Applied Thermal Engineering 112 (2017) 296–303

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Research Paper

Combustion characteristics of non-premixed methane micro-jet flame

in coflow air and thermal interaction between flame and micro tube
Xing Li ⇑, Jing Zhang, Haolin Yang, Liqiao Jiang, Xiaohan Wang, Daiqing Zhao ⇑
Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China
Key Laboratory of Renewable Energy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China

h i g h l i g h t s

The flammable region of methane micro-jet flame in coflow airs was measured.

OH and CH distributions of the methane micro-jet flames were obtained.

The heat exchanges through different surfaces of the solid micro tube were clarified.

The fuel stream in the tube is preheated by the flame through thermal interaction.

The preheating effect is significant at a moderate fuel flow velocity.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The combustion characteristics of non-premixed methane micro-jet flame in coflow air were investigated
Received 17 August 2016 experimentally and numerically. A detailed reaction mechanism was employed in the two-dimension
Revised 12 October 2016 numerical computation. The thermal interaction between the flame and solid tube was considered by
Accepted 12 October 2016
using fluid-solid coupled thermal boundaries in the numerical computation. Four typical flames, lifted
Available online 13 October 2016
flame, attached flame, hemisphere flame and umbrella flame, were observed in different fuel flow
velocity ranges in experiments. The flame heights, blow off and extinction limits in coflow airs at
Keywords:
different velocities were measured. The OH and CH distributions of non-premixed micro-jet flames were
Non-premixed methane micro-jet flame
Coflow air
obtained by experiments, and the computational results agree well with those from the experiments. The
Combustion characteristics computational temperature distributions show that there are thermal interactions between flames and
Thermal interaction solid tube. The heat exchanges through surfaces of the solid tube were analyzed in detail. The fresh fuel
gas in the solid tube is preheated by the thermal recirculation. Consequently, the combustion intensity of
the micro-jet flame is enhanced. The thermal interaction is essentially affected by the flame shape, and it
is significant for the hemisphere flame.
Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction combustor. The fundamental knowledge on combustion

The micro-gas turbine [1–3], micro swing engine [4–7] micro
Swiss-roll combustor [8,9], micro-thermophotovoltaic device
[10,11] were developed and investigated in the last decade with
the increasing demands of energy and power systems in micro
and mesoscale. However, it was found that it is difficult to sustain
stable flames in the micro combustors due to the increased heat
loss and shortened residence time of fuel/oxidizer mixture in the
⇑ Corresponding authors at: Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, No. 2, Nengyuan Rd., Wushan, Tianhe District, Guangzhou
510640, China.
E-mail addresses: lixing@ms.giec.ac.cn, inspirationlee@hotmail.com (X. Li),
zhaodq@ms.giec.ac.cn (D. Zhao).
characteristics of premixed and non-premixed flames under the
micro combustion regime are important for the development of
micro-combustion-based energy and power systems.
The combustion characteristics of premixed flames in micro
tube and channels were extensively studied, since the premixed
flames are widely used in the micro combustors [12–24]. And sev-
eral procedures have been developed to achieve stable premixed
flames under micro scale [25–34]. The heat loss to solid wall is
used to preheat the fresh fuel/air mixture in the micro Swiss-roll
combustor [8,9], and stable flames were achieved. The investiga-
tions of premixed flames in mesoscale channels show that the
blow off limits of premixed flames can be enhanced by using bluff
bodies [25] and wall cavities [26–30]. The combination of wall cav-
ities with catalytic segments was used to achieve stable premixed

