Proceedings of the Combustion Institute, Volume 29, 2002/pp.

925–931

MINIATURE-SCALE LIQUID-FUEL-FILM COMBUSTOR

WILLIAM A. SIRIGNANO, TRINH K. PHAM and DEREK DUNN-RANKIN

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
University of California
Irvine, CA 92697-3975, USA

A new concept is explained for the miniaturization of cylindrical direct-injection liquid-fueled combus-
tors wherein the fuel is flowed in a wall film that reduces heat losses, optimizes vaporization rate, and
inhibits quenching. A simple analysis indicates that if a combustor of this type were part of a miniature
engine, power levels from 10 W to 10 kW would be achievable with combustor volumes varying from a
few hundred cubic millimeters to a few cubic centimeters and fuel flow rates varying from about 1 mg/s
to 1 g/s. The combustor takes advantage of the fact that a surface area advantage of film combustion over
spray combustion occurs for small volumes as the surface-to-volume ratio of the combustor increases. In
addition, the wall film of fuel prevents heat losses while cooling the combustor surfaces. Photographs of a
laboratory demonstration of the miniature film combustor concept with methanol and heptane fuel and a
mechanically swirled airflow are presented. The methanol flame required some methane gaseous fuel for
stability, but the heptane fuel burned successfully alone. The experiments demonstrated externally and
internally anchored flame modes and a transition between them. The stability of internal burning was
affected by internal fluid dynamics and film dryout.

Introduction potential to provide simultaneously high power den-

The energy density of burning hydrocarbon fuels
is difficult to surpass when an oxidizer stream is plen-
tiful, as with combustion in ambient air. Assuming
no energy cost for the oxidizer, for example, typical
fuels can provide 45 MJ/kg, while a modern re-
chargeable battery can manage a mere 0.5 MJ/kg.
Even fuel cells, while highly touted for their effi-
ciency and simplicity, produce power densities com-
parable to batteries (0.7 MJ/kg). Perhaps more
importantly, the energy per unit volume of electro-
chemical devices is quite low because they rely on
surface reactions, while combustion is a volumetric
energy release process. Consequently, if the ultimate
goal of a power device is propulsive or heating, direct
combustion will have clear advantages. If electrical
power is desired, the combustor dimensions are of-
ten a small fraction of the volume occupied by the
conversion hardware, but when high power density
is needed, combustion technology will continue to
be a preferred option.
The growing market of ideas that require personal
power ranges from electronic and telecommunica-
tion equipment (e.g., cellular telephones and laptop
computers) to small, mobile reconnaissance robots
that can safely explore potentially hazardous envi-
ronments. Many of these lightweight devices de-
mand tens of watts of power for durations on the
order of tens of hours, thereby driving the power-
source considerations toward those with highest en-
ergy density. Because internal combustion has the
sity and high energy density, it is natural to explore
this method of power generation. The micro gas tur-
bine (combustor volume 0.04 cc) [1], the mini
(0.078 cc displacement) and micro (0.0017 cc dis-
placement) rotary engine [2], the microrocket (0.1 cc
combustion chamber) [3], and the micro Swiss-roll
burner [4] are examples of such exploration. These
devices are not yet performing at efficiencies that
make them competitive with the best available bat-
teries, but they have demonstrated the plausibility
of internal combustion as a personal power source.
A major challenge for all miniature combustion con-
cepts is the increasing surface-to-volume ratio (S/V)
with decreasing size (since this ratio scales as the
inverse of the combustor length scale). Since wall
temperatures are generally kept fairly low due to ma-
terial considerations, a high S/V usually produces
flame quenching, particularly for premixed flames,
leading researchers to quench-resistant fuels (e.g.,
hydrogen), high-preheat concepts (as with the Swiss-
roll burner), or catalytic surfaces [5].
