scholarly journals Numerical Investigations of Micro-Scale Diffusion Combustion: A Brief Review

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (16) ◽  
pp. 3356 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. R. Resende ◽  
Mohsen Ayoobi ◽  
Alexandre M. Afonso

With the increasing global concerns about the impacts of byproducts from the combustion of fossil fuels, researchers have made significant progress in seeking alternative fuels that have cleaner combustion characteristics. Such fuels are most suitable for addressing the increasing demands on combustion-based micro power generation systems due to their prominently higher energy density as compared to other energy resources such as batteries. This cultivates a great opportunity to develop portable power devices, which can be utilized in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), micro satellite thrusters or micro chemical reactors and sensors. However, combustion at small scales—whether premixed or non-premixed (diffusion)—has its own challenges as the interplay of various physical phenomena needs to be understood comprehensively. This paper reviews the scientific progress that researchers have made over the past couple of decades for the numerical investigations of diffusion flames at micro scales. Specifically, the objective of this review is to provide insights on different numerical approaches in analyzing diffusion combustion at micro scales, where the importance of operating conditions, critical parameters and the conjugate heat transfer/heat re-circulation have been extensively analyzed. Comparing simulation results with experimental data, numerical approaches have been shown to perform differently in different conditions and careful consideration should be given to the selection of the numerical models depending on the specifics of the cases that are being modeled. Varying different parameters such as fuel type and mixture, inlet velocity, wall conductivity, and so forth, researchers have shown that at micro scales, diffusion combustion characteristics and flame dynamics are critically sensitive to the operating conditions, that is, it is possible to alter the flammability limits, control the flame stability/instability or change other flame characteristics such as flame shape and height, flame temperature, and so forth.

Author(s):  
Martin Kulich

Abstract The subject of this paper is to analyse the influence of moisture on selected technical and combustion characteristics of alternative fuels. The analyses are conducted on the basis of analyses of samples of alternative fuels simulating states of the fuel in expected operating conditions, focusing on the identification of potential operational risks. The final part consists of a set of recommended measures to ensure the operational safety of the practical use of alternative fuels based on the results of the analysis.


Author(s):  
Ahmed Abdelgawad ◽  
Ahmed Emara ◽  
Mohamed Gad ◽  
Ahmed Elfatih

Due to the intensive and extensive consumption of fossil fuels in all life sectors such as transportation, power generation, industrial processes, and residential consumption lead to find other new alternative fuels should be the target to cover this fuel demand. Fossil fuel resources are considered non-renewable sources and they will be depleted in the near future. In addition to its environmental impact which causes global warming, harmful exhaust emissions, and its price instability. Waste cooking oil (WCO) was considered as one of these alternative fuels and additives which will provide the industry with low price fuel and may solve the problem of getting rid of waste cooking oil. The present work demonstrated a comparative study for combustion characteristics between light diesel oil (LDO) and waste cooking oil in a swirled oil burner. Waste cooking oil was used directly as a fuel inside a cylindrical combustor using a swirled liquid oil burner at different operating conditions. Waste cooking oil was preheated to 90 °C before entering oil burner to decrease its viscosity and near to light diesel oil. Physical and chemical properties of waste cooking oil were measured and characterized according to ASTM standards. Combustion characteristics of this swirled oil burner using waste cooking oil and light diesel oil were experimentally investigated. Axial and radial inflame temperatures; exhaust gas emissions concentrations and combustor efficiency were analyzed. The experimental results showed that the increase of primary air pressure led to increase in exhaust gas temperature for LDO and WCO. CO2 emissions values for LDO increased compared to WCO. Hydrocarbons a emissions for WCO were higher than LDO. Percentage of heat transferred to the combustor wall increased for WCO compared to LDO. Increase of radial inflame temperature of WCO compared to LDO was due to the increase in heat release at high equivalence ratio. Waste cooking oil tended to produce luminous flames compared to diesel oil due to higher carbon content in its chemical composition.


2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-58
Author(s):  
Chao Liu ◽  
Zongde Fang ◽  
Fang Guo ◽  
Long Xiang ◽  
Yabin Guan ◽  
...  