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2016.10.082
1359-4311/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 X. Li et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 112 (2017) 296–303
flame in the micro channel [33,34]. The previous studies suggest
that the thermal interaction between the micro flame and the solid
walls has a significant effect on the stability of the micro flame.
The combustion characteristics of non-premixed micro flames
achieved by micro tubes have also attracted attentions. The non-
premixed propane and methane micro-jet flames in quiescent air
have been experimentally studied by Matta et al. [35] and Cheng
et al. [36], respectively. The flame height, blow off and quenching
flow rates were obtained. The structure and stabilization mecha-
nism of a micro-jet methane diffusion flame near extinction were
discussed by Chao et al. [37]. The distributions of temperature
and important species of microscale hydrogen diffusion flames
have been measured by Cheng et al. [38]. The extinction character-
istics of micro-jet flames in quiescent air at normal temperature
have been investigated numerically in [39] and theoretically in
[40]. The extinction characteristics of methane micro-jet flame in
hot air was examined experimentally by Fujiwara and Nakamura
[41]. It was found that the heat recirculation through the solid tube
enhances the reactivity of the flame. Moreover, the thermal inter-
action between micro hydrogen flames and micro solid tube was
observed in a recent numerical study which includes the heat
transfers between solid and gases [42]. The temperature of H2
stream is increased by heat recirculation before arriving the tube
exit. The heat recirculation through the inner surface of the micro
tube was discussed for the cases of using hydrogen, methane and
dimethyl ether as fuels [43].
It can be found that the studies on combustion characteristics of
non-premixed micro flames using different fuels have already been
conducted [35–45]. However, most previous investigations focused
on the flame in the quiescent air, and air flow should be adjustable
in practical applications. The effect of air flow velocity on the
combustion characteristics of non-premixed micro-jet flame
deserves more attention. Moreover, the detail of the heat
exchanges between flame and surfaces of solid tube needs further
investigation.
The combustion characteristic of methane-air non-premixed
micro-jet flame is studied in the present work experimentally
and numerically. The effect of coflow air velocity on combustion
characteristics was investigated and the thermal interaction
between the micro-jet flame and the solid tube was analyzed in
detail.
Quartz tube
Digital reflex
camera
Flame
CCD Camera
Ceramic
beads
Ceramic
honeycomb
Fig. 1. Schematic of the experimental system.
297
2. Experimental system and methods
Fig. 1 schematically shows the experimental system. A stainless
steel chamber was used as the main body of the experiment appa-
ratus. Air stream was fed into a rectangular quartz tube, which was
connected with the stainless steel chamber. The cross area of the
rectangular quartz tube was 10  10 cm2, and the wall thickness
was 4 mm. A ceramic honeycomb and ceramic beads were installed
in the camber to achieve uniform velocity for the air flow. The gas-
eous fuel was supplied by a stainless steel fuel tube, which was in
the center of the chamber. A stainless steel micro tube with an inner
diameter (d) of 280 lm, a thickness of 110 lm and a length of
50 mm was connected with the fuel tube to achieve non-
premixed micro-jet flame. The gas flow rates of air and fuel were
controlled by digital mass flow controllers (MKS, GE50A series).
The digital mass flow controllers were calibrated by wet gas meters
(SHINAGAWA, W-NK series) and soap bubble flow meters based on
the full scales of the flow controllers before the experiment. The
uncertainties of the flow rates of fuel and air were less than 1%. High
purity methane (99.99%) was used in the experiments. A single-lens
reflex digital camera (Nikon D-300) was employed for the flame
image recording. A CH filter (transparent wavelength: 431.4 nm,
half bandwidth: 6.4 nm) was used with the single-lens reflex digital
camera to capture the CH distributions of flames.
OH-PLIF measurement was conducted to visualize the distribu-
tion of the OH radical on the center plane of the flame. The laser
system consists of an Nd:YAG laser (Quanta-Ray Pro-230), wave-
length of 355 nm, 10 Hz with 10 ns pulse duration and a dye laser
(Sirah PSCAN-G-30) with a frequency doubler to excite the Q1(8)
line of the A2R X2P(1, 0) bands of OH at a excitation wavelength.
The laser goes through the energy monitor and sheet optics to pro-
duce a laser sheet. The OH fluorescence was detected by an ICCD
camera, located perpendicularly with the laser sheet through a
UV lens (Nikon Rayfact PF 10545MF-UV) with an intensified Relay
Optics (LaVision VC13-0189) and an OH bandpass filter (LaVision
VZ13-0390). The OH fluorescence images were focused onto the
CCD chip with the finest resolution of 2048  2048 pixels. The
CCD camera and Relay Optics were operated with f = 4.5, 200 ns
gate width, 120 ns delay, 2000 ls exposure time, 65% in gain and
10 Hz image sampling frequency synchronized with laser. The
height of the laser sheet was about 60 mm and the thickness was
Laser system
MFC#2
Fuel
MFC#1
Air
PC#1 PC#2
298 X. Li et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 112 (2017) 296–303