Our alternative for high S/V combustors is to de-
liver the liquid fuel as a film on the combustor sur-
faces [6,7]. This delivery simultaneously cools the
combustor walls and exposes the fuel for vaporiza-
tion. Current technology for larger systems does not
rely on liquid fuel filming on the combustor walls
(although some fuel is intentionally vaporized from
intake manifolds in internal combustion engines as
part of the charge preparation). Instead, to keep the
ratio of liquid surface area to liquid volume large

925
926 NEW CONCEPTS IN COMBUSTION TECHNOLOGY—Micro-Power Generation
Fig. 1. Schematic of the fuel-film miniature combustion
concept.
enough to sustain high fuel vaporization rates, the
fuel is injected as a spray. The intention is to vaporize
the liquid as a spray before very much liquid deposits
on the walls or solid surfaces of the combustor. If
the fuel were filmed in these larger engines, the sur-
face area of the liquid would not be large enough to
sustain the needed vaporization rate. However, be-
cause the S/V of any wall film will grow as the vol-
ume of the combustors decreases, the liquid film can
offer as high a liquid surface area for vaporization as
a vaporizing spray in the subcentimeter-size range
under discussion here. Furthermore, the liquid film
offers protection from heat losses and quenching
that the vaporizing spray does not. With the liquid
film on the solid surface, the wall temperature will
not exceed the boiling point of the liquid.
Concept
When burning liquid fuels in miniature combus-
tors, the logical choice is to inject all or a portion of
the fuel directly as a film on the solid surfaces where
high heat transfer from the combustion products oc-
curs. In cases where not enough liquid fuel is avail-
able to cover all critical surfaces with a fuel film,
inert liquids (e.g., water) can be used to augment
cooling by the liquid fuel. The liquid (fuel or inert)
can be sprayed onto a chosen surface, or it can be
injected through an orifice, multiple orifices, or po-
rous materials. The liquid can then be spread over
the surface on account of its own momentum and
surface tension, the friction forces on it caused by
the neighboring flowing gases, and/or the designed
use of certain force fields (e.g., electric field on
charged liquid or gravity). In order to enhance the
likelihood of combustion in a confined chamber at
high flow rates, fuel-film technology can be com-
bined with other well-known strategies (e.g., the use
of swirl generators and vortex generators) to en-
hance vaporization and mixing rates. Fig. 1 is an il-
lustration of the fuel-film combustor concept. Liquid
fuel enters tangentially along the walls of a cylindri-
cal chamber that serves as the combustor. Swirling
air flows axially through the combustor tube and past
the vaporizing wall film. A cylindrical combustor is
used for this laboratory demonstration and evalua-
tion, but the film combustion concept can extend to
other high S/V configurations.
Analysis
The basic scaling of the miniature combustor is
based on standard engineering analysis of conser-
vation of mass, momentum, and energy. We consider
cylindrical combustors with diameters in the range
of a few millimeters to 1 cm, using kerosene and
alcohol fuels, with airflow velocities up to 10 m/s
(and thereby air volume flow rates up to 1000 cc/s)
at combustor pressures up to 10 atm. With filming
liquid flow rates maintained in stoichiometric pro-
portion, calculations indicate that the vaporization
rate and the gaseous mixing rate can be high enough
to sustain the combustion and that a combustor no
longer than a few centimeters can provide sufficient
residence time to fully burn the fuel. Although the
film thickness is on the order of tens of microns, the
Reynolds number is larger than unity, indicating that
viscous forces do not prevent the movement of liq-
uid along the solid surface. The ratio of air mass flow
rate to the fuel mass flow rate at stoichiometric pro-
portion is O(10) for typical liquid hydrocarbon fuels.
