Steady-State Multiplicity in Catalytic Microcombustors

In this work, two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were run to investigate the possibility of a link between the initial conditions and the occurrence of blowout for a parallel-plate catalytic microcombustor. The results show that steady-state multiplicity occurs: Depending on the initial conditions, the range of inlet gas velocities at which stable operation is attained can be enlarged to avoid blowout. It is concluded that investigations into the thermal behavior of catalytic microcombustors have to deal with appropriate and aware choices of the initial conditions.