1310

Effects of combustor geometry on hydrogen–air

premixed flame combustion in an annular
microcombustor
S Y Jejurkar* and D P Mishra
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India

The manuscript was received on 15 February 2010 and was accepted after revision for publication on 8 March 2011.

DOI: 10.1177/0954410011405270

Abstract: Heat losses at the walls and heat release are two competitive rate processes in micro-
combustion, and a microcombustor design must balance them appropriately for optimal perfor-
mance. The primary objective of this work was to study the effects of some design variables on the
processes influencing microcombustor characteristics and performance. A new compact and
lightweight premixed hydrogen–air annular microcombustor was studied using a detailed com-
putational fluid dynamics model validated against experimental data from literature. Heat reflux
and flame stabilization were achieved by inserting a hollow tube in the combustion zone, which
was also thermally isolated to reduce heat losses. It was found that the flame structure was
insensitive to the thickness of inner tube, while wall temperature was not. On the other hand,
a compact flame was obtained for larger aspect ratios, and wall temperature field did not alter
significantly. Performance improved marginally with a higher thermal conductivity hollow tube.
However, larger aspect ratio resulted in inferior thermal performance and non-isothermal walls.
Thus, a configuration with smaller aspect ratio and thin-walled inner tube, possibly with a high
thermal conductivity, was found to be desirable for good thermal performance. Finally, the model
predictions indicated suitability of the design for intended applications.

Keywords: heat recirculation, heat losses, microcombustion, thermal performance

1. INTRODUCTION in microcombustion than at the conventional

Extent of imbalance between the rates of heat released
by combustion and heat losses to the surroundings
governs the efficiency of microcombustion. Small
transverse length scales and correspondingly large
surface area per unit available reaction volume
induce high temperature gradients, which can lead
to flame quenching and limit the operational range
of a microcombustor intended for heating, power
generation, and propulsion. An enhanced heat flux
through the walls means that heat losses are higher
*Corresponding author: Combustion Laboratory, Department of
Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
208016, India.
email: swarup@iitk.ac.in
scale. Thus, the establishment of a self-sustaining
flame in the presence of heat losses counts as a
major step towards the successful deployment of
microcombustors.
In an early study on microcombustor development
and characterization, Cheung and Tilston [1]
described a H2O2–hydrocarbon bipropellant fueled
hybrid rocket–turbine microcombustor, which was
fitted with a nozzle for propelling a micro air vehicle
(MAV). The combustor could operate at a positive
pressure of 1.9 bar and temperature around 768 K
generated by H2O2 decomposition. On the other
hand, excessive heat losses impaired the ignition of
hydrocarbon fuels. The start-up, heat losses, and
inordinately long autoignition delay were the major
impediments for successful operation. Cheung and
Tilston [1] suggested heat recycle from nozzle and