For example, the ratio is 14.7 for CnH2n, 15.1 for
heptane, and 6.4 for methyl alcohol. A tube of in-
ternal diameter d between 5 and 10 mm and an axial
air velocity ug of 1–10 m/s will produce an air vol-
umetric flow rate Vg of 0.025 to 1.0 L/s. The density
ratio of liquid fuel to air varies from O(103) at at-
mospheric pressure to O(102) at 10 atm so, with stoi-
chiometric proportions, the volumetric flow rate ra-
tio (air to liquid) is between O(103) and O(104). The
liquid volume flow rate Vl then has a value between
O(10ⳮ3) and O(1) cc/s. With a liquid density ql of
O(1 g/cc), this implies a flow from 1 mg of fuel per
second (for d ⳱ 5 mm, ug ⳱ 1 m/s, p ⳱ 1 atm) to
about 1 g/s (for d ⳱ 10 mm, ug ⳱ 10 m/s, p ⳱
10 atm). The power range for these fuel flow rates
can be significant; chemical energy release rates with
typical hydrocarbon fuels will vary between 50 W
and 50 kW. Even with a poor overall engine effi-
ciency of 20%–30%, the power produced would be
between 10 W and 10 kW for the range of param-
eters considered here.
The liquid axial and swirl velocity components are
determined primarily by the action of viscous shear
from the gas flow, but we expect the liquid velocity
ul on average through the film to be several times
smaller than the gas velocity. This assertion is based
on a modified Poiseuille flow analysis for a devel-
oped velocity profile in an axisymmetric chamber
and accounts for a wall film that has zero velocity at
the wall and matches the gas velocity and shear at
 MINIATURE LIQUID FILM COMBUSTOR
the interface. Assuming then that the reduction fac-
tor is O(10ⳮ1), the thickness t of the liquid film can
be determined from a continuity equation that yields
t ⳱ Vl/(pdul), if all of the liquid enters the chamber
at the upstream end. (If the liquid enters at N po-
sitions along the axial coordinate, the value calcu-
lated above should be divided by N to estimate the
film thickness.) For stoichiometric proportions,
therefore, the film thickness t varies from 1 to 25 lm
over the parameter range. Also, for stoichiometric
burning, Vl will vary as the chamber volume (i.e.,
d2). Hence, film thickness will increase (decrease)
for richer (leaner) mixtures, larger (smaller) diame-
ter, and higher (lower) pressures.
The Reynolds number Red for the airflow based
on ug and d can vary between O(102) and O(105) for
our range of parameters. Of these 3 orders of mag-
nitude variation in Red, 2 come from a configuration
change and 1 depends on the temperature that we
use to evaluate viscosity and density. This range ex-
tends from laminar to turbulent flow. The Reynolds
number Rel for the liquid flow based upon its veloc-
ity and film thickness varies from O(10ⳮ1) to O(102).
In addition, the gas-phase laminar sublayer thickness
(in the turbulent case) is greater than the estimated
film thickness. The liquid film will, therefore, always
be in the laminar range, although not necessarily a
Stokes flow.
The global vaporization rate depends on the total
liquid surface area in the combustor and the local
vaporization rate per unit area. For a spray, the ratio
of total liquid surface area to total liquid volume is
the S/V for the average droplet, which must be max-
imized to increase the vaporization rate per unit vol-
ume of gas.
(S/V)drop ⳱ 4pR2/(4pR3/3) ⳱ 3/R (1)
where R is the radius of an average droplet. This
average is in the Sauter mean sense, a value which
characterizes the S/V of droplets. In typical fuel
sprays, an average droplet size will be in the range
of 10–100 lm. For a thin cylindrical wall film of axial
length L, the exposed S/V is approximately
(S/V)film ⳱ pdL/(pdLt) ⳱ 1/t (2)
From the continuity relations for gas and liquid, the
stoichiometric proportion for the mass flows, and the
above results for S/V, it follows that
(S/V)film/(S/V)drop ⬃ (40/3)(qlul/qgug)R/d (3)
Since we assume that the liquid velocity is approxi-
mately 1/10 that of the air on average, the ratio be-
comes
(S/V)film/(S/V)drop ⬃ (4/3)(ql/qg)R/d
⬀ (4/3p[atm])R[lm]/d[mm] (4)
927
Hence, the film will have more surface area per vol-
ume of liquid than the spray if the combustor di-
ameter is sufficiently small or the pressure is suffi-
ciently low. In particular, a linear relation of d versus
R whose slope decreases as pressure increases gives
the boundary where the two ratios are equal. The
film combustor can be designed, therefore, to have
a liquid film surface area larger than would occur in
a typical spray. At atmospheric pressure, in fact, a
10 mm diameter combustor will have a film surface
area greater than would occur for a droplet spray
with 10 lm Sauter mean radius.
