Micro-combustion research works are motivated by development of portable, autonomous power generators such as the micro TPV with improvement in energy density over batteries. Heat recuperation is a technique which contributes to better energy efficiency performance by recovering heat from the exhaust gas. In this paper, a numerical simulation is carried out to study the impact of incorporating recuperation on the performance of micro modular combustor system. The simulation results have been validated by experiments; achieving close agreement between simulated and experi-mental data. It was observed that the mean wall temperature, radiation power and emitter efficiency markedly improved with the incorporation of a heat recuperator. In addition, 25.8% enhancement of total radiation power and 30.6% emitter efficiency could be realized when the hydrogen air equivalence ratio was 0.9.
KeywordsModular Micro CombustorRecuperation Temperature DistributionEmitter Efficiency
L. C. Chia and B. Feng, “The Development of a Micro- power (Micro-Thermophotovoltaic) Device,” Journal of Power Sources, Vol. 165, No. 1, 2007, pp. 455-480. doi:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2006.12.006
S. K. Chou, W. M. Yang, K. J. Chua, J. Li and K. L. Zhang, “Development of Micro Power Generators—A Review,” Applied Energy, Vol. 88, No. 1, 2011, pp. 1-16. doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2010.07.010
K. J. Chua, W. M. Yang and W. J. Ong, 2012, “Funda- mental Experiment and Numerical Analysis of a Modular Microcombustor with Silicon Carbide Porous Medium,” Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol. 51, No. 18, pp. 6327-6339. doi:10.1021/ie203017g
A. H. Epstein and S. D. Senturia, “Macro Power from Micro Machinery,” Science, Vol. 276, No. 5316, 1997, p. 1211. doi:10.1126/science.276.5316.1211
C. Lee, “Design and Fabrication of a Micro Wankel Engine Using MEMS Technology,” Microelectronic Engineering, Vol. 73-74, 2004, pp. 529-534. doi:10.1016/S0167-9317(04)00206-0
I. A. Waitz, G. Gauba and Y.-S. Tzeng, “Combustors for Micro-Gas Turbine Engines,” Journal of Fluids Engineering, Vol. 120, No. 1, 1998, pp. 109-117. doi:10.1115/1.2819633
F. Lu, H. P. Lee and S. P. Lim, “Modeling and analysis of Micro Piezoelectric Power Generators for Micro-Elec- tromechanical-Systems Applications,” Smart Materials and Structures, Vol. 13, No. 1, 2004, pp. 57-63. doi:10.1088/0964-1726/13/1/007
G. J. Snyder, J. R. Lim, H. Chen-Kuo and J. P. Fleurial, “Thermoelectric Microdevice Fabricated by a MEMS- Like Electrochemical Process,” Nature Materials, Vol. 2, No. 8, 2003, pp. 528-531. doi:10.1038/nmat943
W. M. Yang, S. K. Chou, C. Shu, Z. W. Li and H. Xue, “Development of Microthermophotovoltaic System,” Ap- plied Physics Letters, Vol. 81, No. 27, 2002, pp. 5255- 5257. doi:10.1063/1.1533847
K. Kim, D. Le and S. Kwon, “Effects of Thermal and Chemical Surface—Flame Interaction on Flame Quench- ing,” Combustion and Flame, Vol. 146, No. 1-2, 2006, pp. 19-28. doi:10.1016/j.combustflame.2006.04.012
A. Veeraragavan and C. P. Cadou, “Flame Speed Predic- tions in Planar Micro/Mesoscale Combustors with Con- jugate Heat Transfer,” Combustion and Flame, Vol. 158, No. 11, 2011, pp. 2178-2187. doi:10.1016/j.combustflame.2011.04.006
J. Li, S. K. Chou, Z. W. Li and W. M. Yang, “Experi- mental Investigation of Porous Media Combustion in a Planar Micro-Combustor,” Fuel, Vol. 89, No. 3, 2010, pp. 708-715. doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2009.06.026
S. K. Chou, W. M. Yang, J. Li and Z. W. Li, “Porous Media Combustion for Micro Thermophotovoltaic Sys- tem Applications,” Applied Energy, Vol. 87, No. 9, 2010, pp. 2862-2867. doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2009.06.039
J. H. Park, J. S. So, H. J. Moon and O. C. Kwon, “Meas- ured and Predicted Performance of a Micro-Thermo- photovoltaic Device with a Heat-Recirculating Micro- Emitter,” International Journal of Heat and Mass Trans- fer, Vol. 54, No. 5-6, 2011, pp. 1046-1054. doi:10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2010.11.028
J. A. Federici and D. G. Vlachos, “A Computational Fluid Dynamics Study of Propane/Air Microflame Stability in a Heat Recirculation Reactor,” Combustion and Flame, Vol. 153, No. 1-2, 2008, pp. 258-269. doi:10.1016/j.combustflame.2007.09.009
W. Yang, S. Chou, K. Chua, H. An, K. Karthikeyan and X. Zhao, “An Advanced Micro Modular Combus- tor-Radiator with Heat Recuperation for Micro-TPV Sys- tem Application,” Applied Energy, Vol. 97, 2012, pp. 749-753. doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2011.12.024
B.-J. Tsai and Y. L. Wang, “A Novel Swiss-Roll Recu- perator for the Microturbine Engine,” Applied Thermal Engineering, Vol. 29, No. 2-3, 2009, pp. 216-223. doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2008.02.028
J. C. G. Andrae and P. H. Bjornbom, “Wall Effects of Laminar Hydrogen Flames over Platinum and Inserted Surfaces,” American Institute of Chemical Engineers Journal, Vol. 46, No. 7, 2000, pp. 1454-1460. doi:10.1002/aic.690460718
D. F. W, and L. M. K. Boelter, “Heat Transfer in Automobile Radiators of the Tubular Type,” University of California Publications in Engineering, Vol. 2, No. 13, 1930, pp. 443-461.
F. A. Williams, “Combustion Theory: Fundamental The- ory of Chemical Reacting Flow Systems,” 2nd Edition, Benjamin/Cummings, Menlo Park, 1985, pp. 265-293.
D. G. Norton and D. G. Vlachos, “A CFD Study of Pro- pane/Air Microflame Stability,” Combustion and Flame, Vol. 138, No. 1-2, 2004, pp. 97-107. doi:10.1016/j.combustflame.2004.04.004
W. M. Yang, D. Y. Jiang, S. K. Chou, K. J. Chua, K. Karthikeyan and H. An, “Experimental Study on Micro modular Combustor for Micro-Thermophotovoltaic System Application,” International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Vol. 37, No. 12, 2012, pp. 9576-9583. doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.03.129
J. Pan, J. Huang, D. Li, W. Yang, W. Tang and H. Xue, “Effects of Major Parameters on Micro-Combustion for Thermophotovoltaic Energy Conversion,” Applied Thermal Engineering, Vol. 27, No. 5-6, 2007, pp. 1089-1095. doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2006.07.038