Fuel properties to enable lifted-flame combustion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kurtz, Eric [Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, MI (United States)

2015-03-15

The Fuel Properties to Enable Lifted-Flame Combustion project responded directly to solicitation DE-FOA-0000239 AOI 1A, Fuels and Lubricants for Advanced Combustion Regimes. This subtopic was intended to encompass clean and highly-efficient, liquid-fueled combustion engines to achieve extremely low engine-out nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) as a target and similar efficiency as state-of-the-art direct injection diesel engines. The intent of this project was to identify how fuel properties can be used to achieve controllable Leaner Lifted Flame Combustion (LLFC) with low NOx and PM emissions. Specifically, this project was expected to identify and test key fuel properties to enable LLFC and their compatibility with current fuel systems and to enhance combustion models to capture the effect of fuel properties on advanced combustion. Successful demonstration of LLFC may reduce the need for after treatment devices, thereby reducing costs and improving thermal efficiency. The project team consisted of key technical personnel from Ford Motor Company (FMC), the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW), Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories (LLNL). Each partner had key roles in achieving project objectives. FMC investigated fuel properties relating to LLFC and sooting tendency. Together, FMC and UW developed and integrated 3D combustion models to capture fuel property combustion effects. FMC used these modeling results to develop a combustion system and define fuel properties to support a single-cylinder demonstration of fuel-enabled LLFC. UW investigated modeling the flame characteristics and emissions behavior of different fuels, including those with different cetane number and oxygen content. SNL led spray combustion experiments to quantify the effect of key fuel properties on combustion characteristics critical for LLFC, as well as single cylinder optical engine experiments to improve fundamental

Combustion flame-plasma hybrid reactor systems, and chemical reactant sources

Science.gov (United States)

Kong, Peter C

2013-11-26

Combustion flame-plasma hybrid reactor systems, chemical reactant sources, and related methods are disclosed. In one embodiment, a combustion flame-plasma hybrid reactor system comprising a reaction chamber, a combustion torch positioned to direct a flame into the reaction chamber, and one or more reactant feed assemblies configured to electrically energize at least one electrically conductive solid reactant structure to form a plasma and feed each electrically conductive solid reactant structure into the plasma to form at least one product is disclosed. In an additional embodiment, a chemical reactant source for a combustion flame-plasma hybrid reactor comprising an elongated electrically conductive reactant structure consisting essentially of at least one chemical reactant is disclosed. In further embodiments, methods of forming a chemical reactant source and methods of chemically converting at least one reactant into at least one product are disclosed.

Combustion instabilities in sudden expansion oxy-fuel flames

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ditaranto, Mario; Hals, Joergen [Department of Energy Processes, SINTEF Energy Research, 7465 Trondheim (Norway)

2006-08-15

An experimental study on combustion instability is presented with focus on oxy-fuel type combustion. Oxidants composed of CO{sub 2}/O{sub 2} and methane are the reactants flowing through a premixer-combustor system. The reaction starts downstream a symmetric sudden expansion and is at the origin of different instability patterns depending on oxygen concentration and Reynolds number. The analysis has been conducted through measurement of pressure, CH* chemiluminescence, and velocity. As far as stability is concerned, oxy-fuel combustion with oxygen concentration similar to that found in air combustion cannot be sustained, but requires at least 30% oxygen to perform in a comparable manner. Under these conditions and for the sudden expansion configuration used in this study, the instability is at low frequency and low amplitude, controlled by the flame length inside the combustion chamber. Above a threshold concentration in oxygen dependent on equivalence ratio, the flame becomes organized and concentrated in the near field. Strong thermoacoustic instability is then triggered at characteristic acoustic modes of the system. Different modes can be triggered depending on the ratio of flame speed to inlet velocity, but for all types of instability encountered, the heat release and pressure fluctuations are linked by a variation in mass-flow rate. An acoustic model of the system coupled with a time-lag-based flame model made it possible to elucidate the acoustic mode selection in the system as a function of laminar flame speed and Reynolds number. The overall work brings elements of reflection concerning the potential risk of strong pressure oscillations in future gas turbine combustors for oxy-fuel gas cycles. (author)

Numerical study of laminar nonpremixed methane flames in coflow jets: Autoignited lifted flames with tribrachial edges and MILD combustion at elevated temperatures

KAUST Repository

M. Al-Noman, Saeed

2016-07-07

Autoignition characteristics of laminar nonpremixed methane jet flames in high-temperature coflow air are studied numerically. Several flame configurations are investigated by varying the initial temperature and fuel mole fraction. At a relatively low initial temperature, a non-autoignited nozzle-attached flame is simulated at relatively low jet velocity. When the initial temperature is higher than that required for autoignition, two regimes are investigated: an autoignited lifted flame with tribrachial edge structure and an autoignited lifted flame with Mild combustion. The autoignited lifted flame with tribrachial edge exhibited three branches: lean and rich premixed flame wings and a trailing diffusion flame. Characteristics of kinetic structure for autoignited lifted flames are discussed based on the kinetic structures of homogeneous autoignition and flame propagation of stoichiometric mixture. Results showed that a transition from autoignition to flame propagation modes occurs for reasonably stoichiometric mixtures. The autoignited lifted flame with Mild combustion occurs when methane fuel is highly diluted with nitrogen. The kinetic structure analysis shows that the characteristics of Mild combustion can be treated as an autoignited lean premixed lifted flame. Transition behavior from Mild combustion to nozzle-attached flame was investigated by increasing the fuel mole fraction. As the maximum flame temperature increases with decreasing liftoff height, the kinetic structure showed a transition behavior from autoignition to flame propagation of a lean premixed flame. © 2016 The Combustion Institute

Mode Selection in Flame-Vortex driven Combustion Instabilities

KAUST Repository

Speth, Ray; Hong, Seung Hyuck; Shanbogue, Santosh; Ghoniem, Ahmed

2011-01-01

is governed by a combustion-related time delay inversely proportional to the flame speed. Our model predicts the transition between distinct operating modes. We introduce non-dimensional parameters characterizing the flame speed and stretch rate, and develop a

Morphology, composition, and mixing state of primary particles from combustion sources - crop residue, wood, and solid waste.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Lei; Kong, Shaofei; Zhang, Yinxiao; Wang, Yuanyuan; Xu, Liang; Yan, Qin; Lingaswamy, A P; Shi, Zongbo; Lv, Senlin; Niu, Hongya; Shao, Longyi; Hu, Min; Zhang, Daizhou; Chen, Jianmin; Zhang, Xiaoye; Li, Weijun

2017-07-11

Morphology, composition, and mixing state of individual particles emitted from crop residue, wood, and solid waste combustion in a residential stove were analyzed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Our study showed that particles from crop residue and apple wood combustion were mainly organic matter (OM) in smoldering phase, whereas soot-OM internally mixed with K in flaming phase. Wild grass combustion in flaming phase released some Cl-rich-OM/soot particles and cardboard combustion released OM and S-rich particles. Interestingly, particles from hardwood (pear wood and bamboo) and softwood (cypress and pine wood) combustion were mainly soot and OM in the flaming phase, respectively. The combustion of foam boxes, rubber tires, and plastic bottles/bags in the flaming phase released large amounts of soot internally mixed with a small amount of OM, whereas the combustion of printed circuit boards and copper-core cables emitted large amounts of OM with Br-rich inclusions. In addition, the printed circuit board combustion released toxic metals containing Pb, Zn, Sn, and Sb. The results are important to document properties of primary particles from combustion sources, which can be used to trace the sources of ambient particles and to know their potential impacts in human health and radiative forcing in the air.

