Some fundamental aspects of laminar flames in nonvolatile solid fuel suspensions

Abstract

This paper critically reviews the theoretical and experimental literature regarding the fundamental aspects of flames in nonvolatile solid fuel suspensions. Unlike volatile fuels that form continuous premixed gaseous flame sheets, flame fronts in nonvolatile suspensions are driven by heterogeneous reactions localized on the surface, or near the surface, of individual particles. Practically all peculiarities of heterogeneous flames can be linked to this “flame-inside-the-flame” combustion front structure. These localized reactions enable particles to self-heat and transition from kinetically to diffusion-limited heterogeneous reaction during the process of particle ignition. After ignition, burning particles behave as individual diffusion micro-reactors that are insensitive to the bulk gas temperature and overall heat loss from the system. Relatively small quenching distances of the flame in suspensions, long plateaus in the dependence of burning velocity on fuel concentration stretching to very fuel-rich mixtures, and the discrete flame propagation regime, where burning velocity is insensitive to particle combustion time and the flame-front structure is rough and nonuniform, are all manifestations of particle ignition and combustion in the diffusion-limited regime. This review summarizes the key experimental evidence of laminar flame structure and flame speed from a variety of experimental apparatus both in the laboratory and under microgravity conditions, and interprets these results in terms of relatively simple theoretical models. Heterogeneous flames are observed to exhibit many of the thermodiffusive and hydrodynamic instabilities of homogeneous flames, as well as several new instabilities that arise from the multiphase nature of the fuel and particle ignition and extinction. Flames of binary mixtures of heterogeneous fuels, or gaseous and solid fuel mixtures, are also reviewed and it is shown that a simple model based on matching the flame speed between thermally interacting fronts can capture the key physics. Finally, the last chapter of the review discusses why the important or even crucial role of radiation heat transfer predicted by theoretical models for flames in suspensions is not supported by the available experimental evidence. It is argued that large spatial scales of radiation heat transfer do not permit separation of the radiation transfer problem from boundary conditions and flow configuration, making one-dimensional flame models that include radiation inadequate for the description of flames in the laboratory and even in relatively large unconfined dust clouds.

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