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 Effects of combustor geometry on hydrogen–air premixed flame combustion
aero–gel insulation as possible solutions to these
problems. Peirs et al. [2] described a complete
micro gas turbine system in which a scaled-down
conventional annular combustor would be used.
They highlighted the challenges to system integration
and noted that the relative combustor size would
be large in case of microturbine compared to the
conventional gas turbine due to above-mentioned
problems. Many previously developed microcom-
bustors [3–7] also utilized heat recirculation to solve
the basic problems stated above. Chen and Churchill
[8, 9] concluded that internal radiation facilitated
heat recirculation towards the reactant mixture in
upstream direction. Additionally, studies [8–11]
have shown the importance of wall conduction in
heat recirculation to reactants in such configurations.
Use of porous inert medium (PIM) of high surface
area per unit volume was considered by Takeno and
other researchers [12–14] as well as Marbach and
Agrawal [15] to obtain excess enthalpy combustion.
Takeno and Sato [12] showed that a ceramic rod
introduced in the flame, extracted heat from the
products and conducted it backwards towards the
cold reactants. Marbach and Agrawal [15] used a con-
figuration in which reactants flowed counter-current
to the hot products through an annulus filled with
PIM and combustion took place near another PIM
kept internally. Such configurations, however, may
result in increased overall weight of the assembly,
higher pressure losses, and appearance of hot spots.
Stable combustion inside a microcombustor
depends upon wall temperature, which should be
high enough to allow ignition without causing mate-
rial failure. On these lines of reasoning, a premixed
flame microcombustor configuration was devised
[16], which recirculated a part of heat released in com-
bustion in an attempt to control the wall temperature
and simultaneously maintained favourable wall–
flame interactions. Combustion reactions occurred
in an annular region formed by two concentric tubes
as shown in Fig. 1.
The inner tube (dit ¼ 5 mm, L ¼ 20 mm) contained
nitrogen gas (N2) and outer tube (dot ¼ 11 mm,
L ¼ 20 mm) formed the external covering. The over-
all combustor volume was 1.9 cm3. Considering that
Fig. 1 Sketch of the annular microcombustor
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1311
the wall thickness is of the same order of magnitude
as reaction zone in any microcombustor, wall thick-
ness was 1 mm in this study. The resulting annular
region had a gap width (Wannulus) of 1 mm. Kotani
and Takeno [14] found that heat losses from the
combustor proposed by Takeno and Sato [12]
should be necessarily low if the advantages of heat
recirculation are to be realized. The resulting com-
bustor [14] required additional structure to mini-
mize heat losses and achieve thermal isolation of
the flame, thus leading to increase in the weight of
the combustor assembly. In the present microcom-
bustor design, thermal isolation of the flame is
achieved using an inner tube filled with an inert
gas instead of the solid structure proposed by
Takeno and Sato [12] and its multitube variant
built in practice [14]. The placement of a low ther-
mal conductivity material (N2 gas) on the inner tube
side prevented heat losses from the inner tube to the
ambient. This arrangement would reduce the overall
weight of the combustor assembly. This would be an
important advantage in applications such as gas tur-
bine propulsion systems in MAVs. More impor-
tantly, the inner tube played a crucial role in flame
stabilization as discussed subsequently. Apart from
the absence of any porous material, the new design
differed from the Marbach and Agrawal [15] config-
uration in that the combustion reactions occurred
in the annular zone instead of the combustor
core, and reactants and products flowed co-current
to each other. The annular microcombustor had
a much smaller surface area per unit volume
(~364 m–1 based on outer surface area) in compari-
son to other configurations [12, 15] using PIM for
flame stabilization and it also suffered from smaller
pressure losses. Hydrogen (H2) can combust at very
small length scales [17]. It also has high energy con-
tent and wider flammability limits than many hydro-
carbons, and burns to produce water as the major
product. These properties make hydrogen a fuel of
choice, as also revealed by a recent study of Li et al.
[18]. Consequently, all the computations in this
study considered H2 as fuel.
Some effects of the microcombustor geometry on
combustion characteristics have been reported in
prior studies on cylindrical microcombustors. Li
et al. [19] verified that volumetric heat loss and wall
shear stress increased at small diameter. Moreover,
parabolic temperature profile and deeper cooling
were predicted in the case of small diameter, while
temperature profile was flatter and cooling effect
remained limited for larger diameter tube. A simpli-
fied one-dimensional model of heat transfer in
cylindrical microcombustors [18, 20] showed that
for less energetic fuel like methane, a decrease in
Proc. IMechE Vol. 225 Part G: J. Aerospace Engineering
1312
microcombustor size resulted in an increase in heat
recirculation. This observation would also be valid for
hydrogen. Pan et al. [21] measured the effects of wall
thickness–diameter ratio of a dump microcombustor
on the wall temperature and concluded that the heat
loss by axial conduction reduced in thin-walled com-
bustor, which resulted in increased wall temperature
in comparison to the thick-walled combustor. Norton
and Vlachos [10, 11] reached similar conclusions
through numerical studies and showed that the thin
walls have a lower preheating ability due to low tem-
peratures in the inlet region. However, thick walls
have higher preheating ability but simultaneously
suffer from heat losses by axial conduction. Norton
and Vlachos [10, 11] also found that the development
of significant transverse temperature gradients below
a certain separation distance (600 mm) adversely
affected microcombustion. Kaisare and Vlachos [22]
found that increase in the microcombustor length
