Laminar combustion regimes for hybrid mixtures of coal dust with methane gas below the gas lower flammability limit

Abstract Understanding flame propagation in dust clouds and hybrid mixtures requires knowledge of the fundamental combustion processes and their coupling interaction. The objective of this work is to use computational fluid dynamics to classify laminar flame structure in hybrid mixtures where the initial gas concentration is below the lower flammability limit. Particular focus is given to the role of reaction chemistry and overall equivalence ratio on flame structure and burning velocity. Through this study, five flame regimes were determined: fuel-lean flames (Type I), volatile-lean flames (Type II), volatile-rich flames (Type III), transition flames (Type IV), and kinetic-limited flames (Type V). Gas-phase chemistry was found to play a critical role in burning velocity for Type III, IV, and V flames. Burning velocities at hybrid volatile component equivalence ratios less than 0.9, were found to be less sensitive to reaction kinetics. Further research using this model will focus on initial gas concentrations above the lower flammability limit, exploring the flammability limits of hybrid mixtures, and extending the results to turbulent flames in system geometries relevant to industrial safety.