Gaussian process regression based optimal design of combustion systems using flame images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, Junghui; Chan, Lester Lik Teck; Cheng, Yi-Cheng

2013-01-01

Highlights: • The digital color images of flames are applied to combustion design. • The combustion with modeling stochastic nature is developed using GP. • GP based uncertainty design is made and evaluated through a real combustion system. - Abstract: With the advanced methods of digital image processing and optical sensing, it is possible to have continuous imaging carried out on-line in combustion processes. In this paper, a method that extracts characteristics from the flame images is presented to immediately predict the outlet content of the flue gas. First, from the large number of flame image data, principal component analysis is used to discover the principal components or combinational variables, which describe the important trends and variations in the operation data. Then stochastic modeling of the combustion process is done by a Gaussian process with the aim to capture the stochastic nature of the flame associated with the oxygen content. The designed oxygen combustion content considers the uncertainty presented in the combustion. A reference image can be designed for the actual combustion process to provide an easy and straightforward maintenance of the combustion process

CloudFlame: Cyberinfrastructure for combustion research

KAUST Repository

Goteng, Gokop; Nettyam, Naveena; Sarathy, Mani

2013-01-01

Combustion experiments and chemical kinetics simulations generate huge data that is computationally and data intensive. A cloud-based cyber infrastructure known as Cloud Flame is implemented to improve the computational efficiency, scalability

Third-harmonic generation and scattering in combustion flames using a femtosecond laser filament.

Science.gov (United States)

Zang, Hong-Wei; Li, He-Long; Su, Yue; Fu, Yao; Hou, Meng-Yao; Baltuška, Andrius; Yamanouchi, Kaoru; Xu, Huailiang

2018-02-01

Coherent radiation in the ultraviolent (UV) range has high potential applicability to the diagnosis of the formation processes of soot in combustion because of the high scattering efficiency in the UV wavelength region, even though the UV light is lost largely by the absorption within the combustion flames. We show that the third harmonic (TH) of a Ti:sapphire 800 nm femtosecond laser is generated in a laser-induced filament in a combustion flame and that the conversion efficiency of the TH varies sensitively by the ellipticity of the driver laser pulse but does not vary so much by the choice of alkanol species introduced as fuel for the combustion flames. We also find that the TH recorded from the side direction of the filament is the Rayleigh scattering of the TH by soot nanoparticles within the flame and that the intensity of the TH varies depending on the fuel species as well as on the position of the laser filament within the flame. Our results show that a remote and in situ measurement of distributions of soot nanoparticles in a combustion flame can be achieved by Rayleigh scattering spectroscopy of the TH generated by a femtosecond-laser-induced filament in the combustion flame.

Tabulated Combustion Model Development For Non-Premixed Flames

Science.gov (United States)

Kundu, Prithwish

Turbulent non-premixed flames play a very important role in the field of engineering ranging from power generation to propulsion. The coupling of fluid mechanics and complicated combustion chemistry of fuels pose a challenge for the numerical modeling of these type of problems. Combustion modeling in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is one of the most important tools used for predictive modeling of complex systems and to understand the basic fundamentals of combustion. Traditional combustion models solve a transport equation of each species with a source term. In order to resolve the complex chemistry accurately it is important to include a large number of species. However, the computational cost is generally proportional to the cube of number of species. The presence of a large number of species in a flame makes the use of CFD computationally expensive and beyond reach for some applications or inaccurate when solved with simplified chemistry. For highly turbulent flows, it also becomes important to incorporate the effects of turbulence chemistry interaction (TCI). The aim of this work is to develop high fidelity combustion models based on the flamelet concept and to significantly advance the existing capabilities. A thorough investigation of existing models (Finite-rate chemistry and Representative Interactive Flamelet (RIF)) and comparative study of combustion models was done initially on a constant volume combustion chamber with diesel fuel injection. The CFD modeling was validated with experimental results and was also successfully applied to a single cylinder diesel engine. The effect of number of flamelets on the RIF model and flamelet initialization strategies were studied. The RIF model with multiple flamelets is computationally expensive and a model was proposed on the frame work of RIF. The new model was based on tabulated chemistry and incorporated TCI effects. A multidimensional tabulated chemistry database generation code was developed based on the 1

Combustion characteristics of natural gas-hydrogen hybrid fuel turbulent diffusion flame

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

El-Ghafour, S.A.A.; El-dein, A.H.E.; Aref, A.A.R. [Mechanical Power Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Suez Canal University, Port-Said (Egypt)

2010-03-15

Combustion characteristics of natural gas - hydrogen hybrid fuel were investigated experimentally in a free jet turbulent diffusion flame flowing into a slow co-flowing air stream. Experiments were carried out at a constant jet exit Reynolds number of 4000 and with a wide range of NG-H{sub 2} mixture concentrations, varied from 100%NG to 50%NG-50% H{sub 2} by volume. The effect of hydrogen addition on flame stability, flame length, flame structure, exhaust species concentration and pollutant emissions was conducted. Results showed that, hydrogen addition sustains a progressive improvement in flame stability and reduction in flame length, especially for relatively high hydrogen concentrations. Hydrogen-enriched flames found to have a higher combustion temperatures and reactivity than natural gas flame. Also, it was found that hydrogen addition to natural gas is an ineffective strategy for NO and CO reduction in the studied range, while a significant reduction in the %CO{sub 2} molar concentration by about 30% was achieved. (author)

Remediation of trichloroethylene-contaminated soils by star technology using vegetable oil smoldering

OpenAIRE

Salman, Madiha; Gerhard, Jason I.; Major, David W.; Pironi, Paolo; Hadden, Rory

2015-01-01

Self-sustaining treatment for active remediation (STAR) is an innovative soil remediation approach based on smoldering combustion that has been demonstrated to effectively destroy complex hydrocarbon nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) with minimal energy input. This is the first study to explore the smoldering remediation of sand contaminated by a volatile NAPL (trichloroethylene, TCE) and the first to consider utilizing vegetable oil as supplemental fuel for STAR. Thirty laboratory-scale exper...

Mode Selection in Flame-Vortex driven Combustion Instabilities

KAUST Repository

Speth, Ray

2011-01-04

In this paper, we investigate flame-vortex interaction in a lean premixed, laboratory scale, backward-facing step combustor. Two series of tests were conducted, using propane/hydrogen mixtures and carbon monoxide/hydrogen mixtures as fuels, respectively. Pressure measurements and high speed particle imaging velocimetry (PIV) were employed to generate pressure response curves as well as the images of the velocity field and the flame brush. We demonstrate that the step combustor exhibits several operating modes depending on the inlet conditions and fuel composition, characterized by the amplitude and frequency of pressure oscillations along with distinct dynamic flame shapes. We propose a model in which the combustor\\'s selection of the acoustic mode is governed by a combustion-related time delay inversely proportional to the flame speed. Our model predicts the transition between distinct operating modes. We introduce non-dimensional parameters characterizing the flame speed and stretch rate, and develop a relationship between these quantities at the operating conditions corresponding to each mode transition. Based on this relationship, we show that numerically-calculated density-weighted strained flame speed can be used to collapse the combustion dynamics data over the full range of conditions (inlet temperature, fuel composition, and equivalence ratio). Finally, we validate our strain flame based model by measuring the strain rate using the flame image and the velocity field from the PIV measurement. Our results show that the measured strain rates lie in the same range as the critical values at the transitions among distinct modes as those predicted by our model.

Numerical modeling of turbulent combustion and flame spread

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yan Zhenghua

1999-01-01

Theoretical models have been developed to address several important aspects of numerical modeling of turbulent combustion and flame spread. The developed models include a pyrolysis model for charring and non-charring solid materials, a fast narrow band radiation property evaluation model (FASTNB) and a turbulence model for buoyant flow and flame. In the pyrolysis model, a completely new algorithm has been proposed, where a moving dual mesh concept was developed and implemented. With this new concept, it provides proper spatial resolution for both temperature and density and automatically considers the regression of the surface of the non-charring solid material during its pyrolysis. It is simple, very efficient and applicable to both charring and non-charring materials. FASTNB speeds up significantly the evaluation of narrow band spectral radiation properties and thus provides a potential of applying narrow band model in numerical simulations of practical turbulent combustion. The turbulence model was developed to improve the consideration of buoyancy effect on turbulence and turbulent transport. It was found to be simple, promising and numerically stable. It has been tested against both plane and axisymmetric thermal plumes and an axisymmetric buoyant diffusion flame. When compared with the widely used standard buoyancy-modified {kappa} - {epsilon} model, it gives significant improvement on numerical results. These developed models have been fully incorporated into CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) code and coupled with other CFD sub-models, including the DT (Discrete Transfer) radiation model, EDC (Eddy Dissipation Concept) combustion model, flamelet combustion model, various soot models and transpired wall function. Comprehensive numerical simulations have been carried out to study soot formation and oxidation in turbulent buoyant diffusion flames, flame heat transfer and flame spread in fires. The gas temperature and velocity, soot volume fraction, wall