less than 100 lm at the location of the flame. The OH intensity is tional fluid dynamics software, FLUENT 6.3 [46]. The ‘‘SIMPLE’’
proportional to the OH concentration within 10% at the flame tem- algorithm was adopted. The laminar fluid model was used, since
perature range 1000–1800 K. However, the measured OH intensity the Reynolds number of the fuel jet is far less than 2300. Radiation
was not converted to the OH concentration, since the OH-PLIF heat transfer from the gas and surface was included in the compu-
measurement is used for qualitative comparison. And the OH dis- tation. The discrete ordinates model was employed for the compu-
tribution shown in the follows was averaged from 100 OH-PLIF tation of radiation heat transfer, and the absorption coefficient of
images. the gases was computed by the Weighted-Sum of Gray-Gas Model
[47]. The finite-rate chemistry model and C1 mechanism [48] were
3. Numerical methods used to compute the chemical reactions. Thermodynamic and
transport properties of the gaseous species were from the data-
To further study of the combustion characteristics of micro-jet bases of CHEMKIN-PRO 15131 [49]. The multicomponent formula-
flame and the thermal interaction between the flame and solid tion was used to compute the diffusion coefficient, and the thermal
tube, a numerical computation with detailed chemistry was con- diffusion was considered [50]. The entire computation domain is
ducted. A two dimensional axisymmetric swirl model was adopted. 60d  600d. A set of mesh with 248,588 elements was used in
The computational domain and boundary conditions are shown in the computation after the mesh independent test. Convergence cri-
Fig. 2. The fuel is fed into the coflow air through the stainless steel terion for continuity, energy governing equations was 1.0  106,
micro tube. The pressure outlets were applied at the far- and 1.0  108 for chemical reactions.
boundaries. The walls of the solid micro tube were treated as
non-slip, conductive wall in the numerical computation. Heat 4. Results and discussion
exchanges between the gases and the surfaces of the solid tube
were computed by using coupled thermal boundary conditions. 4.1. Flame shape, height and flammable region
The governing equations of mass, momentum, energy and
species, are shown as follows, The non-premixed micro-jet flames in the coflow air at different
r  ðqv Þ ¼ 0 ð1Þ fuel flow velocities were investigated experimentally. Four kinds of
typical laminar flames were observed. The typical flames at the fuel

 flow velocities of 18.3, 7.5, 2.5, 1.2 m/s (Re = 311, 128, 42, 20) in
2
r  ðqvvÞ ¼ rp þ r l rv þ ðrv ÞT  drv þ qg ð2Þ coflow air (Uair = 5 cm/s) are shown in Fig. 3 for demonstration.
3
The flame issued from the micro tube with a fuel flow velocity of