extended the flame blowout limit and burners with
highly conducting walls showed greater increase in
the blowout limit. Additionally, axial non-uniformity
of the wall temperature increased with length for low
thermal conductivity walls.
The main objective of this study was to evaluate
the effects of the microcombustor geometry on
the characteristics and performance of premixed
flame annular microcombustor described above.
Specifically, effects of combustor length and thick-
ness of the inner tube were studied. Flame response
in the absence of N2 gas was analysed by considering
a solid inner tube. Subsequently, suitability of the
annular microcombustor for propulsion and elec-
tric power generation applications was explored.
The next section presents the computational fluid
dynamics (CFD) model developed for the annular
microcombustor and the numerical method used to
solve the model, followed by a brief discussion on the
microcombustor operation. Finally, results of the
parametric studies in terms of combustion and ther-
mal characteristics and performance parameters are
discussed.
2 MATHEMATICAL MODEL AND
NUMERICAL METHOD
The modelling problem involved incompressible
reacting flow with conjugate heat transfer at the
solid–fluid interface within a narrow channel.
Conjugate heat transfer was relevant because wall
thickness was of the same order as the width of the
annular combustion zone. Axi-symmetric governing
equations were considered due to combustor axi-
symmetry and to limit the model size. Temperature
dependence of thermophysical fluid properties was
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S Y Jejurkar and D P Mishra
incorporated by polynomial functions and kinetic
theory. The model considered Dufour and Soret
(thermal diffusion) effects wherein thermal diffusion
coefficient was computed from the kinetic theory
arguments. These effects have been neglected in the
previous numerical studies [23]. Recent analyses [24]
suggest that flame structure near the wall is altered by
thermal diffusion of hydrogen molecule in the direc-
tion of the wall. The analyses showed that thermal
diffusion resulted in enhanced local burning velocity
of the flame and stabilization of its leading edge on
the wall. This behaviour is different from methane–air
flames [10] for which the maximum reaction rates
occurred at the centre-line despite ignition at the
walls. Radiation is an important mode of heat transfer
in combustion [25] and microcombustion, in partic-
ular [8, 9, 26]. Hence, radiation within the fluid and
solid phases was included in terms of a discrete ordi-
nates model formulation [27, 28] applicable to com-
bustion [29]. In the radiation submodel, walls were
semi-transparent to radiation while absorption and
scattering coefficients of the solid and fluid media
were taken as constants. Due to specification of
semi-transparent walls, wall heating by radiation
could be modelled since semi-transparent walls
allow penetration of thermal radiation between
media. Reaction kinetics for H2–O2 mixture was mod-
elled in terms of an Arrhenius one-step mechanism
[30].
The annular microcombustor was modelled as an
axi-symmetric domain shown in Fig. 2 [31]. Walls of
the inner and outer tubes bounded the annular com-
bustion zone and the inner tube was filled with nitro-
gen gas (N2). A stoichiometric mixture of H2, O2, and
N2 entered the computational domain at ambient
pressure of 1 atm and temperature Tin ¼ 300 K from
the left inflow boundary with a specified constant
velocity profile (mean velocity, Vin), and specified
mass fractions. Reaction products exited the domain
from outflow boundary (at the right) open to the
ambient. All other primitive variables were extrapo-
lated from the domain interior. No-slip velocity
boundary condition was imposed at the wall–fluid
interfaces and zero normal gradients were prescribed
for other variables, except temperature. In accordance
with the conjugate nature of heat transfer, continuity
of heat flux was prescribed to compute the fluid–solid
interface temperature. External walls radiated heat to
the ambient atmosphere maintained at 300 K, with
radiation shape factor equal to unity. Although heat
loss by natural convection is not significant at micro-
scale in comparison to radiation, wall surface bound-
ary conditions also incorporated natural convection
(h ¼ 35 W/m2 K) to simulate heat losses at the lower
temperature levels.
 Effects of combustor geometry on hydrogen–air premixed flame combustion
Fig. 2 Axi-symmetric computational domain and boundary conditions [31]
The governing equations were solved by a finite
volume formulation implemented in FLUENT 6.3
[29]. The underlying code has been validated for a
wide range of test problems [32]. A third-order varia-
tion [29] of the monotone upstream-centred schemes
for conservation laws (MUSCL) was employed for dis-
cretizing the convective terms. Second-order implicit
scheme was used for temporal discretization and the
radiation intensity equation discretized by a second-
order upwind method [29].
Computational domain shown in Fig. 2 was dis-
cretized using a non-uniform square grid system
with more cells located in the annular reaction
zone. Spatial convergence was ascertained by mon-
itoring the scaled residuals for all variables, which
decreased to at least 10-4. Steady-state results are
reported in this study, having judged the onset of
steady state by tracking the temporal variations of
average temperatures in all the zones of computa-
tional domain.
Although experimental tests on the microcombus-
tor have not been performed as of now, rigorous test-
ing of the mathematical model and its predictions has
been performed in two stages. In the first stage (ver-
ification tests), accuracy of numerical solution itself
has been checked using a well-established procedure
that analyses grid independence of discrete numeri-
cal solution and provides uncertainty estimates for a
given grid density. In the second stage, the mathe-
matical model used to solve the problem has been
validated for its adequacy to represent similar flow
conditions. The selected experimental test case was
a stoichiometric H2–air flame (same as in this study)
stabilized near the inlet plane of a sudden expansion
