Modeling Counterflow Combustion of Dust Particle Cloud in Heterogeneous Media

Abstract

This study investigates the counterflow combustion of an aluminum dust cloud in a heterogeneous system of discrete heat sources. A numerical thermal model was developed to estimate the burning velocity at different concentrations of the dust cloud and oxidizer. The proposed model considers the effects of heat transfer mechanisms, and the calculation of the flame speed is based on a point-source approach. The model equations were derived and solved first to study the single-particle combustion. Later, to investigate the dust cloud combustion, the superposition principle was applied to include the effects of particles. The burning velocity and flame stabilization point were studied at different particle diameters, and the effect of counterflow strain rate was analyzed as well. Moreover, the minimum ignition energy was obtained as a function of dust cloud concentration. The predicted results for the burning velocity were in reasonable agreement with experimental data from the literature.