The S/V arguments above do not address the
length of combustor required, since this feature is
dictated by residence times, the rate at which fuel
evaporates, and the rate at which this vapor mixes
with air. Emmons as described by Williams [8] con-
sidered vaporization from a liquid fuel surface into
air flowing past it, followed by laminar mixing and
reaction, and found that the film mass vaporization
rate per unit area will be of order (2/ReL)1/2qgug,
where the Reynolds number ReL is based on the
downstream length L of the liquid surface, the ve-
locity, and the high-temperature properties outside
the boundary layer. Based on the relation above, the
total mass vaporization rate from the liquid surface
is approximately pdL(2/ReL)1/2qgug. This value di-
vided by the mass flow rate of air must be O(10ⳮ1)
to maintain near-stoichiometric proportion. This re-
lation then yields the ratio of combustor length to
diameter as L/d ⬃ 10ⳮ3Red, where Red is based on
the high-temperature properties outside of the
boundary layer and, for our range of parameters, is
between O(102) and O(104). So, for example, the
value of L will exceed the order of magnitude of the
diameter d only if both the pressure and the air ve-
locity are at the high end of our range. This estimate
is based upon a laminar flow analysis for the heating
and vaporization of the liquid. With the turbulent
flow that occurs at the upper end of the Red range
(and with some swirl), we expect faster transport,
higher vaporization rates, and shorter L. In any case,
liquid film lengths not too much larger than the com-
bustor diameter appear to be sufficient for vapori-
zation.
The required gas residence time also affects the
needed chamber length. At a mean gas flow velocity
of 10 m/s (the maximum that we are considering), a
few milliseconds of residence time requires a length
of a few centimeters. Fortunately, the time for trans-
verse diffusion across the gas boundary layer adja-
cent to the film equals the residence time measured
from the point where the layer development begins.
Hence, mixing of the fuel vapor and air in a diffusion
layer should be achievable within the residence time.
Mixing rates can, of course, be enhanced by swirl or
vortex generation. Swirl also helps maintain the liq-
uid on the wall. Even with weak swirl, for example,
the radial acceleration (2v2/d) is almost equal to the
928 NEW CONCEPTS IN COMBUSTION TECHNOLOGY—Micro-Power Generation
Fig. 2. Experimental apparatus for demonstrating the
film combustion concept.
Fig. 3. (a) Glass combustor (1 cm diameter) with meth-
ane gas fuel only; (b) glass combustor burning a combina-
tion of liquid methanol fuel in a methane/air mixture.
earth’s gravitational acceleration at sea level if the
tangential velocity v ⳱ 20 cm/s and d ⳱ 1 cm.
Chemical reaction times, once ignition occurs and a
flame is established, should be less than 1 ms.
The above discussion shows that film vaporization
rates in miniature combustors can exceed spray va-
porization rates. Furthermore, film vaporization and
combustion gains over spray combustion in terms of
limiting wall heat losses that can cause a reduction
in efficiency and a potential for flame quenching.
With a spray flame, heat transferred from the gas to
the walls is lost. With the wall film combustion,
nearly all of the heat directed to the liquid film re-
turns to the gas phase upon vaporization. The wall
temperature does not exceed the liquid boiling
point. Additional discussion of these analyses can be
found in Refs. [6] and [7].