microtube combustor with diameter 2 mm, length
20 mm, and thickness 0.5 mm. It will be noted that
the dimensions are similar to the microcombustor
design considered in this study. Further, the choice
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1313
Table 1 Summary of solution verification tests
(base case)
Verification test results r (axial) (kmol/m3 s)
Number of cells (N1/N2/N3) 146 021/45 446/18 200
Refinement ratio (RR21/RR32) 2.0/2.0
Apparent order (pmax/pavg/pmin) 14.66/2.2/0.001
Approximate error (ea21/ea32)a 2.06% / 6.65%
Extrapolated error (e21/e32)a 1.77% / 3.94%
Average GCI (GCI21/GCI32)b 0.71% / 2.31%
Oscillatory convergence 7%
Note: aaverage relative values; bcalculated from pavg.
of test case retains all the basic aspects of microcom-
bustion and heat transfer, including heat release near
the walls, heat losses to the surroundings, and conju-
gate gas–solid heat transfer. Verification of the
numerical solution of the flow model was done by
the grid convergence index (GCI) method [33] based
on Richardson extrapolation. Data in Table 1 summa-
rizes the results in terms of error and uncertainty sta-
tistics of axial profile of reaction rate (r) at the central
plane of annular combustion zone for three different
grids. Numerical uncertainty is expressed in terms
of GCI computed using average apparent order of
accuracy (pavg), and the maximum computed uncer-
tainty at the mid-level grid was 12.4 per cent ( 0.21
kmol/m3 s). Although average uncertainty at the mid-
level grid (GCI32) was higher than the fine-level grid
(GCI21), the mid-level grid (N2) was computationally
economical and limited the averaged extrapolated
errors (ea32) to the values comparable with fine grid
solution. Hence, the data reported in this study were
obtained using the mid-level grid system having
45 446 cells.
The CFD model considered in this study was val-
idated against available experimental data for a
dump cylindrical microcombustor burning stoichio-
metric H2–air mixture [34]. Comparisons of the
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Table 2 Comparison of model predictions and exper-
imental data (Reprinted with permission from
Elsevier [31])
avg
TW (K) Position of TW
Present
Ue (m/s) Experiment Model Experiment
2 883.16 802.293 4–6
3 973.16 883.174 4–6
4 1033.16 935.05 4–6
Table 3 Summary of case studies
Casea L (cm) tit (mm)
1 (base case) 2 1
2 4 1 1.75
3 6 1 1.75
4 2 1 325
5 2 7 325
Note: aTin ¼ 300 K, Vin ¼ 15 m/s, in ¼ 1.0.
model predictions for average wall temperature and
position of the maximum wall temperature are sum-
marized in Table 2 for three inlet velocities. The pre-
sent model consistently predicted positions of
maximum wall temperatures, and the trend in vari-
ations of average wall temperature with the inlet
velocity was also predicted correctly. The observed
deviations from experimental values of average wall
temperature could be due to uncertainties in the spe-
cifications of upstream wall boundary conditions and
the kinetic constants in reaction model. Additionally,
three-dimensional flow structures near the dump
plane could also be a factor that influenced the accu-
racy of model predictions.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Five case studies were done to understand the effects
of microcombustor geometry on the performance of
annular microcombustor, as summarized in Table 3.
In the first set (Cases 1–3), combustor length was
varied from 2 to 6 cm, representing an aspect ratio
range of 20–60 based upon the width of annulus
(Wannulus). Inlet conditions were same for all the
cases and the inner tube was filled with N2 gas. Wall
thermal conductivity was 1.75 W/(m K) because it is
near that of ceramics, which are considered useful
materials of construction at microscale [10]. In the
second set (Cases 1, 4, and 5), a value of 325 W/(m
K) was chosen in addition to 1.75 W/(m K) to simulate
very high rate of heat conduction and its effects on
performance. It was used for both the hollow and
solid inner tube cases (Cases 4 and 5), because previ-
ous studies by Takeno and Sato [12] considered such
a solid rod. To begin with, the role of hollow inner
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S Y Jejurkar and D P Mishra
max
(mm)
Present
Model
6
5.4
4.75
kW Fig. 3 Contours of (a) static temperature and (b) reac-
(W/(m K))
tion rate
1.75
tube in flame stabilization is explained in brief with
the help of Case 1 (base case) and case studies are
described subsequently.
3.1 Role of inner tube
Annular reaction zone separated the inner tube from
outer atmosphere. The resulting thermal conditions
within the microcombustor are shown in Fig. 3(a)
for stoichiometric (in ¼ 1.0) H2–air mixture at Tin ¼
300 K and Vin ¼ 15 m/s of Case 1. The maximum flame
temperature (1934.56 K) was much below the adia-
batic flame temperature (2389.8 K) due to heat losses
at the external wall surfaces.
According to Fig. 3(a), heat transferred from the
annular region raised wall temperature subject to
heat losses at the external wall surfaces. Lower thermal
conductivity of N2 in the inner tube increased its tem-
perature, as the heat remained confined near the tube
wall for a long duration. On the other hand, external
wall temperature decreased drastically since the wall
was thermally connected to the ambient. In this
manner, thermal isolation of the inner tube reduced
heat losses from the reaction zone and ensured flame
stabilization by transferring heat to the cold reactant
mixture. Reaction zone, inner and outer tube walls, and
the fuel–air mixture together constituted a thermal
reflux loop that preheated reactants and established
flame, as shown in Fig. 3(b), in terms of reaction rate
contours. The flame was curved with a broad reaction
zone and the high reaction rates were localized in the
near-wall region. The attainable
. power
 density of this
configuration m _f
_ f LHV  Q VC was 547 MW/m3,
where Q _ f is the chemical enthalpy loss by incomplete
combustion and VC the microcombustor volume.
3.2 Effect of inner tube thickness
Effects of inner tube thickness on the combustion
characteristics and heat balance of microcombustor
 Effects of combustor geometry on hydrogen–air premixed flame combustion 1315

