Numerical investigation on combustion characteristics of premixed hydrogen/air in a swirl micro combustor with twisted vanes

The combustion characteristics of the swirl micro combustor with twisted vanes (Swirl-MC-TV) and the conventional micro combustor (Conventional-MC) are investigated and compared under different inlet velocities (8-40 m/s), wall materials (quartz, steel, and SiC), and equivalence ratios (0.6-1.4). The results show that the larger area of recirculation zones and the stronger recirculation intensity are the key factors for Swirl-MC-TV to stable combustion. When the inlet velocity is 40 m/s, compared with the Conventional-MC, the wall heat loss of the Swirl-MC-TV is reduced by 15.9%, and the reaction heat and combustion efficiency of the Swirl-MC-TV are increased by 17.5% and 5.9%, respectively. When the wall materials of steel and SiC, combustors have a better preheating effect and higher combustion intensity. When the equivalence ratio is greater than 0.6, the wall heat loss of Swirl-MC-TV is larger but the combustion efficiency and the reaction intensity are still higher than Conventional-MC. (C) 2021 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.