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A CFD Study of Propaneair Microflame Stability
A CFD Study of Propaneair Microflame Stability
www.elsevier.com/locate/jnlabr/cnf
Abstract
A two-dimensional elliptic computational fluid dynamics model of a microburner is solved to study the effects
of microburner wall conductivity, external heat losses, burner dimensions, and operating conditions on combus-
tion characteristics and the steady-state, self-sustained flame stability of propane/air mixtures. Large gradients are
observed, despite the small scales of the microburners. It is found that the wall thermal conductivity is vital in
determining the flame stability of the system, as the walls are responsible for the majority of the upstream heat
transfer as well as the external heat losses. Furthermore, there exists a range of flow velocities that allow stabilized
combustion in microburners. It is found that the microburner dimensions strongly affect thermal stability. Engi-
neering maps denoting flame stability are constructed and design recommendations are made. Finally, comparisons
with methane/air systems are made.
2004 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Propane; Microburners; Computational fluid dynamics; Flame stability; Extinction; Thermal management
0010-2180/$ – see front matter 2004 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.combustflame.2004.04.004
98 D.G. Norton, D.G. Vlachos / Combustion and Flame 138 (2004) 97–107
the system, coupled with the high surface-area-to- tive agreement with our simulations [13]. However,
volume ratio, causes radical adsorption onto the walls, it is unclear how much of the TSB experimental re-
followed by radical recombination. This dearth of sults transfer to the microscale, where the flow is
radicals quenches the homogeneous chemistry [12]. severely confined. Another idea for stabilizing com-
Another mechanism for loss of stability is blowout, bustion within mesoscale (∼ 1 mm) and macroscale
which occurs when the burner exit velocity exceeds ( 1 mm) tubes revolves around the work of Lloyd
the flame burning velocity [7]. In this case, the reac- and Weinberg on heat-recirculating burners, where
tion front shifts downstream with increasing velocity hot combustion products are used to preheat the in-
and eventually exits the burner. The competition be- coming feed [18,19]. Ronney and co-workers have
tween the shifting of the reaction zone and thermal extended this idea on mesoscale “Swiss roll” heat-
quenching has been observed in elliptic models of recirculating burners, with gap sizes on the order of
microscale systems for methane [13] and mesoscale 3 mm, for the homogeneous and heterogeneous com-
systems for propane [14]. bustion of propane in air [1,20]. In recent work, Ron-
Recent experiments have demonstrated that it is ney modeled a countercurrent heat-recirculating com-
feasible to stabilize homogeneous methane/oxygen bustor [21]. The system consisted of a cold reactant
flames between parallel plates with gaps smaller than inlet that fed into a well-stirred reactor (WSR). The
1 mm [15,16]. This is accomplished by modifying products from the WSR then flowed countercurren-
the surface to make it chemically inactive, to elimi- twise past the incoming feed to preheat it. The hot
nate radical quenching, and insulating the burner, to and cold tubes were modeled by a one-dimensional
reduce thermal quenching. The chemical inactivation model, with convective heat-transfer coefficients to
process involves high-temperature annealing to heal model the heat transfer between them and the exterior.
crystal defects and surface cleaning with deionized The reaction was assumed to take place within the
water, hydrochloric acid, and hydrogen peroxide to WSR. It was shown that the axial conduction within
remove ionic and heavy metal contaminants. the wall had a major effect on the operating limits of
In our recent computational fluid dynamics (CFD) the combustor. Even a small wall thermal conductiv-
work [13], overall heat management was shown to ity results in significantly higher required flow rates to
play a critical role in determining homogeneous flame maintain stabilized combustion, whereas when the ax-
stability of methane/air mixtures in microburners. The ial wall conduction is ignored, the minimum required
thermal conductivity of the wall allowed both the vi- flow rate disappears. Ronney’s analysis emphasizes
tal upstream heat transfer for preheating the feed to the importance of heat transfer as our CFD modeling
the ignition temperature and detrimental heat losses did [13].
to the exterior. When the thermal conductivity is too Despite previous work, there are a number of an-
low, the upstream heat transfer through the walls is swered questions regarding flame stability at the mi-
choked, and the system blows out. At the other ex- croscale. Examples include the roles of fuel and mi-
treme of high thermal conductivity, the wall and fluid croburner dimensions in flame stability. In this work
temperature profiles flatten, causing delocalized reac- we extend our previous modeling work to the steady-
tion fronts and an increased external hot area for heat state self-sustained microcombustion of propane/air.