at the mid-plane of annular reaction zone shifted very

marginally.
However, appreciable changes were observed in
the wall and fluid temperatures at the external surface
and central plane of the microcombustor, as revealed
by Fig. 4(b), in terms of axial profiles. As expected,
high kW led to an isothermal wall. A decrease in tem-
perature at the central plane in Cases 4 and 5 was
due to the higher rate of heat losses at the walls.
More importantly, uniform temperature profiles
were obtained for these cases at the outer walls. In
the case of solid tube (Case 5), a flat axial temperature
profile was obtained and wall temperature near the
inlet region was substantially higher than other two
conditions. Similar trends were also observed for
thick walls by Norton and Vlachos [10]. However,
overall temperature level for the solid tube was
much lower than the cases with thin wall at low and
high kW (Cases 1 and 4). Thus, although a more stable
flame may be expected in the case of solid inner tube
[10], availability of heat at the walls was less for this
arrangement and such an arrangement (Case 5)
would be less attractive for captive heating and elec-
tric power applications, which depend upon heat
transfer at the transverse walls.
A thin-walled configuration is better suited in this
scenario because it provides reasonably stable flame
with higher average wall temperatures and lesser
weight penalty. It is likely that higher wall tempera-
ture in the inlet region may enhance preheating abil-
ity of the annular microcombustor with the solid
inner tube. On the other hand, higher temperatures
Fig. 4 Effect of inner tube thickness on (a) flame
structure and (b) temperature profiles for
could also lead to higher heat losses from the inlet
different kW region. The extent of these possibilities and their
effect on overall heat balance of annular microcom-
bustor is now discussed with the help of heat reflux
Table 4 Effect of inner tube thickness on the heat ratio, heat loss ratio, and thermal output ratio defined
balance in equations (1) to (3), respectively.
kW
Case tit (mm) (W/(m K)) QHR QHL QO=P
_
Q reflux
QHR ¼ ð1Þ
1 1a 1.75 0.045 0.199 3.08
_
Q W
4 1a 325 0.047 0.215 2.82
5 7b 325 0.044 0.23 2.55 Q_
W
QHL ¼ ð2Þ
Note: ahollow inner tube; bsolid inner tube.
_ f LHV
m
_
Q outlet
QO=P ¼ ð3Þ
_
Q W
were studied by replacing the hollow inner tube with
a solid tube. A high wall thermal conductivity where QHR is the ratio of rates of heat reflux in the
(kW ¼ 325 W/(m K)) was prescribed to simulate preheat region to heat losses at all external walls; QHL
enhanced heat losses from inner and outer tubes. the ratio of heat loss rate to the heat release rate
The results of this study (Case 5) are compared in (in terms of lower heating value (LHV)); QO/P the pro-
Fig. 4 with Cases 1 and 4. It is observed in Fig. 4(a) portion of microcombustor power output at the
that higher kW as well as solid inner tube had no outlet to wall heat losses.
appreciable effect on the flame structure since the When the inner tube with N2 gas inside is consid-
axial profiles of reaction rate and fluid temperature ered, data of Table 4 show a small increase in the heat