 18.3 m/s shows a lifted jet-flame. The lift-off distance decreases
k
r  ðqv Htot Þ ¼ r  rH þ Sh;chem þ Sh;rad ð3Þ with the decreasing fuel velocity, and the flame attaches the lip
cp
of the micro tube at a lower velocity. The attached flame at a fuel
  velocity of 7.5 m/s is shown in Fig. 3b. A hemisphere flame was
rT
r  ðqv Y i Þ ¼ r  qDi;m rY i þ DT;i þ Ri þ Si ð4Þ observed at a fuel flow velocity of 2.5 m/s, and the lip of the micro
T
tube is circled by the flame. With a further decrease of the fuel
velocity, the hemisphere flame is changed to an umbrella shape
X
N
Yi
p ¼ qR0 T ð5Þ flame, and this kind of flame is detached from the lip of the tube,
i¼1
Mi as depicted in Fig. 3d.
The variations of flame height and shape with fuel velocity are
where q, P, T, v, k, l and R0, are density, pressure, temperature, illustrated in Fig. 4. The coflow air velocity was kept at 5 cm/s in
velocity vector, thermal conductivity, viscosity and universal gas the experiments. The uncertainty of the measured flame height
constant. Yi, Hi, Di, DT and Mi are mass fraction, enthalpy, mass dif- was less than 2%. The flame issued from the micro tube shows
fusion coefficient, thermal diffusion coefficient and molecular lifted flame in a high fuel velocity range (UF = 10–18.5 m/s,
weight of the ith species in the mixture. Re = 170–316). The attached flame is in the fuel velocity range of
The governing equations were solved by using the finite volume 3–9.4 m/s (Re = 52–160). The hemisphere flame appears in the
method. The numerical computation was achieved by a computa- velocity range of 1.5–2.8 m/s (Re = 26–47). The fuel velocity range
for the umbrella flame is very narrow, 1.2–1.4 m/s (Re = 20–23).
X Pressure outlet The blow off and extinction limits of the non-premixed micro-jet
flame are 19 m/s (Re = 322) and 1.1 m/s (Re = 18), respectively. It
can be found that the flame height decreases linearly with the
Symmetric
axis
a b c d
Flame Pressure
outlet
Top
10 mm
Inner
Micro
solid
Exterior tube
Y

Coflow air Coflow air

Fuel
Fig. 3. Direct images of micro-jet flames at different fuel flow velocities. (a: 18.3 m/
Fig. 2. Physic model, computation domain and boundary conditions. s, b: 7.5 m/s, c: 2.5 m/s, d: 1.2 m/s).
 X. Li et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 112 (2017) 296–303 299

20 The computational flame heights at different fuel flow velocities

Lifted flame Attached flame are also plotted in Fig. 5. The mean flame temperature was
18
Hemisphere flame Umbrella flame assumed at 1500 K, the DO = 0.2 m2/s and S = 9.52 were used for
16 Blow off limit the calculation. It can be found that the flame height of the
micro-jet flame in coflow air can be well predicted by the theory.
Flame height (mm)