Demonstrations
Figure 2 is a schematic of the prototype apparatus
used to examine the miniature film combustor con-
cept. The first prototype Pyrex-glass combustor gives
visual access. Soap-bubble calibrated flow rotame-
ters monitor the gaseous flow rates, and a syringe
pump controls the liquid fuel flow. Eight 1 mm di-
ameter inlet tubes were attached (offset from the
centerline) to provide approximately uniform filming
over the interior of the 1 cm diameter and 4 cm long
combustor tube. Unfortunately, small pressure dif-
ferences between the tubes made individual control
of the liquid flow rate through each tube difficult so,
instead, we use the bottom inlets as the primary liq-
uid-feed locations and let the swirling airflow dis-
tribute the film along the interior surfaces. The
swirler at the base of the tube is a simple sheet-metal
butterfly. Visualization of fluid tracks along the com-
bustor indicated approximately one rotation of the
fluid over one half of the axial length of the chamber.
Assuming that both axial velocity and tangential ve-
locity components have the same ratio for the liquid
and gas, we estimate a swirl number of nearly 2
(2pd/L) at the conditions of the combustion tests.
Methane Gas Fuel Only
The first experiments employed premixed gaseous
fuel and air only (no liquid), and the resulting be-
havior is shown in Fig. 3a. The V-shaped methane
flame sits above the tube exit, with the tip of the V
slightly below the end of the combustor tube. This
flame is not attached to the rim of the tube and ap-
pears to be swirl stabilized in much the same way as
occurs in the low-swirl burners described by Yegian
and Cheng [9]. That is, as the confined swirling flow
exits the tube, the flame finds a balance between the
decelerating expanding flow (from the centrifugal
motion) and the flame speed. It has been shown that
this stabilization mechanism is extremely robust and
can allow very lean combustion (which we confirmed
in these tests). In our case, however, the goal is a
confined flame, not an external one, and so we at-
tempted to coax the methane/air flame into the com-
bustor, hoping to stabilize it in the presumed recir-
culation region above the swirler. Under no flow
conditions for this particular chamber, however,
were we able to accomplish this. The gaseous fuel/
air flame would not burn internally. We also at-
tempted to ignite the gas flame at the base of the
tube using a spark from an induction coil across two
 MINIATURE LIQUID FILM COMBUSTOR
Fig. 4. Metal combustor with spiral swirler with (a)
methane gas fuel only; (b) burning methanol/methane fuel
mix. The image is contrast enhanced to show flame.
electrodes in the lowermost liquid inlet tubes. While
we could ignite the mixture, the flame immediately
moved downstream through the tube to the exit
where it stabilized, as shown in the photograph.
Over the entire equivalence ratio range tested (0.6–
2.0) and for several airflow rates (6–18 L/min), the
gaseous fuel flame would burn only outside the end
of the combustor tube. We conclude, therefore, that
an internal gas-only flame cannot be sustained inside
the 1 cm combustor without improved internal re-
circulation.
Methane Gas Plus Methanol Liquid Fuel
Because it was difficult to ignite the liquid-fueled
flame from a cold start, we chose instead to operate
the system using both gas and liquid fuels simulta-
neously. The procedure was to feed a bit of liquid
fuel into the base of the combustor, flow the fuel/air
mixture, and ignite the flame at the exit of the tube.
We would then decrease the gas fuel flow rate until
at a critical condition, the flame jumped into the
tube, where it burned in a confined state, as shown
in Fig. 3b. It is important to reiterate that we could
burn inside the tube only when liquid fuel was pro-
vided. In fact, if we shut off the liquid flow, the flame
continued to burn inside the tube until it exhausted
929
any remaining film, and it then jumped up to the top
of the tube to burn in the low-swirl stabilized state.
As mentioned earlier, our control of the liquid film
uniformity was less than desirable, and consequently
we could operate the combustor only for limited
time in the confined flame state. Furthermore, it was
difficult to control the liquid flow rate with rapid
response times (particularly since as the temperature
changed, some boiling was observed in the inlet pas-
sages). Therefore, our ability to adjust the stoichi-
ometry and film thickness was limited. Nevertheless,
we were able to back off of the gaseous fuel flow rate
until the flame was no longer sustained, thereby
finding a minimum condition for the system. For the
glass combustor, this condition was 8.5 L/min air-
flow, 25 cc/hr methanol, and 0.25 L/min methane,
which corresponds to approximately 51% methanol
in the fuel on a molar basis. This equates to a mean
axial gas velocity of 1.80 m/s and, based on the prop-
erties at the initial room temperature, Red ⳱ 1200.
