Numerical investigations on thermal performance of double-layer four-channel micro combustors for micro-thermophotovoltaic system

In order to extend the output power of the micro-thermophotovoltaic system, it is necessary to assemble multiple single-channel micro combustors into a multiple-channel micro combustor. As a result, how to assemble multiple single-channel micro combustors into a multiple-channel micro combustor comes to be an interesting issue. In this work, the counterflow combustion concept is used in a double-layer four-channel micro combustor, and three representative double-layer four-channel micro combustors are designed. Extensive numerical investigations are conducted to compare the thermal performance of the three different double-layer four-channel micro combustors under various hydrogen mass flow rates, hydrogen/air equivalence ratios and solid materials. Moreover, the purely counterflow double-layer four-channel micro combustor is compared with the counterflow single-layer double-channel micro combustor in our previous work under various H-2 mass flow rates, hydrogen/air equivalence ratios and solid materials. It is found that the purely counterflow double-layer four-channel micro combustor can keep more uniform wall temperature. And the purely counterflow double-layer four channel micro combustor has better thermal performance compared with that of the counterflow single-layer double-channel micro combustor. Moreover, some critical values are given for keeping the merit of the purely counterflow double-layer four-channel micro combustor.