14
The flammable region of the non-premixed micro-jet flame at
12 different coflow air velocities is shown in Fig. 6. The blow off limit
of the flame increases gradually with the increasing coflow air
10
velocity firstly, and then decreases smoothly. The extinction fuel
8 flow velocity of the micro-jet flame in quiescent air is slightly
6 higher than that of the flame with coflow air. However, the extinc-
tion fuel flow velocity of flame in coflow air is not sensitive to the
4 air flow velocity. The flammable region attains a maximum value
2 when the coflow air velocity is about 1 cm/s.
The blow off phenomena of turbulent jet flame have been ana-
0 lyzed in the previous study [52]. It was pointed out that the blow
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
off limit depends on the competition between the reaction time
Re
and local mixing time. The mixing of fuel and oxygen can be
Fig. 4. Variations of flame height and shape with fuel flow velocity. enhanced by a moderate air flow. Consequently, the blow off limit
of the micro-jet flame in coflow air with an appropriate flow veloc-
ity is higher than that in the quiescent air. However, with the
decreasing fuel velocity. The variation of flame shapes and heights increasing of the air velocity, the mixing time for the fuel and oxy-
of the micro-jet flames with the fuel flow velocity in the quiescent gen will be shortened and the dilution effect will be increased, and
air have been studied experimentally for the methane [36] and these effects result in a lower blow off limit. The extinction of
propane [35] flames. Similar flame shapes as those in the present methane non-premixed micro-jet flame in the quiescent air have
work were also observed in the previous studies. been studied in [36]. It was found that the near extinction flame
The effect of coflow air velocity on the flame shape and height is controlled by diffusion process. More oxygen can be provided
were studied. The experimental observation manifests that the when convective air was imposed. Consequently, the extinction
flame shape is independent of the coflow air velocity. The mea- fuel flow velocity of flame in coflow air is lower than that in the
sured flame heights at different coflow air velocities are shown quiescent air.
in Fig. 5. The results show that the effect of coflow air velocity The attached flame, hemisphere flame and umbrella flame
on the flame height is negligible. The flame height of the methane attract the most attention of the present study among those four
micro-jet flame in quiescent air was computed by using different typical flames. Because these flames can be used as stable energy
theories in the previous study [36]. The computational flame sources for micro power system, and the thermal interaction
heights based on the Roper’s theory [51] agree well with the exper- between these three flames and the solid tube may have a remark-
iment results. In the Roper’s theory, the flame height (Lf, m) from able effect on the combustion characteristics.
circular burner port depends on the molar stoichiometric
oxidizer-fuel ratio (S), the diffusion coefficient for the oxidizer at
the oxidizer stream temperature (DO, m2/s), oxidizer temperature 4.2. CH and OH distributions of flames
(TO, K), mean flame temperature (Tf, K) and the fuel flow rate (QF,
m3/s). The formulation is shown as follows, The CH and OH distributions of attached, hemisphere and

0:67 umbrella flames in coflow air (Uair = 5 cm/s) at the fuel flow veloc-
QF TO ities of 5, 2.5, and 1.2 m/s were measured by experiments. The
Lf ¼ ð6Þ
4pDO lnð1 þ 1=SÞ T f results are shown in Figs. 7 and 8, respectively. The CH distribu-
tions of flames were captured using the single-lens reflex digital
camera and the CH filter with a long exposure time, 30 s. The
16
0 cm/s 5 cm/s 11 cm/s
14 Blow off limit Extinction limit
Theory compuation
12 400
Flame height (mm)

10
Re of fuel jet

6
20
4

2 15

0
0 50 100 150 200 250 10
Re 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Coflow air velocity (cm/s)
Fig. 5. Variations of flame height with fuel flow velocity at different coflow air
velocities. Fig. 6. Flammable region of the micro-jet flame at different coflow air velocities.
300 X. Li et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 112 (2017) 296–303

a b c
4 mm

Fig. 7. The CH distributions of flames at different velocities by experiments (upper) and computations. (a: 5 m/s, b: 2.5 m/s, c: 1.2 m/s, experimental and numerical results are
shown in the same scale).