While complete premixing may not have been at-
tained, the overall equivalence ratio for the system
was 0.5, which is quite lean. With the methanol fuel,
we were unable to achieve a purely liquid-fed flame,
presumably because we could not initiate the fueling
with sufficient precision.
To avoid some of the difficulties with the glass
combustor, we developed a steel device of equiva-
lent size. The metal gives more uniform wall heating
conditions, and it can better withstand the mechan-
ical stresses associated with non-uniform heat loads.
The experiments with this combustor using metha-
nol and methane showed the same behaviors we
noted with the glass system. Fig. 4a shows the metal
combustor with a lean methane/air flame (equiva-
lence ratio near 0.7) burning externally. Fig. 4b
shows a methanol/methane/air flame (21.2 cc/h
methanol, 0.2 L/min methane, 8.0 L/min air) burn-
ing internally. The latter photograph has significantly
higher contrast to make the remnants of the internal
flame visible.
Heptane Liquid Fuel
Heptane liquid has a much lower heat of vapori-
zation as compared to methanol (heptane ⳱ 318 kJ/kg,
methanol ⳱ 1100 kJ/kg), making it a more attractive
fuel for the miniature film combustor demonstra-
tions. Fig. 5 shows a pure heptane/air flame burning
in the miniature combustor. The liquid-heptane-fu-
eled metal combustor exhibits a wide range of flame
character depending on the airflow rate through the
system. Fig. 5 shows this range as the airflow in-
creases from 4.5 to 8 L/min while holding the liquid
fuel flow rate constant at 63.7 cc/h (assuming com-
plete mixing, this represents an equivalence ratio
range from 1.6 to 0.9, respectively). Fig. 5a shows
930 NEW CONCEPTS IN COMBUSTION TECHNOLOGY—Micro-Power Generation

Fig. 5. Heptane burning in the liquid film combustor at different airflow rates with a fixed liquid-fuel flow rate
(63.4 cc/h). Image (g) corresponds to the stoichiometric fuel/air condition.

the lowest airflow case and the large external diffu- for these three flames were attributed to variations
sion flame that results. As the airflow rate increases in flame dynamics, mixing, and heat loss, indicating
(Fig. 5b), the swirl contribution grows and some in- that swirl plays an important role in flame stabiliza-
ternal fuel air mixing occurs. With further airflow tion. In the near future, laboratory studies and dem-
increase (Fig. 5c and 5d), the system behaves like a onstrations will examine a wider range of airflow
prevaporizing-premixing combustor, producing a rates, fuels, and chamber diameters (in particular,
flame reminiscent of the low-swirl stabilized pre- smaller values). Additional swirl and mixing strate-
mixed methane/air flame of Fig. 3. In Fig. 5e the gies will be explored, along with igniters inside the
flame begins to burn internally, but streaks of yellow chamber near the swirl vanes. Finally, in order to
indicate that some of the fuel is not mixing com- fully realize a miniature fuel-film combustor, math-
pletely into the airstream. Finally, in Fig. 5g (very ematical analysis will continue with the aim of pro-
close to the stoichiometric condition), the internal ducing further insights and quantitative guidance
flame appears uniformly mixed. Further air increase (e.g., a more detailed theoretical analysis appears in
beyond this condition blows the flame out. Ther- Ref. [7]).
