RESEARCH ARTICLE

Ning MEI, Bin ZHANG, Jian ZHAO, Ming ZHANG

Experimental study on film combustion formed by spirally
fluted horizontal tube
E
Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag 2008
Abstract Falling fuel film on the spirally fluted surface of
a horizontal tube can provide rapid fuel evaporation and
homogeneous mixture formation. This fuel film combus-
tion could be applied in a micro-combustion system even
without a fuel pump. A test bed was established and
experimental comparisons were made between the pro-
totype and a transferred cup atomizer micro-combustor.
The theoretical and experimental results show that film
combustion has a higher combustion efficiency, a lower
pollutant emission and a better working performance.
Keywords film combustion, spirally fluted horizontal
tube, micro-combustor
1 Introduction
The development of micro power machines has brought
about special requirements for the combustion system.
The resident time of the fuel in the combustor is extremely
short and some fuel flows out of the combustor without
reaction because of the great decrease of the ratio of the
entrance pressure and the size of the combustion system.
Meanwhile, the large heat loss resulting from the high
ratio of surface area affects the stability of the flame.
Besides, the restrictions on the complicated structures
limit the modifications of the combustion parameters [1].
Therefore, fuel and air mixture formation, heat transfer
and flame stability become important in a micro
combustion system.
The typical film atomization combustion in IC engines
is due to the fuel film formed by high pressure spray and
evaporated on the hot wall of the combustor. High
pressure injection is usually used to increase the area and
decrease the thickness of the film. Because of the surface-
tension and the flow characteristics of the liquid on the
smooth wall, it is difficult to obtain a uniform fuel film
formation under low pressure and low speed fuel flow.
Many researches have been conducted on the possibility
of a liquid film on the surface of the combustor to
determine the corresponding methods to provide better
fuel and air mixture formation under lower fuel flowrate
in micro-combustors [2].
The objective of this study is to investigate the
formation and combustion of falling liquid film on the
surface of a horizontal spirally fluted tube in a micro
combustion system. A micro- combustor test bed was
developed. In the combustion chamber, the falling liquid
fuel film on the surface of a horizontal spirally fluted
tube is heated and evaporated into the space of the
combustor, and then mixed with the air and burned. The
fuel supply can be performed by an electrical magnetic
pump or even by gravity if the fuel tank is placed above
the combustor. Experiments were conducted to test the
temperature distribution in the micro-combustor and the
air velocity was measured. Comparisons of the perform-
ance between the prototype, and the transferred cup
atomizer micro-combustor was made. The theoretical
and experimental results show that film combustion has a
higher combustion efficiency, a lower pollutant emission
and a better working performance.
2 The formation and heat-transfer properties
of falling liquid film on the surface of a
horizontal spirally fluted tube
The geometry of the surface of a horizontal spirally fluted
tube is shown in Fig. 1. The transection of the spiral flute is
perpendicular to the helix. The spiral flute is taken as the
coordinates system to establish the physical model, and the
corresponding orthogonal curvilinear coordinates system
is shown in Fig. 2. Because the Renould number of the fuel
Translated from Journal of Thermal Science and Technology, 2007,
28(2): 268273 [: ]
Ning MEI (*), Bin ZHANG
College of Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao
266100, China
E-mail: nmei@ouc.edu.cn
Jian ZHAO, Ming ZHANG
Saierfu (Xiamen) Industry Co. Ltd, Xiamen 361100, China
Front. Energy Power Eng. China 2008, 2(1): 5458
DOI 10.1007/s11708-008-0023-4
flow is lower than 50, the inertial force, density and
viscosity of the liquid and the changes of the surrounding
pressure can be neglected. The velocity distribution [3] will
be derived from the non-dimensional analysis to the
control equations of falling liquid film on the surface of a
horizontal spirally fluted tube.
u~ We
{1
Lp
Ls
zcos h sin (K
s
){sin h sin wcos (K
s
)
_ _
|
1
2
N
2
{NH
_ _
,
v~{
_
N
0
1
h
1
h
3
L(h
3
u)
Ls
zh
1
e
d
Lw
LZ
_ _
dN,
w~({sin h cos w)
1
2
N
2
{NH
_ _
:
_