a b c

8 mm

Fig. 8. The OH distributions of flames at different velocities by experiments (upper) and computations. (a: 5 m/s, b: 2.5 m/s, c: 1.2 m/s, experimental and numerical results
are shown in the same scale).
 X. Li et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 112 (2017) 296–303
Fig. 9. Computational temperature distributions of flames at different velocities. (a:
5 m/s, b: 2.5 m/s, c: 1.2 m/s, d: 0.8 m/s).
computational CH and OH mole fractions of flames are also illus-
trated in these figures for comparisons. It can be found that the
computational CH and OH distributions show good agreements
with those obtained by experimental measurements.
The flame at the fuel flow velocity of 5 m/s is an attached flame,
and the CH distribution shows that the bottom of the micro-jet
flame is on the exit of the micro tube, while the OH result shows
that the lip of micro tube is slightly bounded by the OH zone of
the flame. The CH and OH distributions of the flame at fuel flow
velocity of 2.5 m/s manifest that the bottom of micro-jet flame
slightly shifts to the downstream side comparing with the flame
at UF = 5 m/s, and the micro tube is tightly circled by the flame.
The CH and OH distributions of the umbrella flame at the fuel flow
velocity of 1.2 m/s show that the micro-jet flame is floating on the
top of the micro tube.
4.3. Temperature distributions of flames
The computational temperature fields of the flames in coflow
air (Uair = 5 cm/s) at the fuel velocities of 5, 2.5, 1.2, and 0.8 m/s
are presented in Fig. 9. The results show that the high temperature
region of the flame shrinks with the decreasing fuel flow velocity. It
is clearly that the top section of solid micro tube is in hot environ-
ment for the flames at the fuel velocity of 5 and 2.5 m/s. And it can
be found that the solid micro tube is just slightly immersed in the
hot gas at the fuel flow velocity of 1.2 m/s. The temperature filed of
the flame at the fuel flow velocity of 0.8 m/s shows that the top of
the solid tube weakly contacts with the hot gas.
The temperature distribution in solid micro tube was analyzed
to check the thermal interaction of the micro-jet flame with the
solid tube, and the results are shown in Fig. 10. The maximum solid
temperatures are 630, 830, 560 and 395 K when the fuel flow
velocities are 5, 2.5, 1.2 and 0.8 m/s. The Tmax of the solid tube
increases firstly and then decreases with the decreasing fuel flow
velocity. For the hemisphere flame at the fuel flow velocity of
2.5 m/s, the heating on the solid tube by the flame is the most sig-
nificant, since the top of the tube is tightly surrounded by the
flame. While the heating effect by the umbrella flame at the low
flow velocity is the weakest, because the flame is floating on the
tube.
The gas temperature profiles along the centerline were ana-
lyzed, and the results are shown in Fig. 11. The exit of the micro
tube is at the position x = 50 mm. It can be found that the fuel
301
Fig. 10. Computational temperature distributions of solid tube at different fuel flow
velocities. (a: 5 m/s, b: 2.5 m/s, c: 1.2 m/s, d: 0.8 m/s).
2400
2.5 m/s 5.0 m/s
2100
1.2 m/s
1800
Temperature (K)
0.8 m/s
1500
1200
900
600
300
40 45 50 55 60
x (mm)
Fig. 11. Temperature distributions on the centerline.
gas temperature increases gradually in the tube at the fuel flow
velocity of 5 m/s, and the gas temperature at the tube exit is about
598 K. The gas temperature at the tube exit is 821 K when the fuel
flow velocity is 2.5 m/s. And the increase of the fuel gas tempera-
ture in the tube at UF = 2.5 m/s is faster than that at UF = 5 m/s.
The temperature gradient along the flow direction in the tube at
the fuel flow velocity of 1.2 m/s is almost the same as that at the
fuel flow velocity of 5 m/s, and the gas temperature at the tube exit
is 561 K. It is obvious that the temperature increasing of the fuel
gas is minimum at the fuel flow velocity of 0.8 m/s, and the fuel
temperature is 400 K at the tube exit. The gas temperature profiles
at the fuel flow velocities 5, 2.5, 1.2 and 0.8 m/s manifest that the
fuel gas inside the tube is preheated before arriving the exit.
4.4. Effect of thermal interaction between flame and solid micro tube
To further clarify the detail of heat exchanges between the
micro-jet flame and the micro solid tube, the heat exchanges
between the gases and the surfaces of the solid tube were
inspected. The heats through the inner, top and exterior surfaces
(H2, H3 and H4) were calculated and normalized by the power of
the flame (Q) at the corresponding fuel flow velocity. The results
302 X. Li et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 112 (2017) 296–303

6 when the flame has weak contact with the tube, i.e., attached
5 and umbrella flames.
Normalized heats through surfaces (%)

