Importance of initial momentum rate and air-fuel premixing on moderate or intense low oxygen dilution (MILD) combustion in a recuperative furnace

This paper reports an investigation on the influences of air-fuel injection momentum rate and the air-fuel premixing on the moderate or intense lowoxygen dilution (MILD) combustion in a 20-kWrecuperative furnace. Various patterns of partially and fully premixed reactants have proven experimentally to work extremelywell in the present furnace. H2 recorded for a variety of equivalence ratios at a firing rate of 10 kW. The present numerical study suggests that there is a critical momentum rate of the inlet fuel-air mixture below which the MILD combustion cannot occur. Also, it is revealed, both experimentally and numerically, that, above the critical rate, both the inlet fuel-airmixedness andmomentum rate impose insignificant influence on the stability of and emissions from theMILD combustion. © 2009 American Chemical Society.