Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical

Engineers, Part G: Journal of Aerospace

Engineering
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Investigation of particle size effect on flame velocity in the combustion of nano/micron-sized aluminum
particles in air
M Bidabadi, J Fereidooni, SN Hosseini and P Asadollahzadeh
Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G: Journal of Aerospace Engineering 2014 228: 297
originally published online 9 January 2013
DOI: 10.1177/0954410012471767

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Original Article

Proc IMechE Part G:

J Aerospace Engineering
Investigation of particle size effect on 2014, Vol 228(2) 297–304
! IMechE 2012

flame velocity in the combustion of nano/ Reprints and permissions:

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micron-sized aluminum particles in air DOI: 10.1177/0954410012471767

uk.sagepub.com/jaero

M Bidabadi, J Fereidooni, SN Hosseini and P Asadollahzadeh

Abstract
It is observed that a diffusion-controlled mechanism applied to the burning of micron-sized particles is not applicable to
the combustion of nano-sized particles burning under kinetically controlled conditions. Furthermore, when heat transfer
occurs between micron-sized particles and air, Nusselt number can be assumed to be constant and equal to 2, while this
number is a function of Knudsen number when heat transfer occurs between nano-sized particles and air. Ignition
temperatures of micron- and nano-sized particles are also different. In this article, mass and energy conservation
equations for both particle and gas phases are solved. By doing so, flame velocity is obtained. Afterwards, with respect
to different combustion characteristics of micron-and nano-sized particles such as ignition temperature, burning time,
and Nusselt number, the effect of particle size on the flame velocity of aluminum particles combustion in air is studied
and compared with experimental and numerical results. At the equivalence ratio of 0.85, it is shown that flame velocity is
proportional to d0.94 and d0.56 for micron- and nano-sized aluminum particles, respectively.

Keywords
Combustion, flame velocity, micron-sized particles, nano-sized particles, aluminum

Date received: 9 July 2012; accepted: 29 November 2012

The effect of addition of species like hydrogen that

Introduction
Nanoparticle oxidation and combustion are very
open-ended research problems since most of the
work so far has been done at micronscales. Nano-
sized aluminum and other metallic particles can be
extensively used in many propulsion and energy-con-
version applications due to their unusual energetic
properties, such as increased catalytic activity and
higher reactivity.1 The application of nano-aluminum
particles for propulsive and energetic application has
been explored in many studies.2,3
Study of combustion of nano-sized aluminum par-
ticles with various oxidizers in a well-characterized
laminar particle-laden flow has also been done
through experimental, numerical, and theoretical
approaches. Risha et al.4 performed an experimental
investigation to determine laminar flame speeds of
micron- and nano-sized aluminum particle-laden
aerosols using Bunsen burner type dust cloud appar-
atus. The particles of size 5–8 mm and 100 nm were
considered. The measured flame speeds were inde-
pendent of the equivalence ratio because of the inde-
pendence of flame temperature. The flame speed
increased with increase in oxygen concentration.
enhanced thermal properties also increased the flame
speed.
Jadidi et al.5 presented a two-dimensional (2D) ana-
lytical model of combustion of micron-sized aluminum
dust cloud in a channel. They assumed a laminar,
steady and uniform flow with the purpose of gaining
flame speed, quenching distance, lean flammability
limit, and temperature distribution. The results
showed that solving equations in 2D models leads to
good agreements between the theoretical and experi-
mental results for flame speed, lean limit, and quench-
ing distance terms. Jadidi et al.6 also developed a
mathematical combustion model of non-adiabatic
dust flame for a suspension of two mono-sized metal
powders. Depending on the combustion properties
of particles at different concentrations, the flame
Combustion Research Laboratory, School of Mechanical Engineering,
Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran
Corresponding author:
J Fereidooni, Combustion Research Laboratory, School of Mechanical
Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Narmak, Tehran
16846-13114, Iran.
Email: fereidooni@iust.ac.ir

