Abstract:
Based on the concept of one way flow combustion (OWFC) and cyclic flow reversal combustion
(CFRC) of gas mixture within packed bed of porous medium, the research on a surface combustor-
heater (SCH) was extensively investigated. From previous study of SCH, the flame location could
not be located and stabilized within tube bank implying strong quenching effect provided by the
small pitch distance of tube arrangement. This research intends to provide flame stabilization within
water tube bank by expanding the pitch distance which reduces the quenching effect. This
phenomenon is of interest for SCH, which gives favorable high temperature zone within the tube
bank, yielding high thermal efficiency. The influence of equivalence ratio was investigated for
SCH operated in both OWFC and CFRC types to carify the thermal structure, heat transfer
performance, and emission characteristic (CO, NOx). Furthermore, the effect of half period
was also investigated for CFRC type. In addition, heat transfer contributions (conduction,
convection and radiation) to tube bank were revealed in order to understand the heat transfer
phenomena of the PCH. The results show that flame can be stabilized within water tube bank in
both OWFC and CFRC types yield increasing in the heat transfer performance of tube bank. The
SCH operated in OWFC type yields highest total thermal efficiency of 92% with 14 ppm and 24
ppm of CO and NOx emission, respectively at the optimum operating condition of enquivalence ratio = 0.64 and
CL = 21 kW. Moreover, the SCH operated in CFRC type yields peak total thermal efficiency of
95% with significantly low NOx emission (i.e. 8 ppm) at the optimum operating condition of enquivalence ratio =
0.52, CL = 21 kWand Half period = 60 s. However, CO emission (i.e, 635 ppm) is still acceptable high
value due to the incomplete combustion. In addition, the study of heat transfer contributions reveal
that both convection and radiation play an important role for transferring of combustion heat to the
tube bank. Radiation contribution is dominantly enchanced when operated at rich condition, while
convection contribution is dominantly enchanced when operated at lean condition. As expected,
conduction insignificantly contributes only about 10% of total rate for enhancing heat transfer to the
tube bank.