Isomer-specific combustion chemistry in allene and propyne flames

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hansen, Nils; Miller, James A. [Combustion Research Facility, Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA 94551 (United States); Westmoreland, Phillip R. [Department of Chem. Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 (United States); Kasper, Tina [Combustion Research Facility, Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA 94551 (United States); Department of Chemistry, Bielefeld University, D-33615 Bielefeld (Germany); Kohse-Hoeinghaus, Katharina [Department of Chemistry, Bielefeld University, D-33615 Bielefeld (Germany); Wang, Juan; Cool, Terrill A. [School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 (United States)

2009-11-15

A combined experimental and modeling study is performed to clarify the isomer-specific combustion chemistry in flames fueled by the C{sub 3}H{sub 4} isomers allene and propyne. To this end, mole fraction profiles of several flame species in stoichiometric allene (propyne)/O{sub 2}/Ar flames are analyzed by means of a chemical kinetic model. The premixed flames are stabilized on a flat-flame burner under a reduced pressure of 25 Torr (=33.3 mbar). Quantitative species profiles are determined by flame-sampling molecular-beam mass spectrometry, and the isomer-specific flame compositions are unraveled by employing photoionization with tunable vacuum-ultraviolet synchrotron radiation. The temperature profiles are measured by OH laser-induced fluorescence. Experimental and modeled mole fraction profiles of selected flame species are discussed with respect to the isomer-specific combustion chemistry in both flames. The emphasis is put on main reaction pathways of fuel consumption, of allene and propyne isomerization, and of isomer-specific formation of C{sub 6} aromatic species. The present model includes the latest theoretical rate coefficients for reactions on a C{sub 3}H{sub 5} potential [J.A. Miller, J.P. Senosiain, S.J. Klippenstein, Y. Georgievskii, J. Phys. Chem. A 112 (2008) 9429-9438] and for the propargyl recombination reactions [Y. Georgievskii, S.J. Klippenstein, J.A. Miller, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 9 (2007) 4259-4268]. Larger peak mole fractions of propargyl, allyl, and benzene are observed in the allene flame than in the propyne flame. In these flames virtually all of the benzene is formed by the propargyl recombination reaction. (author)

Flame behavior and thermal structure of combusting plane jets with and without self-excited transverse oscillations

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Rong Fung; Kivindu, Reuben Mwanza; Hsu, Ching Min

2018-06-01

The flame behavior and thermal structure of combusting plane jets with and without self-excited transverse oscillations were investigated experimentally. The transversely-oscillating plane jet was generated by a specially designed fluidic oscillator. Isothermal flow patterns were observed using the laser-assisted smoke flow visualization method. Meanwhile, the flame behaviour was studied using instantaneous and long-exposure photography techniques. Temperature distributions and combustion-product concentrations were measured using a fine-wire type R thermocouple and a gas analyzer, respectively. The results showed that the combusting transversely-oscillating plane jets had distributed turbulent blue flames with plaited-like edges, while the corresponding combusting non-oscillating plane jet had laminar blue-edged flames in the near field. At a high Reynolds number, the transversely-oscillating jet flames were significantly shorter and wider with shorter reaction-dominated zones than those of the non-oscillating plane jet flames. In addition, the transversely-oscillating combusting jets presented larger carbon dioxide and smaller unburned hydrocarbon concentrations, as well as portrayed characteristics of partially premixed flames. The non-oscillating combusting jets presented characteristics of diffusion flames, and the transversely-oscillating jet flame had a combustion performance superior to its non-oscillating plane jet flame counterpart. The high combustion performance of the transversely-oscillating jets was due to the enhanced entrainment, mixing, and lateral spreading of the jet flow, which were induced by the vortical flow structure generated by lateral periodic jet oscillations, as well as the high turbulence created by the breakup of the vortices.

Flame behavior and thermal structure of combusting plane jets with and without self-excited transverse oscillations

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Rong Fung; Kivindu, Reuben Mwanza; Hsu, Ching Min

2017-12-01

The flame behavior and thermal structure of combusting plane jets with and without self-excited transverse oscillations were investigated experimentally. The transversely-oscillating plane jet was generated by a specially designed fluidic oscillator. Isothermal flow patterns were observed using the laser-assisted smoke flow visualization method. Meanwhile, the flame behaviour was studied using instantaneous and long-exposure photography techniques. Temperature distributions and combustion-product concentrations were measured using a fine-wire type R thermocouple and a gas analyzer, respectively. The results showed that the combusting transversely-oscillating plane jets had distributed turbulent blue flames with plaited-like edges, while the corresponding combusting non-oscillating plane jet had laminar blue-edged flames in the near field. At a high Reynolds number, the transversely-oscillating jet flames were significantly shorter and wider with shorter reaction-dominated zones than those of the non-oscillating plane jet flames. In addition, the transversely-oscillating combusting jets presented larger carbon dioxide and smaller unburned hydrocarbon concentrations, as well as portrayed characteristics of partially premixed flames. The non-oscillating combusting jets presented characteristics of diffusion flames, and the transversely-oscillating jet flame had a combustion performance superior to its non-oscillating plane jet flame counterpart. The high combustion performance of the transversely-oscillating jets was due to the enhanced entrainment, mixing, and lateral spreading of the jet flow, which were induced by the vortical flow structure generated by lateral periodic jet oscillations, as well as the high turbulence created by the breakup of the vortices.

Effects of preheated combustion air on laminar coflow diffusion flames under normal and microgravity conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Ghaderi Yeganeh, Mohammad

Global energy consumption has been increasing around the world, owing to the rapid growth of industrialization and improvements in the standard of living. As a result, more carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide are being released into the environment. Therefore, techniques for achieving combustion at reduced carbon dioxide and nitric oxide emission levels have drawn increased attention. Combustion with a highly preheated air and low-oxygen concentration has been shown to provide significant energy savings, reduce pollution and equipment size, and uniform thermal characteristics within the combustion chamber. However, the fundamental understanding of this technique is limited. The motivation of the present study is to identify the effects of preheated combustion air on laminar coflow diffusion flames. Combustion characteristics of laminar coflow diffusion flames are evaluated for the effects of preheated combustion air temperature under normal and low-gravity conditions. Experimental measurements are conducted using direct flame photography, particle image velocimetry (PIV) and optical emission spectroscopy diagnostics. Laminar coflow diffusion flames are examined under four experimental conditions: normal-temperature/normal-gravity (case I), preheated-temperature/normal gravity (case II), normal-temperature/low-gravity (case III), and preheated-temperature/low-gravity (case IV). Comparisons between these four cases yield significant insights. In our studies, increasing the combustion air temperature by 400 K (from 300 K to 700 K), causes a 37.1% reduction in the flame length and about a 25% increase in peak flame temperature. The results also show that a 400 K increase in the preheated air temperature increases CH concentration of the flame by about 83.3% (CH is a marker for the rate of chemical reaction), and also increases the C2 concentration by about 60% (C2 is a marker for the soot precursor). It can therefore be concluded that preheating the combustion air

Combustion chemistry of alcohols: Experimental and modeled structure of a premixed 2-methylbutanol flame

KAUST Repository

Lucassen, Arnas; Park, Sungwoo; Hansen, Nils; Sarathy, Mani

2014-01-01

This paper presents a detailed investigation of 2-methylbutanol combustion chemistry in low-pressure premixed flames. This chemistry is of particular interest to study because this compound is potentially a lignocellulosic-based, next-generation biofuel. The detailed chemical structure of a stoichiometric low-pressure (25 Torr) flame was determined using flame-sampling molecular-beam mass spectrometry. A total of 55 species were identified and subsequently quantitative mole fraction profiles as function of distance from the burner surface were determined. In an independent effort, a detailed flame chemistry model for 2-methylbutanol was assembled based on recent knowledge gained from combustion chemistry studies for butanol isomers ([Sarathy et al. Combust. Flame 159 (6) (2012) 2028-2055]) and iso-pentanol (3-methylbutanol) [Sarathy et al. Combust. Flame 160 (12) (2013) 2712-2728]. Experimentally determined and modeled mole fraction profiles were compared to demonstrate the model's capabilities. Examples of individual mole fraction profiles are discussed together with the most significant fuel consumption pathways to highlight the combustion chemistry of 2-methylbutanol. Discrepancies between experimental and modeling results are used to suggest areas where improvement of the kinetic model would be needed. © 2014.