_
1
The thickness of the falling liquid film on the surface of
a horizontal spirally fluted tube is [3]
H~ e
{
_
Z
0
p
2
(S,Z)dZ
_
3Q
0
We
_
Z
0
q
2
(S,Z)e
_
Z
0
p
2
(S,Z)dZ
dZzH
4
0
_ __
1
4
: 2
In Eq. (1) and (2), u,v,w, N, S, Z, and H are all
non-dimensional parameters. In the experiment, the
evaporation equation of a single spiral flute per unit
time per unit area is[4]
Q~r
RT
2pm
_ _1
2
exp {
l
i
RT
_ _
1{
p
p
0
_ _
, 3
where, l
i
5DHm, DH5251.21 kJ/kg (60 kcal/kg),
p
p
0
50.5,
m538 g/mol.
The thickness distribution and the velocity distribution
of membrane evaporation are shown in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4.
As shown in Fig. 4, at the bottom of the spiral flute,
the curvilinear of the fuel film is discontinuous. The
reason for this is that the liquid film accumulates from
the edge to the bottom of the fluted channel.
3 Experimental results and discussions
3.1 Test bed and experimental procedure
The test bed consists of a micro combustion system, a
measurement system, a fuel supply system and an
automatic control system. The fuel is diesel oil, and the
area of the whole oil pan is 0.007 m
2
, and the biggest
theoretical evaporation capacity is 6 kg/h.
Fig. 1 Geometry of spirally fluted horizontal tube
Fig. 2 Orthogonal curvilinear system
Fig. 3 Thickness distribution of membrane evaporation
Fig. 4 Velocity distribution of membrane evaporation
Film combustion formed by spirally fluted horizontal tube 55
The combustion comparability experiment was done
first. Then, the two combustors were placed, in turn, into a
heat exchanger to collect and compare the combustion
parameters. The micro-combustor parameters are shown in
Table 1, and the combustion chamber is shown in Fig. 5.
An ENCEL M900 combustion analyzer, a QDF-3 hot-
wire anemometer, a TZ4ST-14R temperature analyzer,
and a Canon ixy 500 camera were used to collect the
combustion parameters.
3.2 Air distribution and combustion of the micro-
combustor
The micro-combustor based on falling film on the surface
of fluted horizontal tube should have an unusual
structure in the combustion chamber to match fuel/air
mixture formation in film combustion. According to the
results of theoretical analyses, an air jacket with annular
non-uniform distributed holes is selected, so that a vortex
flow of primary and secondary air could be generated in
the combustion chamber as shown in Fig. 6.
The air has already been in the state of cyclone when it
flows through the pore after passing the guide blades.
Thus, the diesel oil steam will mix with the air immediately,
and theoretically, the fuel/air mixture is fully mixed. The
rich mixture around the ignition spark plug is ignited first,
and then, it mixes with the secondary air propagating into
the whole combustion chamber with the flame vortex. The
velocity distribution of the flame vortex in the combustion
chamber can be expressed theoretically:
v
x
~
_
r
0
c
h
4
1zsign(a{r) z
2
p
_
|
z=a

z
2
=a
2
z(r=az1)
2
_
K(k){
r=a{1
r=az1
P 0
2
,k
_ _
_ __
da,
4
v
r
~{
_
r
0
c
h
a
2pr

z
2
=a
2
z(r=az1)
2
_
|
1zz
2
_
a
2
zr
2
_
a
2
z
2
=a
2
z(r=az1)
2
K(k){E(k)
_ _
da,
5
where, c
h
is the vortex ring strength per unit length along the
burner. The airflow speed distribution at the outlet of the
combustionchamber is showninFig. 7. The airflowspeedis
low at the center of the outlet and high near the wall, which
means there is vortex in the combustor and the vortex leads
to low pressure area in the center. Back flow also appears,
which may be helpful for ignition and flame stability.
In the film combustion chamber, homogeneous fuel
and air mixture formation makes it easy to ignite and to
have better flame stability. The fully mixed combustible
gas catches fire rapidly, and consequently, the flame
spreads out into the whole mixture. There is fierce fully
turbulent combustion in the cyclone field and there is
premixed combustion in it. The flame propagation
velocity can be expressed as:
w
T
~{(w
f
{
{w
f
z)r
|