losses. As a result extinction is observed. Two-dimensional (2D), fully elliptic simulations are
The significant role of upstream heating in sta- performed that explicitly treat heat and mass trans-
bilizing combustion in a tube was in fact realized fer in the fluid as well as heat transfer in the wall.
several years ago by Churchill [17], who developed The effects of wall thermal conductivity, external heat
thermally stabilized burners (TSB). These TSB con- losses, operating conditions, and microburner dimen-
sisted of ceramic cylindrical tubes > 7 mm in diam- sions on flame stability and combustion characteris-
eter into which fuel and air were fed. Flame fronts tics are discussed. In order to understand how dif-
were stabilized within the tubes by thermal feedback ferent hydrocarbons behave, the differences between
caused by conduction through the walls and radia- propane/air and methane/air systems are also investi-
tion between the walls to preheat the incoming feed. gated.
To maximize the heat transfer between the fluid and
the walls, the flow rates were such that the flow was
turbulent upstream of the combustion. In the reac- 2. Model
tion zone further downstream, the viscosity increased
due to the increased temperature, resulting in lami- The burner is modeled as two parallel plates that
nar flow. These systems were found to be very sta- are infinitely wide, 1 cm long, and distance L apart.
ble to minor disturbances, but the range of flow rates The plate thickness is Lw . For most simulations L =
that allowed stabilized combustion was very limited. 600 µm and Lw = 200 µm (unless otherwise noted).
These experimental findings are in general qualita- Premixed, nonpreheated propane/air mixtures are fed
D.G. Norton, D.G. Vlachos / Combustion and Flame 138 (2004) 97–107 99
rC3 H8 kgmol/(m3 s)
1.256 × 108 J/kgmol
= 4.836 × 109 · exp −
RT
· [CC3 H8 ]0.1 · [CO2 ]1.65 , (2)
Fig. 6. Critical external heat loss coefficient vs wall ther- Fig. 7. Sensitivity analysis of the primary differences be-
mal conductivity. Typical ceramics allow maximum external tween propane and methane microflames. The reaction-rate
heat loss coefficients. Materials with lower wall thermal con- constant has a larger effect on the solution than the heat of
ductivities limit the upstream heat transfer. Materials with reaction. The parameters are L = 600 µm, Lw = 200 µm,
higher wall thermal conductivities result in enhanced heat Vinlet = 0.5 m/s, kw = 1 (W/m)/K, h = 9 (W/m2 )/K, and
transfer to the surroundings. Propane allows self-sustained a stoichiometric feed.
combustion for higher external heat loss coefficients and
more insulating materials than methane. The rest of the pa-
placing one heat of reaction with the other, we have
rameters are the same as in Fig. 4.
also accounted for the difference in densities. The
way we accomplish this in the first numerical exper-
5. Effect of fuel on flame stability iment is by changing the heat of reaction of pseudo-
propane so that the power generated upon complete
Propane’s mechanism for the loss of stabilized combustion of pseudo-propane in the microburner
combustion is qualitatively similar to that of methane, matches that of methane. For this case, the maxi-
discussed in previous work [13]. For low wall thermal mum temperature decreases, and the reaction location
conductivities the primary mode of burner instability shifts downstream. However, these changes are small
is blowout, whereas for high wall thermal conductiv- in comparison to the difference between propane and
ities it is extinction. However, propane microflames methane microflames.
are more robust than methane microflames, as shown Next, the reaction-rate constant parameters of
in Fig. 6. Note that the methane map is a subset of the pseudo-propane are changed to those of methane. For
propane map. Lower wall thermal conductivities and this case, the maximum temperature increases, and
higher exterior heat-loss coefficients are possible. the flame location shifts significantly downstream.
In order to better understand the differences be- This solution is closer to the methane solution. The
tween propane and methane microflames, a theoret- lower apparent activation energy of propane com-
ical fuel, denoted as “pseudo-propane,” was defined. bustion (∼ 126 kJ/mol for propane compared to
This is simply a sensitivity analysis or numerical ex- ∼ 203 kJ/mol for methane [24]) causes easier ig-
periment aiming at delineating the differences be- nition and upstream flame stabilization. From this
tween fuels. Pseudo-propane has all of the properties analysis we conclude that the reaction-rate constant
of propane except for a parameter that is changed parameters have the largest effect on flame location
to a value that is identical to that for methane. The and stability between different fuels. Higher hydro-
methane/air and propane/air mixture properties, such carbons, such as octane, generally have lower ignition
as thermal conductivity, specific heats, and viscosi- temperatures than methane. It is expected that they
ties, are similar, as the primary component is nitrogen would also exhibit increased stability compared to
in both cases. Therefore, the properties of primary in- methane.
terest are the heats of reaction and the reaction-rate
constants.