Presented in this study is investigation of dynamic behavior of a helical gear reduction by experimental and numerical methods. A closed-loop test rig is designed to measure vibrations of the example system, and the basic principle as well as relevant signal processing method is introduced. A hybrid user-defined element model is established to predict relative vibration acceleration at the gear mesh in a direction normal to contact surfaces. The other two numerical models are also constructed by lumped mass method and contact FEM to compare with the previous model in terms of dynamic responses of the system. First, the experiment data demonstrate that the loaded transmission error calculated by LTCA method is generally acceptable and that the assumption ignoring the tooth backlash is valid under the conditions of large loads. Second, under the common operating conditions, the system vibrations obtained by the experimental and numerical methods primarily occur at the first fourth-order meshing frequencies and that the maximum vibration amplitude, for each method, appears on the fourth-order meshing frequency. Moreover, root-mean-square (RMS) value of the acceleration increases with the increasing loads. Finally, according to the comparison of the simulation results, the variation tendencies of the RMS value along with input rotational speed agree well and that the frequencies where the resonances occur keep coincident generally. With summaries of merit and demerit, application of each numerical method is suggested for dynamic analysis of cylindrical gear system, which aids designers for desirable dynamic behavior of the system and better solutions to engineering problems.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (13) ◽  
pp. 4034
Author(s):  
Paolo Iodice ◽  
Massimo Cardone

Among the alternative fuels existing for spark-ignition engines, ethanol is considered worldwide as an important renewable fuel when mixed with pure gasoline because of its favorable physicochemical properties. An in-depth and updated investigation on the issue of CO and HC engine out emissions related to use of ethanol/gasoline fuels in spark-ignition engines is therefore necessary. Starting from our experimental studies on engine out emissions of a last generation spark-ignition engine fueled with ethanol/gasoline fuels, the aim of this new investigation is to offer a complete literature review on the present state of ethanol combustion in last generation spark-ignition engines under real working conditions to clarify the possible change in CO and HC emissions. In the first section of this paper, a comparison between physicochemical properties of ethanol and gasoline is examined to assess the practicability of using ethanol as an alternative fuel for spark-ignition engines and to investigate the effect on engine out emissions and combustion efficiency. In the next section, this article focuses on the impact of ethanol/gasoline fuels on CO and HC formation. Many studies related to combustion characteristics and exhaust emissions in spark-ignition engines fueled with ethanol/gasoline fuels are thus discussed in detail. Most of these experimental investigations conclude that the addition of ethanol with gasoline fuel mixtures can really decrease the CO and HC exhaust emissions of last generation spark-ignition engines in several operating conditions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1008 ◽  
pp. 128-138
Author(s):  
Ahmed M. Salman ◽  
Ibrahim A. Ibrahim ◽  
Hamada M. Gad ◽  
Tharwat M. Farag

In the present study, the combustion characteristics of LPG gaseous fuel diffusion flame at elevated air temperatures were experimentally investigated. An experimental test rig was manufactured to examine a wide range of operating conditions. The investigated parameters are the air temperatures of 300, 350, 400, 450, and 500 K with constant percentage of nitrogen addition in combustion air stream of 5 % to give low oxygen concentration of 18.3 % by mass at constant air swirl number, air to fuel mass ratio, and thermal load of 1.5, 30, and 23 kW, respectively. The gaseous combustion characteristics were represented as axial and radial temperatures distributions, temperatures gradient, visible flame length and species concentrations. The results indicated that as the air temperature increased, the chemical reaction rate increased and flame volume decreased, the combustion time reduced leading to a reduction in flame length. The NO concentration reaches its maximum values near the location of the maximum centerline axial temperature. Increasing the combustion air temperature by 200 K, the NO consequently O2 concentrations are increased by about % 355 and 20 % respectively, while CO2 and CO concentrations are decreased by about % 21 and 99 % respectively, at the combustor end.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Gisela Vanegas ◽  
John Nejedlik ◽  
Pascale Neff ◽  
Torsten Clemens

