ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the thermal and chemical issues in microscale reacting flows. Microscale combustors are being extensively investigated owing to their potential use as power sources in portable electronic devices such as laptop computers and mobile phones. The design was motivated by a proposed design of microcombustors for microscale gas turbines. Research interest in microscale combustors has been fuelled by a number of potential microelectromechanical system (MEMS) applications. Combustion in microscale burners promises to be a major energy source for MEMS devices, particularly because of the extremely high specific energy in fuels. The high surface to volume ratio of the microscale reactors increases the flux of the reactants to the catalytic surface. An efficient design of microscale combustors that have been widely investigated is the “Swiss-Roll” combustor. The design was motivated by a proposed design of microcombustors for microscale gas turbines.
