Abstract:Electrospray technique is one of the reliable approaches to disperse liquid fuels at low flow rate. Heat loss has an important influence on the performance of micro/small scale combustors. Pure ethanol was chosen as liquid fuel, and electrospray technique was applied for fuel dispersion. The combustion and heat loss characteristics were experimentally studied in a small scale combustor with double meshes under the condition of cone-jet mode. The results showed that a round slice flame was anchored near the combustion mesh. Stable combustion was established in the equivalence ratio Φ range of 0.85~1.40. The diameter of the flame was near to the inner diameter of the combustor. The distance between combustion mesh and flame changed with equivalence ratios, which can be seen from the temperature distribution. The larger the equivalence ratio was, the shorter the distance was. Flame temperature and combustion efficiency were all increased firstly, and then decreased as the increase of equivalence ratios. When Φ=1, the highest flame temperature was up to 1197.38K, and the highest combustion efficiency was up to 93.26%. The exhausted gas temperature was decreased and wall heat losses were increased with the increase of equivalence ratio Φ. The exhausted gas temperature was influenced by the distance between combustion mesh and flame. Wall heat losses accounted for 27.25%~33.08% of total heat based on complete combustion of input fuel. Radiation heat loss accounted for about 56% of wall heat losses. Under the condition of Φ≤1, the thermal efficiency of the combustor was near to 69% and then decreased as the increase of Φ. The present combustor with double meshes can realize effective atomization, evaporation and combustion of liquid ethanol at small scale.