Summary Forecasting production from hydrocarbon fields is challenging because of the large number of uncertain model parameters and the multitude of observed data that are measured. The large number of model parameters leads to uncertainty in the production forecast from hydrocarbon fields. Changing operating conditions [e.g., implementation of improved oil recovery or enhanced oil recovery (EOR)] results in model parameters becoming sensitive in the forecast that were not sensitive during the production history. Hence, simulation approaches need to be able to address uncertainty in model parameters as well as conditioning numerical models to a multitude of different observed data. Sampling from distributions of various geological and dynamic parameters allows for the generation of an ensemble of numerical models that could be falsified using principal-component analysis (PCA) for different observed data. If the numerical models are not falsified, machine-learning (ML) approaches can be used to generate a large set of parameter combinations that can be conditioned to the different observed data. The data conditioning is followed by a final step ensuring that parameter interactions are covered. The methodology was applied to a sandstone oil reservoir with more than 70 years of production history containing dozens of wells. The resulting ensemble of numerical models is conditioned to all observed data. Furthermore, the resulting posterior-model parameter distributions are only modified from the prior-model parameter distributions if the observed data are informative for the model parameters. Hence, changes in operating conditions can be forecast under uncertainty, which is essential if nonsensitive parameters in the history are sensitive in the forecast.


Author(s):  
Sílvio Aparecido Verdério Júnior ◽  
Vicente Luiz Scalon ◽  
Santiago del Rio Oliveira ◽  
Elson Avallone ◽  
Paulo César Mioralli ◽  
...  

Due to their greater flexibility in heating and high productivity, continuous tunnel-type ovens have become the best option for industrial processes. The geometric optimization of ovens to better take advantage of the heat transfer mechanisms by convection and thermal radiation is increasingly researched; with the search for designs that combine lower fuel consumption, greater efficiency and competitiveness, and lower costs. In this sense, this work studied the influence of height on heat exchanges by radiation and convection and other flow parameters to define the best geometric height for the real oven under study. From the dimensions and real operating conditions of continuous tunnel-type ovens were built five numerical models of parametric variation, which were simulated with the free and open-source software OpenFOAM®. The turbulent forced convection regime was characterized in all models. The use of greater heights in the ovens increased and intensified the recirculation regions, reduced the rates of heat transfer by thermal radiation, and reduced the losses of heat by convection. The order of magnitude of heat exchanges by radiation proved to be much higher than heat exchanges by convection, confirming the results of the main references in the technical-scientific literature. It was concluded that the use of ovens with a lower height provides significant increases in the thermal radiation heat transfer rates.


2021 ◽  
pp. 146808742110464
Author(s):  
Yang Hua

Ether and ester fuels can work in the existing internal combustion (IC) engine with some important advantages. This work comprehensively reviews and summarizes the literatures on ether fuels represented by DME, DEE, DBE, DGM, and DMM, and ester fuels represented by DMC and biodiesel from three aspects of properties, production and engine application, so as to prove their feasibility and prospects as alternative fuels for compression ignition (CI) and spark ignition (SI) engines. These studies cover the effects of ether and ester fuels applied in the form of single fuel, mixed fuel, dual-fuel, and multi-fuel on engine performance, combustion and emission characteristics. The evaluation indexes mainly include torque, power, BTE, BSFC, ignition delay, heat release rate, pressure rise rate, combustion duration, exhaust gas temperature, CO, HC, NOx, PM, and smoke. The results show that ethers and esters have varying degrees of impact on engine performance, combustion and emissions. They can basically improve the thermal efficiency of the engine and reduce particulate emissions, but their effects on power, fuel consumption, combustion process, and CO, HC, and NOx emissions are uncertain, which is due to the coupling of operating conditions, fuel molecular structure, in-cylinder environment and application methods. By changing the injection strategy, adjusting the EGR rate, adopting a new combustion mode, adding improvers or synergizing multiple fuels, adverse effects can be avoided and the benefits of oxygenated fuel can be maximized. Finally, some challenges faced by alternative fuels and future research directions are analyzed.


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