Combustion chemistry of alcohols: Experimental and modeled structure of a premixed 2-methylbutanol flame

KAUST Repository

Lucassen, Arnas

2014-06-14

This paper presents a detailed investigation of 2-methylbutanol combustion chemistry in low-pressure premixed flames. This chemistry is of particular interest to study because this compound is potentially a lignocellulosic-based, next-generation biofuel. The detailed chemical structure of a stoichiometric low-pressure (25 Torr) flame was determined using flame-sampling molecular-beam mass spectrometry. A total of 55 species were identified and subsequently quantitative mole fraction profiles as function of distance from the burner surface were determined. In an independent effort, a detailed flame chemistry model for 2-methylbutanol was assembled based on recent knowledge gained from combustion chemistry studies for butanol isomers ([Sarathy et al. Combust. Flame 159 (6) (2012) 2028-2055]) and iso-pentanol (3-methylbutanol) [Sarathy et al. Combust. Flame 160 (12) (2013) 2712-2728]. Experimentally determined and modeled mole fraction profiles were compared to demonstrate the model\\'s capabilities. Examples of individual mole fraction profiles are discussed together with the most significant fuel consumption pathways to highlight the combustion chemistry of 2-methylbutanol. Discrepancies between experimental and modeling results are used to suggest areas where improvement of the kinetic model would be needed. © 2014.

Effect of flame-tube head structure on combustion chamber performance

Science.gov (United States)

Gu, Minqqi

1986-01-01

The experimental combustion performance of a premixed, pilot-type flame tube with various head structures is discussed. The test study covers an extensive area: efficiency of the combustion chamber, quality of the outlet temperature field, limit of the fuel-lean blowout, ignition performance at ground starting, and carbon deposition. As a result of these tests, a nozzle was found which fits the premixed pilot flame tube well. The use of this nozzle optimized the performance of the combustion chamber. The tested models had premixed pilot chambers with two types of air-film-cooling structures, six types of venturi-tube structures, and secondary fuel nozzles with two small spray-cone angles.

Sub-grid scale combustion models for large eddy simulation of unsteady premixed flame propagation around obstacles.

Science.gov (United States)

Di Sarli, Valeria; Di Benedetto, Almerinda; Russo, Gennaro

2010-08-15

In this work, an assessment of different sub-grid scale (sgs) combustion models proposed for large eddy simulation (LES) of steady turbulent premixed combustion (Colin et al., Phys. Fluids 12 (2000) 1843-1863; Flohr and Pitsch, Proc. CTR Summer Program, 2000, pp. 61-82; Kim and Menon, Combust. Sci. Technol. 160 (2000) 119-150; Charlette et al., Combust. Flame 131 (2002) 159-180; Pitsch and Duchamp de Lageneste, Proc. Combust. Inst. 29 (2002) 2001-2008) was performed to identify the model that best predicts unsteady flame propagation in gas explosions. Numerical results were compared to the experimental data by Patel et al. (Proc. Combust. Inst. 29 (2002) 1849-1854) for premixed deflagrating flame in a vented chamber in the presence of three sequential obstacles. It is found that all sgs combustion models are able to reproduce qualitatively the experiment in terms of step of flame acceleration and deceleration around each obstacle, and shape of the propagating flame. Without adjusting any constants and parameters, the sgs model by Charlette et al. also provides satisfactory quantitative predictions for flame speed and pressure peak. Conversely, the sgs combustion models other than Charlette et al. give correct predictions only after an ad hoc tuning of constants and parameters. Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Combustion Characteristics for Turbulent Prevaporized Premixed Flame Using Commercial Light Diesel and Kerosene Fuels

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohamed S. Shehata

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Experimental study has been carried out for investigating fuel type, fuel blends, equivalence ratio, Reynolds number, inlet mixture temperature, and holes diameter of perforated plate affecting combustion process for turbulent prevaporized premixed air flames for different operating conditions. CO2, CO, H2, N2, C3H8, C2H6, C2H4, flame temperature, and gas flow velocity are measured along flame axis for different operating conditions. Gas chromatographic (GC and CO/CO2 infrared gas analyzer are used for measuring different species. Temperature is measured using thermocouple technique. Gas flow velocity is measured using pitot tube technique. The effect of kerosene percentage on concentration, flame temperature, and gas flow velocity is not linearly dependent. Correlations for adiabatic flame temperature for diesel and kerosene-air flames are obtained as function of mixture strength, fuel type, and inlet mixture temperature. Effect of equivalence ratio on combustion process for light diesel-air flame is greater than for kerosene-air flame. Flame temperature increases with increased Reynolds number for different operating conditions. Effect of Reynolds number on combustion process for light diesel flame is greater than for kerosene flame and also for rich flame is greater than for lean flame. The present work contributes to design and development of lean prevaporized premixed (LPP gas turbine combustors.

Effect of energetic electrons on combustion of premixed burner flame

Science.gov (United States)

Sasaki, Koichi

2011-10-01

In many studies of plasma-assisted combustion, authors superpose discharges onto flames to control combustion reactions. This work is motivated by more fundamental point of view. The standpoint of this work is that flames themselves are already plasmas. We irradiated microwave power onto premixed burner flame with the intention of heating electrons in it. The microwave power was limited below the threshold for a discharge. We obtained the enhancement of burning velocity by the irradiation of the microwave power, which was understood by the shortening of the flame length. At the same time, we observed the increases in the optical emission intensities of OH and CH radicals. Despite the increases in the optical emission intensities, the optical emission spectra of OH and CH were not affected by the microwave irradiation, indicating that the enhancement of the burning velocity was not attributed to the increase in the gas temperature. On the other hand, we observed significant increase in the optical emission intensity of the second positive system of molecular nitrogen, which is a clear evidence for electron heating in the premixed burner flame. Therefore, it is considered that the enhancement of the burning velocity is obtained by nonequilibrium combustion chemistry which is driven by energetic electrons. By irradiating pulsed microwave power, we examined the time constants for the increases and decreases in the optical emission intensities of N2, OH, CH, and continuum radiation.

Adiabatic flame temperature of sodium combustion and sodium-water reaction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Okano, Y.; Yamaguchi, A.

2001-01-01

In this paper, background information of sodium fire and sodium-water reaction accidents of LMFBR (liquid metal fast breeder reactor) is mentioned at first. Next, numerical analysis method of GENESYS is described in detail. Next, adiabatic flame temperature and composition of sodium combustion are analyzed, and affect of reactant composition, such oxygen and moisture, is discussed. Finally, adiabatic reaction zone temperature and composition of sodium-water reaction are calculated, and affects of reactant composition, sodium vaporization, and pressure are stated. Chemical equilibrium calculation program for generic chemical system (GENESYS) is developed in this study for the research on adiabatic flame temperature of sodium combustion and adiabatic reaction zone temperature of sodium-water reaction. The maximum flame temperature of the sodium combustion is 1,950 K at the standard atmospheric condition, and is not affected by the existence of moisture. The main reaction product is Na 2 O (l) , and in combustion in moist air, with NaOH (g) . The maximum reaction zone temperature of the sodium-water reaction is 1,600 K, and increases with the system pressure. The main products are NaOH (g) , NaOH (l) and H2 (g) . Sodium evaporation should be considered in the cases of sodium-rich and high pressure above 10 bar

Investigation on Flame Characteristics and Burner Operability Issues of Oxy-Fuel Combustion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Choudhuri, Ahsan [Univ. Of Texas, El Paso, TX (United States)