Fig. 7 shows the centerline temperature profile for 6. Role of inlet velocity in flame stability and
propane, methane, and two types of pseudo-propane. fuel-lean operation limit
Note that due to the difference in molecular weights
and densities of various fuel/air mixtures, the mass- The inlet velocity plays a key role in determining
flow rates of different fuel/air mixtures are different the location of the flame in the burner [13]. Fig. 8a
when the residence time is kept constant, as happens shows the flame location as a function of inlet veloc-
in our simulations. Therefore, instead of simply re- ity for several wall thermal conductivities. For high
104 D.G. Norton, D.G. Vlachos / Combustion and Flame 138 (2004) 97–107
flow velocity changes (see Fig. 8b). When the gap dis-
Fig. 8. Flame location vs inlet velocity. An optimum flow
tance is doubled from 600 to 1200 µm the blowout
rate exists for flame stability. Higher wall thermal conduc-
tivities allow higher flow rates. The laminar flame speed for
velocity decreases from ∼ 1.7 to ∼ 0.8 m/s. This
a stoichiometric mixture of propane/air initially at 25 ◦ C is decrease in stability with respect to flow is due to
denoted as Vlam . The results for different wall thermal con- the increased timescales for energy diffusion between
ductivities are shown in (a). The parameters are L = 600 µm, the gas and the walls, resulting in the relative slow-
Lw = 200 µm, h = 10 (W/m2 )/K, and a stoichiomet- ing of the upstream preheating process, which shifts
ric feed. The results for different burner dimensions are the flame location downstream. In contrast, increas-
shown in (b). The parameters are h = 10 (W/m2 )/K, kw = ing the wall thickness from 200 to 400 µm increases
7.5 (W/m)/K, and a stoichiometric feed. the blowout velocity from ∼ 1.7 to ∼ 2.5 m/s while
leaving unaffected the flame stability for slow flows.
inlet velocities the location of the flame shifts down- This increased flame stability is due to the increased
stream with increasing flow rate due to the decrease area for heat flux, doubling in our example the up-
in the convective timescale (shorter residence times). stream preheating rate. When flow velocities greater
For low inlet velocities, a sharp shift of the reaction than the unconfined flame speed are required, the gap
zone downstream occurs with decreasing flow rate. distance must be small, and the wall thermal con-
This is due to the decrease in the heat generation rate. ductivity and thickness must be sufficiently high to
The external heat loss rate does not decrease as fast provide adequate thermal feedback to preheat the in-
as the heat generation rate, resulting in a reduced up- coming reactants.
stream heat-transfer rate. As a result of competition Fig. 9 shows the critical velocity envelope vs the
between increased volumetric heat released and de- wall thermal conductivity for a fixed external heat
creased residence time with increasing flow rate, there loss coefficient. The upper curve represents the high-
is a minimum in the flame location between 0.3 and velocity limit, resulting in blowout due to decreased
0.5 m/s, depending on the wall thermal conductiv- convective timescales. The lower curve represents the
ity. This minimum is near the unconfined flame speed low-velocity limit, resulting in flame stability loss
for the same composition, experimentally determined due to reduced heat generation. Between these curves
by Dugger and others to be ∼ 0.4 m/s [27,28]. The stabilized combustion is allowed, whereas outside
minimum shifts slightly toward higher flow rates for the envelope, self-sustained combustion is impossi-
higher wall thermal conductivity since the latter al- ble. Smaller wall thermal conductivities allow stabi-
lows greater upstream heat transfer to compete with lized combustion for lower flow rates. Lower flow
the faster convective flow. rates require less upstream heating and more insu-
As shown above, when conductivity is the primary lation against exterior heat losses. At the other ex-
variable, the gap distance and wall thickness play a vi- treme, higher wall thermal conductivities result in
tal role in the stabilization of the flame also when the maximum allowable flow rates (upper curve), but the
D.G. Norton, D.G. Vlachos / Combustion and Flame 138 (2004) 97–107 105
increased heat losses prohibit low flow rates (lower orders of magnitude higher than the one calculated in
curve). This relationship is important when designing this work. Furthermore, the experimental minimum
devices. When a low-power device is desired, more equivalence ratio is approximately 0.2, compared to
insulating materials should be preferred. On the other the ∼ 0.56 found in this work. The differences be-
hand, when a high-power device is desired, more con- tween the experimental and our computational results
ductive materials should be chosen. Our focus here may lie in the enhanced preheating and insulation that
has been on thermal stability. However, other material are achieved with the Swiss roll design and the gap
properties, such as allowable operating temperatures, distance, which is considerably larger in the experi-
radical sticking, and mechanical strength, along with ments. More work is needed to fully understand these
the microburner efficiency (complete conversion is differences.
found here for stoichiometric mixtures using the one-
step chemistry) should be considered when choosing
a material for construction and designing microburner 7. Nusselt number analysis
dimensions.