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1316 S Y Jejurkar and D P Mishra

reflux ratio (QHR) with an increase in kW. Note that

higher kW increased temperature levels in the outer
wall, as seen in Fig. 4(b). Similar increase is also
expected in the inner tube wall. This led to higher
rates of heat reflux from wall to fluid at the wall–
fluid interface, about 3 per cent increase over the
base case. In this respect, use of a solid inner tube
in place of N2-filled hollow tube actually reduced
the heat reflux ratio by 4 per cent (in comparison to
the base case) at the cost of added weight and heat
losses. Heat loss ratio (QHL) increased by 8 per cent
between low and high thermal conductivity cases with
hollow inner tube, and by about 16 per cent between
hollow and solid inner tube cases. Increased heat
losses offset the gain in thermal capacity of solid
inner tube since its temperature level decreased as
a whole, as seen in Fig. 4(b). Heat losses at the walls
were always lower than the power output at the outlet
for all the cases presented in Table 4. However, QO/P
decreased by 8 per cent at higher kW. The decrease
with higher kW–solid inner tube combination was
around 17 per cent. These data revealed that the annu-
lar microcombustor performed satisfactorily without
high kW and solid inner tube.
In summary, the annular microcombustor consist-
ing of hollow inner tube could operate with higher
thermal conductivity materials (i.e. under enhanced
heat losses) while simultaneously providing higher
temperature in the inlet region. It also provided a
uniform axial temperature profile, which is desir-
able in applications involving heating and electric Fig. 5 Effect of microcombustor length on (a) flame
power generation. However, operation with the structure and (b) temperature profiles
solid inner tube was actually less efficient in all
respects. In other words, the hollow inner tube with
N2 storage should be preferred over solid inner tube. the flame region were also more for longer lengths,
reducing temperatures at the outlet plane and
3.3 Effect of combustor length leading to increasingly non-isothermal walls. Similar
situation prevailed at the outer wall and central
Length of the reactor should be sufficient for complete plane of the microcombustor, as seen from Fig. 5(b).
combustion. A longer reactor may also have higher Additionally, temperature near the inlet region
blowout limit at the cost of possible flame extinction reduced for longer lengths, indicating enhanced heat
due to heat losses promoted by a higher surface area losses.
per unit reaction volume [10]. However, since the An examination of the contour maps of reaction
extent of the heat recirculation and wall thermal prop- rates for the three cases in Fig. 6 showed that the
erties also play a role in determining the flame stabil- reaction continued to occur for a longer distance for
ity of a microcombustor, it is necessary to examine the the smallest length (Case 1), as in Fig. 6(a), while com-
effects of different reactor lengths on the flame struc- paratively compact reaction zone resulted for L ¼ 4
ture and temperature profiles. and 6 cm (Cases 2 and 3), as in Fig. 6(b) and 6(c).
Figure 5(a) shows the flame structures obtained for Note that the contours for Cases 2 and 3 in Fig. 6(b)
three different reactor lengths, L ¼ 2, 4, and 6 cm. and 6(c) have been shown only to 2 cm length. It is
Reaction rates increased with an increase in the conjectured that downstream heat losses reduced
length and a flatter reaction zone was obtained. thermal expansion of product gases in the narrow
Similarly, maximum temperatures were higher for channels of higher aspect ratio, which suppressed
longer lengths in comparison to the base case (Case Darrieus–Landau instability [35, 36] and enhanced
1). However, transverse and axial heat losses from the reaction rate. Another notable feature was that