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298 Proc IMechE Part G: J Aerospace Engineering 228(2)

hd
structure may display either an overlapping or a sepa- where Nu ¼ gp is Nusselt number. By multiplying
rated configuration. The laminar flame speed and both sides of equation by nF , and then assuming
quenching distance were obtained by solving the up ¼ ug ¼ v, it is obtained
energy equation in each zone and then matching the

temperature and heat flux at the interfacial boundaries. mF dTp  
The combustion of mono-dispersed aluminum par-  u SL cp, p ¼ dp nF g Nu Tg  Tp ð3Þ
mO st dx
ticle dust in air was studied under fuel-lean conditions
by Huang et al.7 The flame speed and temperature where , mF , cp, p , nF , dp , and g are equivalence ratio,
distribution were obtained by numerically solving the total mass of particles, the specific heat of particle,
the energy equation in flame zone; also, particle burn- the number density of particles (i.e. the number of
ing rate was modeled as a function of particle diam- particles per unit volume), the particle diameter and
eter and ambient temperature. In addition, the flame the thermal conductivity of the gas, respectively.
behavior of ultra-fine particles in the sub-nanometer Subscript st denotes stoichiometric condition.
range was examined by asymptotically treating par- Energy conservation equation for gas phase takes
ticles as large molecules. They found that the flame the form
speed, for micron-sized and larger particles, follows  
the d0.92-law. For nano-particles, a d0.52 or d0.13 d   d dTg
’g ug cp, g Tg ¼ ’g þ ’wF Q
dependence obtained, depending on whether the d1.0- dx dx dx
or d0.3-law of particle burning time implemented in  
 dp nF g Nu Tg  Tp ð4Þ
the flame model, respectively.
Bocanegra et al.8 conducted an experimental study
to determine flame propagation velocities in clouds of where cp,g, wF, Q, and ’ are the specific heat of gas at
micron-sized (4.8 mm) and nano-sized (187 nm) alumi- constant pressure, the reaction rate characterizing
num particles in air at various concentrations. The consumption of fuel, the heat of reaction per unit
experimental results showed that flame propagates mass of fuel, and volume fraction of gas in gas–solid
faster in nanoparticle cloud than microparticle cloud mixture, respectively. In lean mixtures, the effect of
combustion. Also, analysis of combustion residual volume fraction can be neglected.
demonstrated that nanoparticles combustion is rea- Boundary conditions are as follows
lized via the gas-phase mechanism. A three-stage par-
ticle combustion model was proposed based on these x ! 1 : Tg ¼ Tp ¼ Tu
observations. x ¼ 0 : Tp ¼ Tig 
The aim of this study is to analytically investigate   dTg  dTg 
 
x ¼ 0 : Tg 0þ ¼ Tg 0 , ¼ ð5Þ
the effect of particle size on flame velocity in the com- dx 0þ dx 0
bustion of micron- and nano-sized aluminum dust–air dTg
x ! þ1 : ¼0
mixture. The main advantage of the presented model dx
lies in its analytical expression, implying that it can
easily be used to study different effects on flame vel- Due to the excess of oxidizer in a fuel–lean mixture,
ocity. The results are compared with experimental and total particle burning time is assumed to be equal to
numerical ones. the burning time of a single particle  b.9 Hence, the
total burning rate is considered to be constant with an
average value, mF/ b, where mF is the total mass of
Modeling particles. Therefore, in above equations, reaction rate
A mathematical model is developed to describe steady is presented as9
and 1D flame propagation in a combustible system Cd, u
containing uniformly distributed aluminum particles wF ¼ ð6Þ
b
in air. The governing conservation equations for both
the gas and the solid phase are presented. The gas- where Cd, u is initial mass concentration of fuel. Here,
phase mass conservation equation is as follows for the sake of simplification, the following non-
dimensional parameters are introduced
g v ¼ u SL ð1Þ
T x Cd, u
where  and v are density and velocity, respectively. ¼ , X¼ , ¼ ,
Tu SL 0 Cd, st
Subscripts u and g denote unburned particle and gas, rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
respectively; SL represents flame velocity. g S2L 0 Cd, u Q
g ¼ , ¼ ,
¼
Energy equation for a particle is also written as u cp, g  u cp, g Tu

mO 6g cp, g 0 Cd, st Nu 6g 0 Cd, u Nu
¼ , ¼
dTp   mF st d2p p cp, p d2p p
mp up cp, p ¼ dp g Nu Tg  Tp ð2Þ
dx ð7Þ