The ability of a burner to operate under lean con- To better understand how these microscale sys-
ditions is beneficial, as it may reduce unwanted prod- tems relate to their better-understood macroscale
ucts such as coke, carbon monoxide, and nitric oxide. counterparts, a Nusselt number (Nu) analysis was
It also reduces the operating temperature, which in performed. The Nu or dimensionless heat transfer co-
turn can increase burner lifetime. Fig. 10 shows the efficient is calculated as
lean equivalence ratio operation limit for the burner
as a function of Reynolds (Re) number calculated hL (kf ∂Tf
dy )|wall L
Nu = = (3)
based on the inlet conditions and the gap distance kf,cm (Tw − Tf,cm )kf,cm
half-height. There are two regimes of low (< 12) and
and is evaluated at a given axial displacement. Here
high (> 12) Re. For low Re, stability is lost with de-
Tf is the fluid temperature, Tf,cm is the cup mixing
creasing Re because of the diminished heat generation
fluid temperature, Tw is the wall temperature at the
rate. On the other hand, for high Re, blowout happens
wall–fluid interface, and kf,cm is the fluid cup mixing
because of decreased convective time scales. At the
thermal conductivity.
transition between these two regimes, there appears
Fig. 11 shows Nu versus axial displacement for
to be a deep minimum in the fuel-lean operation limit
two different cases, one with a flame stabilized near
and possibly a turning point over a narrow regime
the entrance and another at a higher velocity near
of Re. Arc-length continuation is however needed to
blowout. Nu exhibits strongly nonmonotonic behavior
fully characterize this situation.
with an oscillation at the reaction zone that finger-
Experimental work by Ahn et al. using a Swiss roll
prints the heat source, namely walls upstream trans-
burner with gap width 3.5 mm showed an optimum
ferring heat to the cold incoming gases and combus-
Re at a relatively shallow minimum equivalence ra-
tion chemistry downstream of the entrance heating the
tio [20]. However, this optimum Re is ∼ 1000, two
walls. In both examples, Nu approaches ∼ 4, which is
Fig. 10. Minimum allowable equivalence ratio vs Reynolds Fig. 11. Nusselt number vs axial displacement (see text) for
number. The Reynolds number was calculated using the ve- two inlet flow velocities indicated. The Nusselt number is a
locity, density, and kinematic viscosity at the inlet and the strongly nonmonotonic function of position. The parameters
gap half-width. The parameters are L = 600 µm, Lw = are L = 600 µm, Lw = 200 µm, h = 10 (W/m2 )/K, kw =
200 µm, h = 10 (W/m2 )/K, and kw = 3 (W/m)/K. 1 (W/m)/K, and a stoichiometric feed.
106 D.G. Norton, D.G. Vlachos / Combustion and Flame 138 (2004) 97–107
between the constant temperature and constant flux narrow envelope of flow rates within which combus-
values for circular tubes. tion can be stabilized. When a low-power device is
Groppi and Tronconi used 3D parabolic energy/ being designed, more insulating materials should be
species balances to study methane catalytic combus- favored to minimize external heat losses. Conversely,
tion [29]. They found very high Nu and Sh near the a high-power device would favor more conductive
entrance that eventually reach the fully developed materials.
flow values predicted by Shah [30]. Their entrance Overall, propane/air microflames are more robust
behavior is reminiscent of ours, but the downstream than methane/air ones. They allow a wider range of
behavior differs substantially between the catalytic wall thermal conductivities as well as higher external-
combustion studied previously and the homogeneous heat-loss coefficients. This enhanced stability appears
combustion studied here. Comparison of our results to be due to propane’s lower ignition temperature,
with the solutions of the Graetz–Nusselt problem for which causes the reaction front to stabilize further
two parallel plates for the special cases of constant upstream than for methane. It is expected that larger
wall temperature and constant wall heat flux [31] hydrocarbons will behave more like propane than
show that the solutions of the Graetz–Nusselt prob- methane.
lem overestimate Nu. Note that existing correlations Finally, the available heat-transfer correlations are
do not take into account fluid chemistry and ignore inadequate when homogeneous reactions are present.
axial energy diffusion. To accurately capture heat transfer in microchemical
systems, an elliptic model, such as the one presented
in this work, is necessary.
8. Conclusions
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