Flame propagation modes for iron particle clusters in air, Part II: Transition from continuous to discrete propagation mode under strong convection effects

Abstract

Combustion of iron powder is a promising option for clean and sustainable generation of heat and power. However, a fundamental understanding of the flame propagation mode is missing, especially under strong convection effects. In part I of this work, we analyzed the modes of flame propagation under weak convection effects and estimated the discreteness parameter as a ratio of the particle burn time to the conduction timescale. We found that both, the selection of temperature at which thermal properties are evaluated, and the selected length scale, are critical for a reliable prediction of the transitional particle spacing indicating the transition from the continuous to the discrete mode. In this paper, we extend our previous work by studying the effect of convection on inter-particle heat and mass transfer using boundary layer resolved numerical simulations. It is shown that for increasing convection, iron flames transition from the continuous to the discrete mode at higher particle distances. Taking into account both diffusion and convection-dominated heat transfer, an extension for the scaling of transitional particle spacing of part I is proposed. Furthermore, since iron flames could experience varying ranges of particle distances at different velocities in a practical flame, a regime diagram is constructed which is based on the Péclet number and the particle spacing with a boundary separating the two modes of flame propagation. The regime diagram offers orientation for simulations of large-scale flames using Euler–Lagrange methods where boundary layers around the particles are not resolved.