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 Effects of combustor geometry on hydrogen–air premixed flame combustion
Fig. 6 Contour maps of reaction rate for different microcombustor lengths: (a) L ¼ 2 cm;
(b) L ¼ 4 cm; and (c) L ¼ 6 cm
Fig. 7 Effect of combustor length on heat balance of
annular microcombustor
the reaction rate profiles were almost same for the
longer lengths, as seen in Figs 5(a) and 6. Similarly,
temperature profiles in the mid-plane of the annular
reaction zone in Fig. 5(b) were also similar.
Variations in the thermal ratios defined in equa-
tions (1) to (3) with respect to the aspect ratio are
plotted in Fig. 7. Aspect ratio was defined as the
ratio of microcombustor length to the width of annu-
lus. According to Fig. 7, QHR decreased at longer com-
bustor lengths by 25 per cent and 42 per cent in
comparison to the base case. On the other hand,
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1317
downstream heat losses increased by about 58 per
cent and 103 per cent. Thermal output ratio (QO/P)
actually decreased by 45 per cent and 62 per cent
although levels of both the heat losses and power at
the outlet increased at higher aspect ratios, indicating
that the rate of increase in the power output was more
than the heat losses. This has implications for overall
efficiencies of the microcombustor, as described
subsequently.
Results with different lengths show that a smaller
length is preferable due to better heat reflux and
lower heat losses, provided residence time is suffi-
cient for a range of inlet velocities. Previous studies
by Kaisare and Vlachos [22] have shown that blowout
limit may not increase substantially for the low wall
thermal conductivity values considered in this study.
The upper limit on combustor length in this case
seems to be set by the actual heat release rate by com-
bustion. Beyond this limit, no appreciable increase in
the heat release rate may be expected and the heat
losses may dominate the overall heat balance, reduc-
ing the availability of heat at the outlet. However,
higher thermal output in case of narrower microcom-
bustor (longer length) is gained at the cost of non-
isothermal walls and a bulkier combustor.
3.4 Performance of microcombustor
Non-uniformity of wall temperatures and outlet tem-
peratures is quantified in terms of pattern factor (PF)
defined in equation (4) for outlet and transverse
external wall of the outer tube.
Proc. IMechE Vol. 225 Part G: J. Aerospace Engineering
1318
Fig. 8 Performance parameter variations with aspect
ratio: (a) pattern factor and (b) efficiencies and
H2 conversion
 