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Bidabadi et al. 299

where 0 , , and Cd denote time scale, which defines as Because of the linearity of the foregoing differential
burning time of a particle on the basis of its initial equations, they can easily be solved. By using this
size, non-dimensional flame velocity, and dust concen- point and also matching conditions at the boundaries
tration, respectively. Subscript ig represents ignition between the two zones, an algebraic equation for
condition. flame velocity is obtained
By applying non-dimensional parameters to the con-  2

servation equations and boundary conditions, it yields 
1  e
K¼ ð14Þ
d2 g dg   0 þK
2
 2 ¼  2 g  p 
2 ð8Þ
dX dX b where
dp  
dX
¼  g  s ð9Þ 1 2 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
K¼   þ 4 þ 2 2 þ 2 þ 4 2  ð15Þ
2
and
X ! 1 : g ¼ p ¼ 1
X ¼ 0 : p ¼ ig
Ignition temperature, Nusselt number,
  and burning time
  dg  dg 
X ¼ 0 : g 0þ ¼ g 0 , ¼
dx 0þ dx 0 For micron-sized and larger aluminum particles, the
dg ignition temperature coincides with the melting point
X ! þ1 : ¼0 ð10Þ of the surface oxide layer at 2327 K. This is due to the
dx
impervious nature of aluminum oxide, which inhibits
ignition.1 At nanoscales, however, a wide range of
Analytical solution
ignition temperatures are observed down to as low
In order to solve equations, flame is divided into two as 940 K, which coincides with the melting point of
parts, namely preheat and flame zone. In the flame aluminum core.1
zone, since particles are gradually consumed and con- Figure 1 is a combination of results in various ref-
sequently nothing will be left behind at the end of this erences10–14 for the ignition temperature of particles
zone, energy conservation for particles is not taken whose sizes are less than micron. This figure depicts
into consideration in this zone and is only considered the observed ignition temperature versus particle diam-
in the preheat zone. Also, the heat transfer between eter. In the present study, results from curve-fitting of
particles and gas in the flame zone is neglected. Due to the experimental data, i.e. Tig ¼ 1329d0:08517
p , are used
the fact that chemical reactions can be neglected in the in order to estimate the particle ignition temperature.
preheat zone, particles concentration stays unchanged As mentioned earlier, when heat transfer occurs
throughout this zone. For lean mixtures, based on between micron-sized aluminum particle and air,
assumptions mentioned above, non-dimensional Nusselt number is considered to be constant and
equations along with their respective boundary con- equal to 2. For nano-sized aluminum particle, how-
ditions can be obtained as: ever, Nusselt number is no longer constant. Regime of
Preheat zone heat conduction from a spherical particle to the sur-
rounding air is defined in terms of dimensionless
d2 g dg   0 Knudsen number Kn, which is the ratio of the mean
2
 2 ¼  2 g  p 
2 , free path of air molecules to the particle radius.
dX dX b
X ! 1 : g ¼ 1 ð11Þ Based on Knudsen number, there are three regimes:
free-molecular regime, continuum regime and
dp   transition regime. At intermediate Kn numbers
¼  g  p , X ! 1 : p ¼ 1, X ¼ 0 : p ¼ ig (0.01 < Kn < 10), heat transfer occurs in the tran-
dX
sition regime (between the continuum and free-mole-
ð12Þ
cular regime).15 In many common combustion
conditions, the heat transfer from a spherical nano-
Flame zone particle to the surrounding gas occurs in the transition
regime. Different relations are proposed for the heat
d2 g dg   0 transfer rate in this regime. Among them, McCoy and
2
 2 ¼  2 g  p 
2 , Cha model16 under conditions of small temperature
dX dX b
  difference and constant values for thermal conductiv-
  dg  dg 
 
X ¼ 0 : g 0 þ ¼ g 0  , ¼ , ity g and ratio of specific heats is selected as
dx  þ dx  
0 0
dg
X ! þ1 : ¼0 2d2P g  
dx q_ ¼ Tg  Tp ð16Þ
ð13Þ dp þ l g G

