the inlet position of aluminum particles and particle size are also studied. And the results show that the combustion efficiency was prone to decrease as the aluminum particle inlet position and particle diameter increased.