Tmax  Tavg 
PF ¼  
Tavg  Tin 
outlet or wall
Heat losses at the walls increased for longer reac-
tor lengths and caused non-uniform temperature
profiles, as observed in Fig. 5(b). The extent of
non-uniformity of temperatures is reflected in Fig.
8(a), which shows the variation in PF with the micro-
combustor aspect ratio. The temperature non-uni-
formity increased by 156 per cent between the
base case and L ¼ 6 cm. On the other hand, the
PFoutlet data did not show a significant change with
length and remained more or less constant. This
indicates that the thermal gradients developed fully
within a short distance before the outlet plane was
reached. The average value of PFoutlet was 0.124,
which compared favourably with the recommended
range 0.15–0.25 [37] for high temperature rise gas
turbine combustors.
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S Y Jejurkar and D P Mishra
Efficiency values were computed for the three
aspect ratios using definitions in equations (5) to (7)
and the results are plotted in Fig. 8(b).
_
Q _ _
outlet  Q inlet þ Q W
comb ¼  100 ð5Þ
_ f LHV
m
Q_ _
outlet  Q inlet
thermal ¼  100 ð6Þ
_
Q _ _
outlet  Q inlet þ Q W
_
Q _
outlet  Q inlet
overall ¼  100 ð7Þ
m_ f LHV
 !
YH2 out
XH2 ¼ 1   100 ð8Þ
YH2 in
Combustion efficiency of equation (5) denotes
available power at the walls and outlet compared to
the theoretical power output of the microcombustor
based on hydrogen LHV. It takes into account both
the envisaged functions of annular microcombustor,
which is intended as a conversion device for propul-
sive and electric power. Figure 8(b) shows that the
combustion efficiency increased substantially with
increase in the aspect ratio. This happened due to
absolute increase in the heat losses and power at
the outlet for the same inlet enthalpy rate. The dis-
parity in rates of increase in wall heat losses and
power output is reflected in the decreased levels of
thermal efficiency at the higher aspect ratios. The
overall efficiency of the microcombustor was domi-
nated by its thermal performance and the data
showed that the overall performance of the micro-
combustor would deteriorate at higher aspect ratios.
The smallest aspect ratio combustor had an overall
efficiency of about 1.3 times more than the largest
aspect ratio case. Conversion of H2 denotes comple-
tion of reaction and the data in Fig. 8(b) show that
ð4Þ conversion increased marginally with the aspect
ratio. It should be noted that conversion for the
base case was already high and higher aspect ratio
combustors did not result in any substantial increase
in H2 conversion. The increase was due to longer res-
idence time in comparison to the small aspect ratio,
which allowed any residual H2 to burn in the post-
flame zone. Additionally, compact flames at larger
aspect ratios also reduced leakage of H2, as revealed
by the contour maps of Fig. 6(b) and 6(c). In sum-
mary, the larger aspect ratio annular microcombus-
tors operated with less isothermal walls, and also
showed poor thermal performance for propulsion
application. Hence, it can be concluded that the
annular microcombustor with large aspect ratio is
not preferred either for captive heating or for power
generation through its walls, or for power generation
through the exhaust gases. On the other hand, a small
 Effects of combustor geometry on hydrogen–air premixed flame combustion
Table 5 Effect of inner tube thickness on the performance parameters
Case PFwall PFoutlet
1 0.074 0.122
4 0.0098 0.106
5 0.0099 0.106
aspect ratio microcombustor is suitable for heating
and electric power generation, as well as propulsion.
Results of thermal performance of hollow and solid
inner tubes are presented in Table 5 for all the param-
eters defined earlier in equations (4) to (8). The effect
of higher thermal conductivity is clearly observed in a
drastic decrease in the pattern factors for wall and
outlet for the hollow inner tube case by 87 per cent
and 13 per cent, respectively. On the other hand, the
difference between the performance of Cases 4 and 5
(hollow and solid inner tubes) at higher kW is insig-
nificant and pattern factors did not show significant
change. The average value of PFoutlet for this set of
cases was 0.11, which is comparable with the recom-
mended range [37]. Further, the computed efficien-
cies did not vary significantly among the different
combinations of the inner tube thickness and wall
thermal conductivity. In summary, replacing hollow
inner tube by the solid inner tube did not improve the
performance of the combustor. However, combustor
performed marginally better with higher thermal
conductivity material and hollow inner tube combi-
nation (Case 4).
4 CONCLUSION
Inserting a hollow tube in the combustion zone
proved to be an effective strategy to establish stable
premixed hydrogen–air flame in a compact micro-
combustor. The resulting thermal reflux cycle
achieved significant amount of heat recirculation
even for a highly energetic fuel like hydrogen.
Second, studies with solid inner tube proved that it
could not offer any advantage in terms of heat reflux
and heat losses over the corresponding hollow tube
design. Material thermal conductivity dominated the
overall thermal performance of the microcombustor.
Additionally, flame in a solid inner tube design is
likely to be less stable due to reduction in the heat
content of the inner tube induced by rapid heat
losses. In that respect, a hollow tube with a high ther-
mal conductivity material of construction could offer
a better compromise since it gave uniform wall tem-
perature at a slightly higher level of heat losses and
significant heat reflux potential. The smallest com-
bustor length studied in this work had better heat
reflux characteristics than the longer length cases
and suffered lower heat losses. It could be an
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1319
comb (%) thermal (%) overall (%) XH2 (%)
81.35 75.46 61.39 96.46
82.16 73.79 60.63 96.57
81.9 71.82 58.82 96.57
acceptable choice since blowout limit may not be
strongly dependent on the microcombustor length.
On the other hand, the utilization of higher thermal
power output obtained from the longer reactors
was restricted by the amount of heat losses, as
shown by their inferior overall thermal performance.
Increasingly non-isothermal walls and bulkier design
are the additional limiting factors for higher aspect
ratio combustors, as revealed in this study. The
results of this study also indicated that the aspect
ratio of annular combustor could be suitably tailored
for application to propulsion or heating and electric
power generation for autonomous operations of
MAVs, miniature sensors, and other portable devices.
The resulting benefits of a stable flame in a small
length, lower weight, and lower inlet temperature
combustor also indicated that the annular micro-
combustor has a good potential to offer a stable
flame even for low-energy fuels.
ß Authors 2011
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APPENDIX
Notation
d diameter
e extrapolated error
ea approximate error
h heat transfer coefficient
 Effects of combustor geometry on hydrogen–air premixed flame combustion 1321

k thermal conductivity Y mass fraction

L combustor length
m_ mass flowrate " emissivity
n normal coordinate direction  Stefan–Boltzmann constant (5.6708e–8 W/
N number of cells m 2 K 4)
p order of convergence ’ generalized primitive variable
P pressure  equivalence ratio
PF pattern factor
q heat flux Subscripts/Superscripts
Q_ heat transfer rate
1 fine-level grid
QHL heat loss ratio
2 mid-level grid
QHR heat reflux ratio
3 coarse grid
QO/P thermal output ratio
avg average
r reaction rate
f fuel
R radial coordinate
g gauge
RR grid refinement ratio
in inlet
t thickness
it inner tube
T temperature
max maximum
Ue velocity at the dump plane
min minimum
V velocity
ot outer tube
VC combustor volume
s solid
W width
W wall
x longitudinal coordinate
1 ambient condition
X conversion (mass basis)

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