2013-09-30

Oxy-fuel combustion has been used previously in a wide range of industrial applications. Oxy- combustion is carried out by burning a hydrocarbon fuel with oxygen instead of air. Flames burning in this configuration achieve higher flame temperatures which present opportunities for significant efficiency improvements and direct capture of CO₂ from the exhaust stream. In an effort to better understand and characterize the fundamental flame characteristics of oxy-fuel combustion this research presents the experimental measurements of flame stability of various oxyfuel flames. Effects of H₂ concentration, fuel composition, exhaust gas recirculation ratio, firing inputs, and burner diameters on the flame stability of these fuels are discussed. Effects of exhaust gas recirculation i.e. CO₂ and H₂O (steam) acting as diluents on burner operability are also presented. The roles of firing input on flame stability are then analyzed. For this study it was observed that many oxy-flames did not stabilize without exhaust gas recirculation due to their higher burning velocities. In addition, the stability regime of all compositions was observed to decrease as the burner diameter increased. A flashback model is also presented, using the critical velocity gradient g_F) values for CH₄-O₂-CO₂ flames. The second part of the study focuses on the experimental measurements of the flow field characteristics of premixed CH₄/21%O₂/79%N₂ and CH₄/38%O₂/72%CO₂ mixtures at constant firing input of 7.5 kW, constant, equivalence ratio of 0.8, constant swirl number of 0.92 and constant Reynolds Numbers. These measurements were taken in a swirl stabilized combustor at atmospheric pressure. The flow field visualization using Particle Imaging Velocimetry (PIV) technique is implemented to make a better understanding of the turbulence characteristics of

Study of flame combustion of off-design binary coal blends in steam boilers

Science.gov (United States)

Kapustyanskii, A. A.

2017-07-01

Changes in the structure of the fuel consumption by the thermal power stations of Ukraine caused by failure in supplying anthracite from the Donets Basin are analyzed and the major tasks of maintaining the functioning of the coal industry are formulated. The possibility of using, in the near future, the flame combustion of off-design solid fuels in the power boilers of the thermal power plants and combined heat and power plants is studied. The article presents results of expert tests of the TPP-210A and TP-15 boilers under flame combustion of mixtures of anthracites, lean coal, and the coal from the RSA in various combinations. When combusting, such mixtures have higher values of the combustibles yield and the ash fusibility temperature. The existence of the synergetic effect in the flame combustion of binary coal blends with different degrees of metamorphism is discussed. A number of top-priority measures have been worked out that allow for switching over the boilers designed to be fired with anthracite to using blends of coals of different ranks. Zoned thermal analysis of the TP-15 boiler furnace was performed for numerical investigation of the temperature distribution between the furnace chamber zones and exploration of the possibility of the liquid slag disposal and the temperature conditions for realization of this process. A positive result was achieved by combusting anthracite culm (AC), the coal from the RSA, and their mixtures with lean coal within the entire range of the working loads of the boilers in question. The problems of normalization of the liquid slag flow were also successfully solved without closing the slag notch. The results obtained by balance experiments suggest that the characteristics of the flame combustion of a binary blend, i.e., the temperature conditions in the furnace, the support flame values, and the degree of the fuel burnout, are similar to the characteristics of the flame of the coal with a higher reactive capacity, which

Cool-flame Extinction During N-Alkane Droplet Combustion in Microgravity

Science.gov (United States)

Nayagam, Vedha; Dietrich, Daniel L.; Hicks, Michael C.; Williams, Forman A.

2014-01-01

Recent droplet combustion experiments onboard the International Space Station (ISS) have revealed that large n-alkane droplets can continue to burn quasi-steadily following radiative extinction in a low-temperature regime, characterized by negative-temperaturecoefficient (NTC) chemistry. In this study we report experimental observations of n-heptane, n-octane, and n-decane droplets of varying initial sizes burning in oxygen/nitrogen/carbon dioxide and oxygen/helium/nitrogen environments at 1.0, 0.7, and 0.5 atmospheric pressures. The oxygen concentration in these tests varied in the range of 14% to 25% by volume. Large n-alkane droplets exhibited quasi-steady low-temperature burning and extinction following radiative extinction of the visible flame while smaller droplets burned to completion or disruptively extinguished. A vapor-cloud formed in most cases slightly prior to or following the "cool flame" extinction. Results for droplet burning rates in both the hot-flame and cool-flame regimes as well as droplet extinction diameters at the end of each stage are presented. Time histories of radiant emission from the droplet captured using broadband radiometers are also presented. Remarkably the "cool flame" extinction diameters for all the three n-alkanes follow a trend reminiscent of the ignition delay times observed in previous studies. The similarities and differences among the n-alkanes during "cool flame" combustion are discussed using simplified theoretical models of the phenomenon

Introduction to Physics and Chemistry of Combustion Explosion, Flame, Detonation

CERN Document Server

Liberman, Michael A

2008-01-01

Most of the material covered in this book deals with the fundamentals of chemistry and physics of key processes and fundamental mechanisms for various combustion and combustion related phenomena in gaseous combustible mixture. It provides the reader with basic knowledge of burning processes and mechanisms of reaction wave propagation. The combustion of a gas mixture (flame, explosion, detonation) is necessarily accompanied by motion of the gas. The process of combustion is therefore not only a chemical phenomenon but also one of gas dynamics. The material selection focuses on the gas phase and

Vision based monitoring and characterisation of combustion flames

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lu, G; Gilabert, G; Yan, Y

2005-01-01

With the advent of digital imaging and image processing techniques vision based monitoring and characterisation of combustion flames have developed rapidly in recent years. This paper presents a short review of the latest developments in this area. The techniques covered in this review are classified into two main categories: two-dimensional (2D) and 3D imaging techniques. Experimental results obtained on both laboratory- and industrial-scale combustion rigs are presented. Future developments in this area also included

Flame Acceleration and Transition to Detonation in High-Speed Turbulent Combustion

Science.gov (United States)

2016-12-21

ficult to overestimate, as it is the main process in all internal-combustion engines used for propulsion and energy generation. These include piston ...distorted tulip flame develops a double -cusped, concave flame front (6.91 and 7.34 ms) . By t his time, the pressure waves are amplified , and

CloudFlame: Cyberinfrastructure for combustion research

KAUST Repository

Goteng, Gokop

2013-12-01

Combustion experiments and chemical kinetics simulations generate huge data that is computationally and data intensive. A cloud-based cyber infrastructure known as Cloud Flame is implemented to improve the computational efficiency, scalability and availability of data for combustion research. The architecture consists of an application layer, a communication layer and distributed cloud servers running in a mix environment of Windows, Macintosh and Linux systems. The application layer runs software such as CHEMKIN modeling application. The communication layer provides secure transfer/archive of kinetic, thermodynamic, transport and gas surface data using private/public keys between clients and cloud servers. A robust XML schema based on the Process Informatics Model (Prime) combined with a workflow methodology for digitizing, verifying and uploading data from scientific graphs/tables to Prime is implemented for chemical molecular structures of compounds. The outcome of using this system by combustion researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Clean Combustion Research Center and its collaborating partners indicated a significant improvement in efficiency in terms of speed of chemical kinetics and accuracy in searching for the right chemical kinetic data.

Comparative study for hardwood and softwood forest biomass: chemical characterization, combustion phases and gas and particulate matter emissions.