To further interpret the effect of thermal interaction between

4
exterior (H4/Q) the flame and the solid micro tube, a numerical experiment was
3 conducted. The inner surface was treated as adiabatic while the
top (H3/Q)
2 heat transfer through the top and exterior surfaces were still
1 included in the numerical experiment. The computational result
at the fuel flow velocity of 2.5 m/s under the artificial boundary
0
condition was obtained and compared with that under real wall
-1 condition. The gas temperature profiles along the centerline are
-2 shown in Fig. 13. It can be found that the maximum temperature
-3 of the flame under the adiabatic inner wall condition is about
40 K lower than that of the flame under real wall condition.
-4 inner (H2/Q) Although not shown in here, the comparison of the computational
-5 maximum heat release rate shows that the value for the flame
-6 under adiabatic inner wall condition is about 2.4% lower than that
0 1 2 3 4 5
of the flame under real condition. This reveals that the thermal
Fuel flow velocity (m/s)
interaction between the micro-jet flame and the solid tube has
Fig. 12. Normalized heats through surfaces at different fuel flow velocities. an enhancing effect on the micro-jet flame.

5. Conclusions
2400 Inner surface with heat transfer
The combustion characteristics of non-premixed methane
Adiabatic inner surface
2100 flame issued from a micro tube with the inner diameter of
280 lm and wall thickness of 110 lm was investigated experimen-
1800 tally and numerically. Four typical flames, lifted jet-flame, attached
Temperature (K)

flame, hemisphere flame and umbrella flame, were observed at dif-

1500
1200
900
600
300
40 45 50
x (mm)
Fig. 13. Computational temperature profiles along the centerline at UF = 2.5 m/s
under real and artificial wall boundary conditions.
of normalized heats through surfaces at different flow velocities
are shown in Fig. 12, where the positive and negative values mean
heat gain and loss, respectively.
The results show that heats are absorbed by the solid tube
through the top surface (H3/Q) at different fuel flow velocities,
and the relative value attains a peak at the fuel flow velocity of
1.2 m/s. The exterior surface (H4/Q) plays a heat absorption role
at the fuel flow velocities of 5 and 2.5 cm/s. However, the heat
transfer through the exterior surface is almost zero at UF = 1.2 m/
s. Moreover, it can be found that a part of heat is transferred to
coflow air through the exterior surface at the fuel flow velocity
of 0.8 cm/s. The absorbed heats from the micro-jet flame is totally
transferred to the fuel stream via the inner surface (H2/Q) at fuel
flow velocities 1.2–2.5 m/s. However, the absorbed heats from
the top surface are transferred to fuel gas and coflow air respec-
tively through the inner and exterior surfaces at the fuel flow
velocity of 0.8 m/s.
Generally, the analysis reveals that the solid micro tube plays a
role as a preheater for the fuel stream at the fuel flow velocity
range 0.8–5 m/s. The detail of the heat recirculation depends on
the contact of the micro-jet flame with the solid tube. The heat
recirculation is strong when the tube is well bounded by the flame,
i.e., hemisphere flame. However, the heat recirculation is weak
ferent fuel flow velocities. The flame heights and velocity regimes
for these four typical flames were obtained. The effects of coflow
air velocity on the flame shape and height are negligible in the pre-
sent air flow velocity range. The blow off limit increases with the
increasing coflow air velocity firstly and then decreases. The
extinction limit of micro-jet flame in coflow air is lower than that
of the flame in quiescent air, however, it is not sensitive to the
coflow air velocity.
55 60 The computational OH and CH distributions of the flames at dif-
ferent fuel flow velocities show good agreements with the experi-
mental results. The computational temperature distributions show
that there are thermal interactions between micro-jet flames and
the solid tube. The thermal interaction depends on the contact of
the flame with the solid tube, which is essentially affected by the
shape of the flame. The fuel gas inside the tube is preheated by
the heat recirculation thought the tube. And the preheating is sig-
nificant at a fuel flow velocity of 2.5 m/s. Consequently, the com-
bustion intensity of the flame is enhanced.
Acknowledgment
The supports of National Natural Science Foundation of China
(No. 51336010), National Basic Research Program of China (No.
2014CB239601) and Science and Technology Project of Guangdong
Province (No. 2016A040403095) are gratefully acknowledged.
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