mocouple measurements of the wall temperature
under the internal combustion conditions range be- Nomenclature
tween 370 K at the fuel inlet tubes to 390 K at the d combustor diameter
chamber outlet, indicating evaporative cooling by L axial length of liquid film
the fuel film (boiling point of heptane ⳱ 371.5 K). R droplet radius
Because the swirl conditions in the tube are far from Red gas-phase Reynolds number based on
ideal (i.e., there is not independent control of axial diameter
and tangential velocities), these images represent ReL gas-phase Reynolds number based on film
only qualitative behaviors, but clearly demonstrate length
that pure-gas, liquid/gas, and pure-liquid-fuel flames Rel liquid-phase Reynolds number based on
behave differently. These differences in flame be- film thickness
havior are due to a combination of effects including Sdrop droplet surface area
fluid dynamic structure, local mixture ratio, and heat Sfilm film surface area
loss. Of these, fluid dynamics and fuel/air mixing ap- t film thickness
pear to be the most important factors, establishing a ug mean gas axial velocity
firm relationship between swirl and flame stability. ul mean liquid axial velocity
Vdrop droplet volume
Concluding Remarks Vfilm film volume
Vg gas volumetric flow rate
The new fuel-film concept analyzed and demon- Vl liquid volumetric flow rate
strated in this paper shows that for miniaturizing di- v tangential (swirl) velocity component
rect-injection liquid-fueled combustors, liquid-fuel p pressure
films can result in heat loss reduction, inhibition of qg gas density
quenching, and optimization of vaporizing surface ql liquid density
area. Experimentally, it was shown that an internal
flame could not be maintained for the pure-gas-fuel Acknowledgments
flame with weak swirl, but was sustainable for liquid/ The authors appreciate the efforts of Dr. Ben Strayer for
gas and pure-liquid flames. Differences in behavior his assistance in the early experimental feasibility studies
 MINIATURE LIQUID FILM COMBUSTOR
of the miniature combustor and the suggestions of Dr.
Vince McDonell regarding swirl strategies and fuels to con-
sider.
REFERENCES
1. Waitz, I. A., Gauba, G., and Tzeng, Y.-S., J. Fluids Eng.
120:109 (1998).
2. Fu, K., Walther, D. C., Fernandez-Pello, A. C., Liep-
mann, D., and Miyasaka, K., ‘‘Preliminary Report on
MEMS Rotary Internal Combustion Engine,’’ paper
99F023, Western States Section Fall Meeting of the
Combustion Institute, Irvine, CA, October 25, 1999.
3. Lindsay, W., Teasdale, D., Milanovic, V., Pister, K., and
Fernandez-Pello, A. C., ‘‘Thrust and Electrical Power
from Solid Propellant Microrockets,’’ in Fourteenth
IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Me-
chanical Systems, IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, 2001, pp. 606–
610.
931
4. Sitzki, L., Borer, K., Schuster, E., Ronney, P. D., and
Wussow, S., ‘‘Combustion in Microscale Heat-Recircu-
lating Burners,’’ Third Asia-Pacific Conference on Com-
bustion, Seoul, Korea, June 24–27, 2001.
5. Chao, Y.-C., Chen, G.-B., and Tsai, M.-H., ‘‘Investiga-
tion of the Performance Characteristics of a Miniature
Catalytic Gas Turbine Combustor,’’ Fourth Pacific In-
ternational Conference on Aerospace Science and Tech-
nology, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, May 21–23, 2001.
6. Sirignano, W. A., Dunn-Rankin, D., Strayer, B. A., and
Pham, T. K., ‘‘Miniature Combustor with Liquid-Fuel
Film,’’ paper F01-036, Western States Section Fall
Meeting of the Combustion Institute, Salt Lake City,
UT, October 15–16, 2001.
7. Sirignano, W. A., ‘‘Analysis of Miniature Liquid-Film
Combustor,’’ Proceedings of the Eastern States Section
Fall Meeting of the Combustion Institute, Hilton Head,
SC, December 3–5, 2001.
8. Williams, F. A., Combustion Theory, Benjamin/Cum-
mings, Menlo Park, CA, 1985, pp. 495–503.
9. Yegian, D. T., and Cheng, R. K., Combust. Sci. Technol.
139:207 (1998).