Science.gov (United States)

Amaral, Simone Simões; de Carvalho, João Andrade; Costa, Maria Angélica Martins; Soares Neto, Turíbio Gomes; Dellani, Rafael; Leite, Luiz Henrique Scavacini

2014-07-01

Two different types of typical Brazilian forest biomass were burned in the laboratory in order to compare their combustion characteristics and pollutant emissions. Approximately 2 kg of Amazon biomass (hardwood) and 2 kg of Araucaria biomass (softwood) were burned. Gaseous emissions of CO2, CO, and NOx and particulate matter smaller than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) were evaluated in the flaming and smoldering combustion phases. Temperature, burn rate, modified combustion efficiency, emissions factor, and particle diameter and concentration were studied. A continuous analyzer was used to quantify gas concentrations. A DataRam4 and a Cascade Impactor were used to sample PM2.5. Araucaria biomass (softwood) had a lignin content of 34.9%, higher than the 23.3% of the Amazon biomass (hardwood). CO2 and CO emissions factors seem to be influenced by lignin content. Maximum concentrations of CO2, NOx and PM2.5 were observed in the flaming phase. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Enhancement of flame development by microwave-assisted spark ignition in constant volume combustion chamber

KAUST Repository

Wolk, Benjamin

2013-07-01

The enhancement of laminar flame development using microwave-assisted spark ignition has been investigated for methane-air mixtures at a range of initial pressures and equivalence ratios in a 1.45. l constant volume combustion chamber. Microwave enhancement was evaluated on the basis of several parameters including flame development time (FDT) (time for 0-10% of total net heat release), flame rise time (FRT) (time for 10-90% of total net heat release), total net heat release, flame kernel growth rate, flame kernel size, and ignitability limit extension. Compared to a capacitive discharge spark, microwave-assisted spark ignition extended the lean and rich ignition limits at all pressures investigated (1.08-7.22. bar). The addition of microwaves to a capacitive discharge spark reduced FDT and increased the flame kernel size for all equivalence ratios tested and resulted in increases in the spatial flame speed for sufficiently lean flames. Flame enhancement is believed to be caused by (1) a non-thermal chemical kinetic enhancement from energy deposition to free electrons in the flame front and (2) induced flame wrinkling from excitation of flame (plasma) instability. The enhancement of flame development by microwaves diminishes as the initial pressure of the mixture increases, with negligible flame enhancement observed above 3. bar. © 2013 The Combustion Institute.

Laboratory Studies of Water Uptake by Biomass Burning Smoke: Role of Fuel Inorganic Content, Combustion Phase and Aging

Science.gov (United States)

Dubey, M. K.; Bixler, S. L.; Romonosky, D.; Lam, J.; Carrico, C.; Aiken, A. C.

2017-12-01

Biomass burning aerosol emissions have substantially increased with observed warming and drying in the southwestern US. While wildfires are projected to intensify missing knowledge on the aerosols hampers assessments. Observations demonstrate that enhanced light absorption by coated black carbon and brown carbon can offset the cooling effects of organic aerosols in wildfires. However, if mixing processes that enhance this absorption reduce the aerosol lifetime it would lower their atmospheric burden. In order to elucidate mechanisms regulating this tradeoff we performed laboratory studies of smoke from biomass burning. We focus on aerosol optical properties and their hygroscopic response. Fresh emissions from burning 30 fuels under flaming and smoldering conditions were investigated. We measured aerosol absorption, scattering and extinction at multiple wavelengths, water uptake at 85% relative humidity (fRH85%) with a humidity controlled dual nephelometer, and black carbon mass with a SP2. Trace gases and the ionic content of the fuel and smoke were also measured We find that whereas the optical properties of smoke were strongly dictated by the flaming versus smoldering nature of the burn, the observed hygroscopicity was intimately linked to the chemical composition of the fuel. The mean hygroscopicity ranged from nearly hydrophobic (fRH85% = 1) to very hydrophilic (fRH85% = 2.1) values typical of pure deliquescent salts. The k values varied from 0.004 to 0.18 and correlated well with inorganic content. Inorganic fuel content was the key driver of hygroscopicity with combustion phase playing a secondary but important role ( 20%). Flaming combustion promoted hygroscopicity by generating refractory black carbon and ions. Smoldering combustion suppressed hygroscopicity by producing hydrogenated organic species. Wildfire smoke was hydrophobic since the evergreen species with low inorganic content dominated in these fires. We also quantify the mass absorption cross

An experimental study of the effect of a pilot flame on technically pre-mixed, self-excited combustion instabilities

Science.gov (United States)

O'Meara, Bridget C.

Combustion instabilities are a problem facing the gas turbine industry in the operation of lean, pre-mixed combustors. Secondary flames known as "pilot flames" are a common passive control strategy for eliminating combustion instabilities in industrial gas turbines, but the underlying mechanisms responsible for the pilot flame's stabilizing effect are not well understood. This dissertation presents an experimental study of a pilot flame in a single-nozzle, swirl-stabilized, variable length atmospheric combustion test facility and the effect of the pilot on combustion instabilities. A variable length combustor tuned the acoustics of the system to excite instabilities over a range of operating conditions without a pilot flame. The inlet velocity was varied from 25 -- 50 m/s and the equivalence ratio was varied from 0.525 -- 0.65. This range of operating conditions was determined by the operating range of the combustion test facility. Stability at each operating condition and combustor length was characterized by measurements of pressure oscillations in the combustor. The effect of the pilot flame on the magnitude and frequency of combustor stability was then investigated. The mechanisms responsible for the pilot flame effect were studied using chemiluminescence flame images of both stable and unstable flames. Stable flame structure was investigated using stable flame images of CH* chemiluminescence emission. The effect of the pilot on stable flame metrics such as flame length, flame angle, and flame width was investigated. In addition, a new flame metric, flame base distance, was defined to characterize the effect of the pilot flame on stable flame anchoring of the flame base to the centerbody. The effect of the pilot flame on flame base anchoring was investigated because the improved stability with a pilot flame is usually attributed to improved flame anchoring through the recirculation of hot products from the pilot to the main flame base. Chemiluminescence images

Measurement of the heat of smoldering combustion in straws and stalks by means of simultaneous thermal analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

He, Fang; Yi, Weiming; Zha, Jianwen [School of Light Industry and Agricultural Engineering, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, Shandong 255049 (China)

2009-01-15

In order to investigate reaction heat of agro-stalks smoldering, wheat straw, corn stalk, cotton stalk, millet straw, sorghum stalk and sweet potato rattan powder were smoldered and pyrolyzed in a simultaneous thermal analyzer (STA). The samples were placed in a platinum crucible (5 mm x 5 mm) with a lid (with a 1 mm hole) on a high-accuracy differential scanning calorimetry-heat capacity (DSC-cp) holder in the furnace of an STA and heated from 303 to 1073 K at a heating rate of 10 K min{sup -1}. Sweeping gas with a flow rate of 25 ml min{sup -1} was air and nitrogen during smoldering and pyrolysis, respectively. Results showed that the heat emission characteristic of the smoldering process differed remarkably from the pyrolysis process. Based on the analysis of the DSC curves, oxidative polymer degradation heat and char oxidation heat were obtained from experimental data. It showed that the oxidative polymer degradation heat of the agro-stalks is more than 6.92 MJ kg{sup -1} consumed matter, higher than that of cellulose paper. And char oxidation heat is around 23 MJ kg{sup -1} consumed matter, similar to that of cellulose paper, but higher than that of cigarette. Total net heat emission of smoldering in STA was also obtained. These data can be used as reference data in analyzing smoldering of agro-stalks under similar conditions. (author)

PREMIXED FLAME PROPAGATION AND MORPHOLOGY IN A CONSTANT VOLUME COMBUSTION CHAMBER

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hariharan, A; Wichman, IS

2014-06-04

This work presents an experimental and numerical investigation of premixed flame propagation in a constant volume rectangular channel with an aspect ratio of six (6) that serves as a combustion chamber. Ignition is followed by an accelerating cusped finger-shaped flame-front. A deceleration of the flame is followed by the formation of a "tulip"-shaped flame-front. Eventually, the flame is extinguished when it collides with the cold wall on the opposite channel end. Numerical computations are performed to understand the influence of pressure waves, instabilities, and flow field effects causing changes to the flame structure and morphology. The transient 2D numerical simulation results are compared with transient 3D experimental results. Issues discussed are the appearance of oscillatory motions along the flame front and the influences of gravity on flame structure. An explanation is provided for the formation of the "tulip" shape of the premixed flame front.

Remediation of trichloroethylene-contaminated soils by star technology using vegetable oil smoldering.

