Taylor-diffusion-controlled combustion in ducts

• Published in: Combustion theory and modelling Vol. 24; no. 6; pp. 1054 - 1069
• Main Authors: Liñán, Amable, Rajamanickam, Prabakaran, Weiss, Adam D., Sánchez, Antonio L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Taylor & Francis 01.11.2020; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Burke-Schumann flame; Burning rate; Combustion; differential diffusion; Diffusion effects; Dispersion; Ducts; Fuel tanks; Peclet number; poiseuille flow; Taylor dispersion; Thermal diffusivity; Unity
• ISSN: 1364-7830; 1741-3559
• DOI: 10.1080/13647830.2020.1813335

An analysis is presented for the Burke-Schumann flame established when a fuel tank discharges with mean velocity U along a circular duct of radius a filled initially with air. Attention is focused on effects of interactions of shear with transverse diffusion resulting in enhanced longitudinal dispersion. The analysis accounts for preferential-diffusion effects arising for non-unity values of the fuel Lewis number , with the Peclet number based on the thermal diffusivity taken to be of order unity for generality. The solution to the associated Taylor-dispersion problem is described for times much larger than the characteristic diffusion time across the pipe , when the flame is embedded in a mixing region of increasing longitudinal extent moving with the mean velocity. At leading order in the limit , the longitudinal flame location, the burning rate, and the peak temperature are found to be a function of the effective Lewis number , whose value changes from for to for . As a result of this variation, the flame exhibits preferential-diffusion effects that depend fundamentally on , with important implications in designs of microcombustion devices employing narrow channels and pipes.