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300
Figure 1. Experimental results for ignition temperature of aluminum particle versus its diameter.
where mean free path of the surrounding gas mol-
ecules lg is based on the definition of McCoy and
Cha.16 In above equation, G is defined as
8f
G¼
 ð
þ 1Þ
where  denotes accommodation coefficient. f,
called Eucken factor, is equal to ð9
 5Þ=4. Thus, in
  1 mg
the transition regime, Nusselt number is obtained
from
 þ 1 8kB Tg
q_ 2dp 2
Nu ¼  ¼ ¼ ð18Þ
dp g Tg  Tp d p þ lg G 1 þ KnJ
where J ¼ G=2. Here, changes of parameters g ,
, cient, the universal gas constant, and surrounding gas
and lg with temperature are neglected.
Micron-sized aluminum particles are burned under
diffusion-controlled conditions. In this case, charac-
teristic burning time is obtained from d2-law and is
independent from pressure. This value for aluminum
is usually in the range of 1.5–1.8. Beckstead17 pro-
posed the following equation in order to evaluate
the burning time of aluminum particles
dnp
b ¼
aXeff P0:1 T0:2
0
where Xeff ¼ CO2 þ 0:6CH2 O þ 0:22CCO2 , a¼41 for
n ¼ 1.5 and a ¼ 136 for n ¼ 1.8. Here, pressure (P),
temperature (T), diameter (dp), and burning time
(b ) are measured in atmosphere, Kelvin, micrometer,
and millisecond, respectively. The suggested formula
for Xeff is used to consider the relative effectiveness of
various oxidizers based on experiments.
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Proc IMechE Part G: J Aerospace Engineering 228(2)
Nanoparticles are generally burned under kinet-
ically controlled conditions. Under this mechanism,
characteristic burning time follows d1-law and
has an inverse relation with pressure. In this
study, following expression18 is used for the burn-
ð17Þ
ing time of nano-sized particles in the transition
regime
 rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
p hcom Ea d2p 32lg Tg
b ¼ 1þ
 2
RT dp pg
ig
ð20Þ
where Ea , hcom , , R and Tg denote activation
energy, combustion enthalpy, accommodation coeffi-
temperature, respectively.
Results
In the present study, changes of properties with tem-
perature are neglected. It is also assumed that b ¼ 0 .
To investigate the particle size effect on flame velocity,
parameter values in Table 1 are used. For the specific
heat capacity and the thermal conductivity of air,
ð19Þ following expressions are used19
cp, g ¼ 1:9327  1010 T4ave  7:9999  107 T3ave
þ 1:1407  103 T2ave  4:4890  101 Tave
þ 1:0575  103
g ¼ 1:5207  1011 T3ave  4:8574  108 T2ave
þ 1:0184  104 Tave  3:9333  104
Bidabadi et al.
Table 1. The value of parameters used in the model.
Parameters
Aluminum density, p
Air density at unburned state, u
Heat of reaction per unit mass of fuel, Q
Specific heat of aluminum, cp,p (at melting point of aluminum)
Stoichiometric mass concentration of fuel, Cd,st
Ambient air temperature, Tu
Stoichiometric ratio of total mass of particles to mass of oxidizer,
Xeff
Ambient gas pressure, P
Accommodation coefficient for aluminum
Specific heat ratio,
1.4
Figure 2. Flame velocity versus particle diameter for the combustion of aluminum particles in air.
where Tave is assumed to be the average of ambient
and ignition temperature in the case of micron-sized
particles and ignition temperature in the case of nano-
sized particles.
In Figure 2, flame velocity of the micron-sized alu-
minum particles versus various diameters is depicted.
Obtained result is compared with experimental ones
by Risha et al.,4 Boichuk et al.,20 Goroshin et al.,9,21
Ballal,22 and Cassel.23 For micron-sized particles at
the equivalence ratio of 0:85, burning velocity is pro-
portional to d0:94 . It is in good agreement with
numerical work done by Huang et al.,7 who obtained
a d0:92 dependence for flame speed.
As can be seen from Figure 2, flame velocity
increases with the decrease of micron-sized particles
diameter. However, more decrease in particles diam-
eter leads to the inapplicability of this theory and a
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301
Value
2700 kg/m3
1.205 kg/m3
31106 J/kg
1242 J/(kg K)
0.312 kg/m3
293 K
mF
mO st 3.8172
0.2
1 atm
0.87
big difference between experimental and theoretical
results. Therefore, modifications for smaller particles
are needed. As the particle size decreases to nano-
scales, diffusion-controlled mechanism is no longer
dominating one, and the process is kinetically con-
trolled (i.e. the diffusion rate of oxidizer is much
faster than the reaction rate at the particle surface7).
By introducing a new relation that computes the
burning time of nano-sized particles in the transition
regime, using the fit curve drawn through the experi-
mental data for ignition temperature and acquiring
variable Nusselt number for heat transfer between
each nanoparticle and the surrounding gas, flame
propagation velocity of nano-sized aluminum parti-
cle-laden flow is obtained. Due to a higher specific
surface area of smaller particles, the amount of the
air required for combustion is reduced. Therefore,
302 Proc IMechE Part G: J Aerospace Engineering 228(2)

