Effects of different channels on performance enhancement of a nozzle hydrogen-fueled micro combustor for micro-thermophotovoltaic applications

Under the background of the international energy crisis, it is urgent to develop a microthermophotovoltaic system using hydrogen as combustion energy. In order to optimize the micro-combustor in the system, the nozzle micro-combustors with five different channels are designed. All nozzle micro-combustors are numerically studied by using the mechanism of 9 components and 19 elementary reactions within the ANSYS Fluent 20.0, and their advantages and disadvantages in thermal performance, flame performance and chemical reaction are compared. It is concluded that the nozzle micro-combustor with constriction-expansion channel has the best performance among the five microcombustors because of its reasonable segmented structure. Then, a new type of nozzle micro-combustor with segmented channel is designed, and the numerical study of segmented micro-burners and non-segmented micro-combustors with different inlet velocities and hydrogen/air equivalence ratios shows that the thermal performance of segmented micro-combustors is much better than that of non-segmented micro-burners. Therefore, compared with non-segmented nozzle micro-combustors, segmented nozzle micro-combustors have better application potential in micro-thermophotovoltaic applications.& COPY; 2023 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

In the context of the international energy crisis, the development of a microthermophotovoltaic system using hydrogen as combustion energy is urgent. To optimize the micro-combustor in the system, nozzle micro-combustors with five different channels are designed and numerically studied. The results show that the nozzle micro-combustor with constriction-expansion channel has the best performance, leading to the design of a new type of nozzle micro-combustor with segmented channel. Numerical studies indicate that segmented micro-combustors have better thermal performance compared to non-segmented micro-burners, making them more suitable for micro-thermophotovoltaic applications.