The Effect of Catalyst Placement on the Stability of a U-Bend Catalytic Heat-Recirculating Micro-Combustor: A Numerical Investigation

This study investigates the combined effect of catalyst placement and solid thermal conductivity on stability a U-bend catalytic heat-recirculating micro-combustor. The CFD code ANSYS Fluent 2020 R1 was used for two-dimensional simulations lean premixed propane/air combustion by varying inlet gas velocity, i.e., input power. Three configurations were compared at low (3 W/(m K)) high (30 wall conductivity: (A) configuration in which both inner outer walls are coated; (B) only is (C) coated. Numerical results show that, conductivity, exhibits same resistance to extinction as (A), whereas exhibit much lower blowout than (A). Accordingly, low-power systems, typically lose via thus require low-conductive materials, an optimal can be partial coating (B). Conversely, high-power prone high-conductivity full needed guarantee higher stability. To elucidate these findings, detailed analysis behavior three presented.