FURI | Fall 2020

Design and Optimization of Hybrid Fuel with Complex Bioinspired Geometries for Controllable Combustion Efficiency

More than 539 million tons of coal are consumed to generate energy each year. Due to the fabrication limitation, there is little research on the relation of combustion efficiency and geometric shape of coal briquette. Nowadays, 3D printing enables the fabrication of objects with complex microstructures. This research uses bioinspired microstructures to design a lightweight, high strength and high thermal conductivity 3D coal briquette. Thermal, airflow fluid, and mechanical simulations were conducted using COMSOL Multiphysics to determine the most efficient microstructures with the desired characteristics. The simulation results will further guide the modulation of briquette design to achieve desired properties.