A review of progress in heat recirculating meso-scale combustors

Within the past decade there has been a fair amount of interest in utilizing the high energy densities of hydrocarbon fuels at the small scale. The motivation for this is primarily twofold. The first application involves the generation of electricity via the heat released by combustion, in the second application chemical micro-thrusters would provide milli-Newton and micro-Newton levels of thrust for Divert and Attitude Control on the next generation of micro-satellites and micro-aerial vehicles. With this in mind many schemes addressing the fundamental thermal challenges associated with small-scale combustion have been proposed, analyzed, and tested. This review will focus on experimental work that has been conducted on heat-recirculating “Swiss-Roll” combustors and the impact of geometry, materials, catalysts, and scale on the thermal performance, extinction criteria/extinction regimes, and flame dynamics. Additionally, an overview of meso-scale power systems is provided covering both propulsion and electric power generation.