Combustion of liquid fuel in the flat micro- and minichannels

Flame spread over the combustible liquid, n-butanol, with the flash temperature higher than the temperature of ambient medium was studied experimentally. Experiments were carried out in a narrow rectangular channel with an opposed flow of gaseous oxidizers and variable flow parameters ensuring separate flows of liquid and gaseous phases. The oxidizer composition was varied from air to pure oxygen. Dependences of n-butanol flame propagation velocity on oxidizer velocity were obtained at different channel heights. It was found that the flame propagation velocity depends on the oxidizer velocity and channel height. With an increase in the oxidizer velocity, the flame propagation velocity may increase or decrease depending on the oxygen content. It was shown that the flame propagation velocity could be significant and comparable with the laminar burning velocity of the stoichiometric homogeneous gaseous mixture.