Effect of preheated mixture on heat transfer characteristics of impinging methane–air premixed flame jet

Energy from spent flame or other low grade energy can be used to increase the temperature of the air before mixing with fuel. This would improve the heat transfer characteristics of the impinging flame jet. The studies on impinging flame jets reported in the literature are based on the fuel–air mixture at ambient temperature. In the present work, the inlet air for mixture is heated by an electrical heater. The heat flux distribution is estimated using an inverse heat conduction (IHCP) technique. The Nusselt number (Nu) and effectiveness (η) distributions are obtained by estimating the adiabatic wall temperature (Taw) by the analytical–numerical method. A circular burner of 13.5 mm is used for impingement on quartz plate of 3 mm thickness. Reynolds number (Re) varying from 500 to 2000 for the non-dimensional burner tip to impingement plate spacing (Z/d) of 2–6 and stoichiometric condition (ϕ = 1.0) is considered for varying preheated condition. The effect of equivalence ratio is studied for ϕ = 0.75 to 1.5 for Re = 1000 and Z/d = 4. By increase in preheat temperature, the stagnation point heat flux increases from 20% to 50% unless the inner premixed zone touches the impingement plate. CFD simulations are carried out in FLUENT software to explain the distribution of heat flux.