Figure 3. Flame velocity as a function of particle size for stoichiometric mixture of aluminum particle dust and air.

Figure 4. Flame velocity versus particle diameter in combustion of nano-sized aluminum particles in air.

flame propagation velocity increases as particle size
decreases.
Since there is no experimental work concerning the
burning velocity of nano-sized aluminum particle
combustion in air, our results are compared with
work done by Bocanegra et al.8 in stoichiometric
mode for non-aggregated particles. Figure 3 illustrates
that the present analytical model is ingood agreement
with the numerical results of the above-mentioned
reference.
Figure 4 shows flame velocity as a function of par-
ticles diameter in the combustion of nano-sized alu-
minum particle in air at  ¼ 0:85. Initially, the
mixture is in room temperature. For nano-sized alu-
minum particles, the specific surface area increases
which in turn leads to decrease in air supply for

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Bidabadi et al.
stable combustion and will cause easier ignition and
increased burning rates. Therefore, as it can be seen
from this figure, flame propagation velocity increases
as particle size decreases. Here, it is found that flame
velocity varies proportional to d0.56. In numerical
studies conducted by Huang et al.,7 they used two
expressions for burning time, first expression was a
theoretical one for particles burning under kinetically
controlled conditions and second expression was an
experimental one which is obtained from work done
by Parr et al.12 In this figure, the expression d0.52 is
obtained when burning time is based on experimental
data, and expression d0.13 is obtained when burning
time is modeled based on kinetically controlled mech-
anism. They also developed a numerical model, which
treats very fine aluminum particles as large molecules,
to obtain the flame speed at the molecular limit (i.e.
d ! 0). The obtained maximum flame speed was
5.82 m/s.
In summary, laminar flame velocity is inversely pro-
portional to the burning time, ignition temperature
and Nusselt number. Particle size also plays a key
role in dust ignition and burning. As aluminum particle
size decreases from micron to nanoscales, the burning
mechanism transits from diffusion-controlled to kinet-
ically controlled mode. This in turn increases the rate
of burning. On the other hand, as the particle size
decreases, ease of ignition also increases and heat con-
duction becomes more important. The net effect is an
increase in flame velocity with decreasing particle size.
Conclusion
In this study, the effect of particle size on flame vel-
ocity in the combustion of aluminum particles with air
is studied analytically and compared with numerical
and experimental results. Obtained results for micron-
sized particles are in good agreement with experimen-
tal ones. Presented theory for microparticles, how-
ever, is inapplicable for nanoparticle. Therefore,
modifications in ignition temperature, burning time,
and Nusselt number are made. Experimental data for
flame velocity of nano-sized aluminum particles in air
does not exist; that is why obtained results are com-
pared with only numerical ones, and they also are in
good agreement. Finally, it is obtained that flame vel-
ocity, at equivalence ratio of 0.85, varies proportional
to d0:94 for particles in micron scales, and propor-
tional to d0:56 for nanoscaled particles.
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any
funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit
sectors.
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’ volume fraction of gas in gas–solid
Appendix mixture (–)
dimensionless flame velocity
Notation
 equivalence
 ratio
 (–)
Cd dust concentration (kg/m3)  density kg=m3
cp specific heat capacity at constant pressure
(J/(kg K))
d diameter (m)
Subscripts
h convection heat transfer coefficient
W=ðm2 KÞ ig ignition
m mass ðkgÞ   F fuel
nF number density of particles 1=m3 g gas
Nu Nusselt number (–) p particle
Q heat release per unit mass of fuel ðJ=kgÞ u unburned
SL laminar flame velocity ðm=sÞ st stoichiometric
T temperature ðKÞ

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