2n!
B
nz1
lv
so
q
r
0
c
p
(T
z
{T
{
)
T
{
T
r
_ _
n
e
{
Ea
R
1
Tr
{
1
T
0
_ _
d

_
:
6
In the micro-combustor based on falling film on the
surface of a fluted horizontal tube, ignition consumes more
Table 1 Micro-combustor parameters
combustor type voltage/
V
fuel
supply/
(kg/h)
air
supply/
(m
3
/h)
chamber
length/
mm
outlet
diameter/
mm
film combustor 24 2.16 66 325 106
transferred cup
atomizer combustor
24 2.1 71 360 106
Fig. 5 Test bed structure
56 Ning MEI, et al.
energy to heat the fuel film for evaporation. During the
steady combustion period, the fluted tube is heated by the
flame, sothere is noneedtoinput heatingenergy. Toprevent
blow out and coking, the fluted tube should be preheated
first. As soon as the falling fuel film touches the hot fluted
tube, it evaporates and then mixes with the air outside. The
bright white flame propagates all over the combustion
chamber after ignition. The temperature distribution at
r 50, r 520 mm and r 530 mm is shown in Fig. 8.
In Fig. 8, the abscissa denotes the distance between the
measurement point and the last group holes along the
axial direction of the air jacket. The longer the distance
is, the better the combustion. The temperature of these
three positions changes alternately along the axial
direction, and this phenomenon is determined by the
swirling performance in the combustor and the flame
propagation characteristics.
3.3 Performance comparison between film combustion
and transferred cup atomizer combustion in micro-
combustor
To test the combustion performance between the film
combustion and transferred cup atomizer combustion,
experimental comparisons were made. Transferred cup
atomizer combustion is widely applied for industrial
purposes. The average diameter of fuel droplets is about
4550 mm in the transferred cup atomizer combustion.
The flame outward appearances of film combustion and
transferred cup atomizer combustion are shown in
Fig. 9.
In the steady combustion period in the film combus-
tion, the flame temperature is very high, and there is
fierce turbulent combustion in it. The bright white flame
spreads all over the combustion chamber which means
that most fuel has been burned in a short time. It could
be deduced that there is homogeneous mixture in the
combustion chamber. In the transferred cup atomizer
micro-combustor, there is obvious brushlike turbulent
flame during the steady combustion period. The
phenomenon is referred to as diffusion combustion.
Combustion parameters tested by the ENCEL M900
combustion analyzer are shown in Table 2.
The experimental comparison between film combus-
tion and transferred cup atomizer micro-combustor
shows that the film combustion is 5% higher in
Fig. 7 Airflow speed distribution
Fig. 8 Temperature distribution
Fig. 9 Combustion comparison
(a) Film combustion; (b) transferred cup atomizer combustion
Table 2 Combustion parameters contrast
combustor type g/% a CO/
10
26
NO
x
/
10
26
CO
2
/
10
26
SO
2
/
10
26
t/uC
film combustor 83 1.55 66 58 7.7 0 407
transferred cup
atomizer combustor
78 1.88 280 63 7.2 44 400
Fig. 6 Combustion chamber
Film combustion formed by spirally fluted horizontal tube 57
combustion efficiency than the transferred cup atom-
izer micro-combustor. It could be attributed to the
better fuel and air mixture formation and the rapid
ignition in the film combustion system, and as a result,
the CO emission decreases greatly. There are more
uniform high temperature areas in the film combustion
chamber, and the excessive air coefficient a is bigger
than 1.5, which also accounts for the low NO
x
emission.
Coking appears on the surface of the fluted tube and
the air jacket after the film combustor works for a
certain time. The reason for this is that the glial
together with diesel oil is also pumped into the
combustion chamber by the fuel supply system, and
the unsaturated hydrocarbon compound in the fuel
inclines to forming the glial because of its low chemical
stability. In the film combustor, there is temperature
distribution on the surface of the fluted tube. When the
air flow around the root of air jacket and core retainer
plate burns, alkene and olefin in the diesel oil will be
sintered into coking because of incomplete combustion.
The tiny carbon granules formed by fuel glial in the
combustor have insufficient time to flow out of the
burner with the exhaust and accumulate at the root of
the oil pan and the air jacket where there are fierce
vortex backflows in the combustion chamber.
The coking easily absorbs diesel oil, therefore the
absorbed fuel will continue to be sintered into coking.
Thus, more coking layer will sink on the wall of the
combustion chamber.
The coking formation is eliminated which is good for
smoke emission after making some fair modification on
the location of falling fuel film surface in the combustion
chamber and the diameter of the holes of the air jacket.
Besides, unsteady flame does not appear. There is no
coking around the root of the oil pan and the air jacket
after the combustor works for scores of hours. Although
there are some coking on the surface of the oil pan, it will
not affect the evaporation of the diesel oil.
4 Conclusions
1) Comparisons between film combustion and trans-
ferred cup atomizer combustion in a micro-combustor
show that the film combustion is 5% higher in efficiency
and has lower pollutant emission.
2) The combustor based on falling liquid film on the
surface of a horizontal spirally fluted tube can easily adjust
the fuel evaporation capacity by changing the length and
diameter of the spirally fluted tube. The fuel supply can be
adjusted arbitrarily within theoretical evaporation capacity
under the conditions of certain evaporation area.
3) The film combustion assembly in the micro-combus-
tor is less complicated compared with those in transferred
cup atomizer and jet nozzle spray micro-combustor.
4) The ignition procedure in the film combustion
system is necessary and it depends upon the temperature
on the wall of the combustion chamber. Sometimes, it is
easy for coking to form, but it is hard to clear it away.
The best way to eliminate coking is by adjusting the flow
in the combustion chamber and slightly cooling the
surface of the spirally fluted tube.
Acknowledgements This work was supported by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50676086).
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