Investigation over the recirculation influence on the combustion of micro organic dust particles

Abstract

This paper investigates the role of recirculation and non-unity Lewis number on the combustion of organic dust particles. Since recirculation effect is more noticeable in micro-combustors, it is necessary to propose a modeling approach of this phenomenon to better simulate the performance of micro-combustors. In this research, in order to model the combustion of organic dust particles, it is assumed that the dust particles vaporize first to yield a known chemical structure which is oxidized in the gas phase, and the chemical structure of this gaseous fuel is assumed methane. To study the flame structure and solve the governing equations, it is considered that the flame structure consists of three zones titled the preheat-vaporization zone, the narrow reaction zone and finally the post flame zone. The recirculation phenomenon is evaluated by entering the exhausted heat from the post flame zone into the preheat zone. The solution is based on the following approach. First, the governing equations in each zone are nondimensionalized. Then the needed boundary and matching conditions are applied in each zone. After that, these equations and the required boundary and matching conditions are simultaneously solved with the analytical model. Consequently, the remarkable effects of recirculation and non-unity Lewis number on the combustion characteristics of the organic dust particles such as burning velocity and temperature profiles for different particle radii are obtained. The results show reasonable agreement with published experimental data.