Science.gov (United States)

Salman, Madiha; Gerhard, Jason I; Major, David W; Pironi, Paolo; Hadden, Rory

2015-03-21

Self-sustaining treatment for active remediation (STAR) is an innovative soil remediation approach based on smoldering combustion that has been demonstrated to effectively destroy complex hydrocarbon nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) with minimal energy input. This is the first study to explore the smoldering remediation of sand contaminated by a volatile NAPL (trichloroethylene, TCE) and the first to consider utilizing vegetable oil as supplemental fuel for STAR. Thirty laboratory-scale experiments were conducted to evaluate the relationship between key outcomes (TCE destruction, rate of remediation) to initial conditions (vegetable oil type, oil: TCE mass ratio, neat versus emulsified oils). Several vegetable oils and emulsified vegetable oil formulations were shown to support remediation of TCE via self-sustaining smoldering. A minimum concentration of 14,000 mg/kg canola oil was found to treat sand exhibiting up to 80,000 mg/kg TCE. On average, 75% of the TCE mass was removed due to volatilization. This proof-of-concept study suggests that injection and smoldering of vegetable oil may provide a new alternative for driving volatile contaminants to traditional vapour extraction systems without supplying substantial external energy. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Characteristics of spray flames and the effect of group combustion on the morphology of flame-made nanoparticles

Science.gov (United States)

Eslamian, Morteza; Heine, Martin C.

2008-01-01

Characteristics of burning and non-burning sprays generated by a coaxial air-assist nozzle, previously used for the synthesis of ceramic nanoparticles by flame spray pyrolysis (FSP), are studied using phase Doppler anemometry. Also, the effect of droplet interaction on the overall combustion behavior of the spray (group combustion) and, consequently, on the characteristics of flame-made ceramic particles is investigated. A physical model is proposed which correlates the formation of inhomogeneous mixtures of micron-sized hollow particles and solid nanoparticles to the combustion mode: the precursor droplets which entirely evaporate in the hot flame are responsible for the formation of nanoparticles. The vapor species react, forming intermediate and product molecules and clusters that quickly grow to nanosized ceramic particles. On the other hand, under certain conditions, a small number of the droplets, particularly with large initial sizes, escape from the spray boundaries and become extinguished, producing large hollow ceramic particles. It is also possible that some of the large droplets, which lie within the spray core, do not entirely evaporate. These surviving droplets then form large particles which are usually hollow but can collapse to solid particles at sufficiently high temperatures. Also, a criterion for the formation of homogeneous ceramic nanoparticles is presented.

Characteristics of spray flames and the effect of group combustion on the morphology of flame-made nanoparticles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eslamian, Morteza; Heine, Martin C

2008-01-01

Characteristics of burning and non-burning sprays generated by a coaxial air-assist nozzle, previously used for the synthesis of ceramic nanoparticles by flame spray pyrolysis (FSP), are studied using phase Doppler anemometry. Also, the effect of droplet interaction on the overall combustion behavior of the spray (group combustion) and, consequently, on the characteristics of flame-made ceramic particles is investigated. A physical model is proposed which correlates the formation of inhomogeneous mixtures of micron-sized hollow particles and solid nanoparticles to the combustion mode: the precursor droplets which entirely evaporate in the hot flame are responsible for the formation of nanoparticles. The vapor species react, forming intermediate and product molecules and clusters that quickly grow to nanosized ceramic particles. On the other hand, under certain conditions, a small number of the droplets, particularly with large initial sizes, escape from the spray boundaries and become extinguished, producing large hollow ceramic particles. It is also possible that some of the large droplets, which lie within the spray core, do not entirely evaporate. These surviving droplets then form large particles which are usually hollow but can collapse to solid particles at sufficiently high temperatures. Also, a criterion for the formation of homogeneous ceramic nanoparticles is presented

Effect of Electric Field in the Stabilized Premixed Flame on Combustion Process Emissions

Science.gov (United States)

Otto, Krickis

2017-10-01

The effect of the AC and DC electrical field on combustion processes has been investigated by various researchers. The results of these experiments do not always correlate, due to different experiment conditions and experiment equipment variations. The observed effects of the electrical field impact on the combustion process depends on the applied voltage polarity, flame speed and combustion physics. During the experiment was defined that starting from 1000 V the ionic wind takes the effect on emissions in flue gases, flame shape and combustion instabilities. Simulation combustion process in hermetically sealed chamber with excess oxygen amount 3 % in flue gases showed that the positive effect of electrical field on emissions lies in region from 30 to 400 V. In aforementioned voltage range carbon monoxide emissions were reduced by 6 % and at the same time the nitrogen oxide emissions were increased by 3.5 %.

Investigation of micro burner performance during porous media combustion for surface and submerged flames

Science.gov (United States)

Janvekar, Ayub Ahmed; Abdullah, M. Z.; Ahmad, Z. A.; Abas, Aizat; Hussien, Ahmed A.; Kataraki, Pramod S.; Mohamed, Mazlan; Husin, Azmi; Fadzli, Khairil

2018-05-01

Porous media combustion is considered to be one of the popular choice due to its tremendous advantages. Such type of combustion liberates not only super stable flame but also maintains emissions parameters below thresholds level. Present study incorporates reaction and preheat layer with discrete and foam type of materials respectively. Burner was made to run in ultra-lean mode. Optimum equivalence ratio was found out to be 0.7 for surface flame, while 0.6 during submerged flame condition. Maximum thermal efficiency was noted to be 81%. Finally, emissions parameters where recorded continuously to measure NOx and CO, which were under global limits.

Effects of pressure fluctuations on the combustion process in turbulent premixed flames

Science.gov (United States)

Beardsell, Guillaume; Lapointe, Simon; Blanquart, Guillaume

2016-11-01

The need for a thorough understanding of turbulence-combustion interactions in compressible flows is driven by recent technological developments in propulsion as well as renewed interest in the development of next generation supersonic and hypersonic vehicles. In such flows, pressure fluctuations displaying a wide range of length and timescales are present. These fluctuations are expected to impact the combustion process to varying degrees, depending amongst other things on the amplitude of the pressure variations and the timescales of the chemical reactions taking place in the flame. In this context, numerical simulations of these flows can provide insight into the impact of pressure fluctuations on the combustion process. In the present work, we analyze data from simulations of statistically-flat premixed n-heptane/air flames at high Karlovitz numbers. The compressible Navier-Stokes equations are solved exactly (DNS) and results obtained with both detailed kinetic modeling and one-step chemistry are considered. The effects of pressure fluctuations on the fuel burning rate are investigated. The findings are compared with results obtained from simulations of one-dimensional premixed flames subjected to various pressure waves.

DBD plasma assisted combustion for 1D flat flame

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Elkholy, A.H.E.

2015-01-01

The potential use of non-equilibrium plasma for ignition and combustion control has garnered increasing interest due to the possibility of plasma-assisted approaches for ignition and flame stabilization. During the past decade, significant progress has been made toward understanding the mechanisms

Combustion modelling of a fuel oil flame; Modelisation de la combustion d`une flamme de fuel

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Flour, I.; Mechitouan, N.

1996-10-01

The combustion modelling of a fuel oil flame has been realised in the scope of the R and D `Combustion Turbines`. This report presents the results of the 2D simulation of a fuel oil flame (n-octane), at atmospherical pressure, without swirl, realised using the Eulerian two-phase flow software Melodif. This calculation has been defined in collaboration with IFP, using experimental data from the IFRP. The hollow cone spray of liquid fuel is injected in the middle of the combustion chamber, with a co-flowing annular air. The furnace diameter is 2 meter and its length is 6,25 meter. A large recirculation zone is induced by the air flow, and leads to take into account the whole furnace, in order to avoid some problems with the limit conditions at the outlet. This calculation deals with droplets evaporation, gaseous phase combustion and radiation heat transfer. Predictions concerning gaseous axial mean velocity and mean temperature gradient in the flame, are in good agreement with measurements. However the temperature is too low in the peripheral zone of the flow. This is probably due to the fact that heat exchanges at the wall furnace are not correctly represented, because of a lack of detailed limit conditions for the walls. The mean radial velocity is not so well predicted, but this measurement is also quite difficult in a strongly longitudinal flow. The results concerning the dispersed phase will not be compared, because no measurements on the liquid fuel were available. As it has been experimentally observed, the simulation shows that the fuel oil spray quickly evaporates as it enters the combustion chamber. This result allows to propose to use an homogeneous approach (hypothesis of no-slipping between the two phases) in an Eulerian one-phase flow code, in case of a 3D simulation of liquid fuel turbine. (authors)

Development of Combustion Tube for Gaseous, Liquid, and Solid Fuels to Study Flame Acceleration and DDT

Science.gov (United States)

Graziano, Tyler J.

