Demonstration of swirl-controlled 3D-printed mesoscale burner array using gaseous hydrocarbon fuels

摘要

The study of small length scale flames is of interest due to the potential for applications of high energy density hydrocarbon fuels to power small scale devices. This is difficult to achieve in practice due to a lack of understanding of small scale flame phenomena namely the extinction modes and instabilities which become much more prevalent on the small scale. Swirl flow has been shown to provide a strong stabilizing effect due to the creation of an internal recirculation zone but there is little experimental work showing how multiple swirl flow regions interact to further advance this stabilizing effect. A 4x4 mesoscale burner array was designed and 3D printed as a means of studying the effects of swirl flow interactions with mesoscale flames. The effectiveness of this method in improving flame stability and in extending the flammability limits of the flames was evaluated via a measure of flame temperature for several equivalence ratios and swirl flow levels. The results showed a reduction of the lean blow of equivalence ratio with increasing radial to axial air flow ratio as well as a more uniform spatial temperature distribution across the burner. This expansion of the lean flammability limits shows the viability of swirl flow implementation in future mesoscale devices and mesoscale flame studies.