An experimental combustion tube of 20 ft. in length and 10.25 in. in internal diameter was designed and fabricated in order to perform combustion tests to study deflagration rates, flame acceleration, and the possibility of DDT. The experiment was designed to allow gaseous, liquid, or solid fuels, or any combination of the three to produce a homogenous fuel/air mixture within the tube. Combustion tests were initiated with a hydrogen/oxygen torch igniter and the resulting flame behavior was measured with high frequency ion probes and pressure transducers. Tests were performed with a variety of gaseous and liquid fuels in an unobstructed tube with a closed ignition end and open muzzle. The flame performance with the gaseous fuels is loosely correlated with the expansion ratio, while there is a stronger correlation with the laminar flame speed. The strongest correlation to flame performance is the run-up distance scaling factor. This trend was not observed with the liquid fuels. The reason for this is likely due to incomplete evaporation of the liquid fuel droplets resulting in a partially unburned mixture, effectively altering the intended equivalence ratio. Results suggest that the simple theory for run-up distance and flame acceleration must be modified to more accurately predict the behavior of gaseous fuels. Also, it is likely that more complex spray combustion modeling is required to accurately predict the flame behavior for liquid fuels.

Flame Spread and Group-Combustion Excitation in Randomly Distributed Droplet Clouds with Low-Volatility Fuel near the Excitation Limit: a Percolation Approach Based on Flame-Spread Characteristics in Microgravity

Science.gov (United States)

Mikami, Masato; Saputro, Herman; Seo, Takehiko; Oyagi, Hiroshi

2018-03-01

Stable operation of liquid-fueled combustors requires the group combustion of fuel spray. Our study employs a percolation approach to describe unsteady group-combustion excitation based on findings obtained from microgravity experiments on the flame spread of fuel droplets. We focus on droplet clouds distributed randomly in three-dimensional square lattices with a low-volatility fuel, such as n-decane in room-temperature air, where the pre-vaporization effect is negligible. We also focus on the flame spread in dilute droplet clouds near the group-combustion-excitation limit, where the droplet interactive effect is assumed negligible. The results show that the occurrence probability of group combustion sharply decreases with the increase in mean droplet spacing around a specific value, which is termed the critical mean droplet spacing. If the lattice size is at smallest about ten times as large as the flame-spread limit distance, the flame-spread characteristics are similar to those over an infinitely large cluster. The number density of unburned droplets remaining after completion of burning attained maximum around the critical mean droplet spacing. Therefore, the critical mean droplet spacing is a good index for stable combustion and unburned hydrocarbon. In the critical condition, the flame spreads through complicated paths, and thus the characteristic time scale of flame spread over droplet clouds has a very large value. The overall flame-spread rate of randomly distributed droplet clouds is almost the same as the flame-spread rate of a linear droplet array except over the flame-spread limit.

Spot Ignition of Natural Fuels by Hot Metal Particles

OpenAIRE

Urban, James Linwood

2017-01-01

The spot ignition of combustible material by hot metal particles is an important pathway by which wildland and urban spot fires and smolders are started. Upon impact with a fuel, such as dry grass, duff, or saw dust, these particles can initiate spot fires by direct flaming or smoldering which can transition to a flame. These particles can be produced by processes such as welding, powerline interactions, fragments from bullet impacts, abrasive cutting, and pyrotechnics. There is little publi...

Computational fluid dynamic on the temperature simulation of air preheat effect combustion in propane turbulent flame

Science.gov (United States)

Elwina; Yunardi; Bindar, Yazid

2018-04-01

this paper presents results obtained from the application of a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code Fluent 6.3 to modelling of temperature in propane flames with and without air preheat. The study focuses to investigate the effect of air preheat temperature on the temperature of the flame. A standard k-ε model and Eddy Dissipation model are utilized to represent the flow field and combustion of the flame being investigated, respectively. The results of calculations are compared with experimental data of propane flame taken from literature. The results of the study show that a combination of the standard k-ε turbulence model and eddy dissipation model is capable of producing reasonable predictions of temperature, particularly in axial profile of all three flames. Both experimental works and numerical simulation showed that increasing the temperature of the combustion air significantly increases the flame temperature.

Efficient Flame Detection and Early Warning Sensors on Combustible Materials Using Hierarchical Graphene Oxide/Silicone Coatings.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Qian; Gong, Li-Xiu; Li, Yang; Cao, Cheng-Fei; Tang, Long-Cheng; Wu, Lianbin; Zhao, Li; Zhang, Guo-Dong; Li, Shi-Neng; Gao, Jiefeng; Li, Yongjin; Mai, Yiu-Wing

2018-01-23

Design and development of smart sensors for rapid flame detection in postcombustion and early fire warning in precombustion situations are critically needed to improve the fire safety of combustible materials in many applications. Herein, we describe the fabrication of hierarchical coatings created by assembling a multilayered graphene oxide (GO)/silicone structure onto different combustible substrate materials. The resulting coatings exhibit distinct temperature-responsive electrical resistance change as efficient early warning sensors for detecting abnormal high environmental temperature, thus enabling fire prevention below the ignition temperature of combustible materials. After encountering a flame attack, we demonstrate extremely rapid flame detection response in 2-3 s and excellent flame self-extinguishing retardancy for the multilayered GO/silicone structure that can be synergistically transformed to a multiscale graphene/nanosilica protection layer. The hierarchical coatings developed are promising for fire prevention and protection applications in various critical fire risk and related perilous circumstances.

Narrow band flame emission from dieseline and diesel spray combustion in a constant volume combustion chamber

KAUST Repository

Wu, Zengyang

2016-08-18

In this paper, spray combustion of diesel (No. 2) and diesel-gasoline blend (dieseline: 80% diesel and 20% gasoline by volume) were investigated in an optically accessible constant volume combustion chamber. Effects of ambient conditions on flame emissions were studied. Ambient oxygen concentration was varied from 12% to 21% and three ambient temperatures were selected: 800 K, 1000 K and 1200 K. An intensified CCD camera coupled with bandpass filters was employed to capture the quasi-steady state flame emissions at 430 nm and 470 nm bands. Under non-sooting conditions, the narrow-band flame emissions at 430 nm and 470 nm can be used as indicators of CH∗ (methylidyne) and HCHO∗ (formaldehyde), respectively. The lift-off length was measured by imaging the OH∗ chemiluminescence at 310 nm. Flame emission structure and intensity distribution were compared between dieseline and diesel at wavelength bands. Flame emission images show that both narrow band emissions become shorter, thinner and stronger with higher oxygen concentration and higher ambient temperature for both fuels. Areas of weak intensity are observed at the flame periphery and the upstream for both fuels under all ambient conditions. Average flame emission intensity and area were calculated for 430 nm and 470 nm narrow-band emissions. At a lower ambient temperature the average intensity increases with increasing ambient oxygen concentration. However, at the 1200 K ambient temperature condition, the average intensity is not increasing monotonically for both fuels. For most of the conditions, diesel has a stronger average flame emission intensity than dieseline for the 430 nm band, and similar phenomena can be observed for the 470 nm band with 800 K and 1200 K ambient temperatures. However, for the 1000 K ambient temperature cases, dieseline has stronger average flame emission intensities than diesel for all oxygen concentrations at 470 nm band. Flame emissions for the two bands have a

Laboratory Measurements of Biomass Cook-stove Emissions Aged in an Oxidation Flow Reactor: Influence of Combustion and Aging Conditions on Aerosols

Science.gov (United States)

Grieshop, A. P.; Reece, S. M.; Sinha, A.; Wathore, R.

2016-12-01

Combustion in rudimentary and improved cook-stoves used by billions in developing countries can be a regionally dominant contributor to black carbon (BC), primary organic aerosols (POA) and precursors for secondary organic aerosol (SOA). Recent studies suggest that SOA formed during photo-oxidation of primary emissions from biomass burning may make important contribution to its atmospheric impacts. However, the extent to which stove type and operating conditions affect the amount, composition and characteristics of SOA formed from the aging of cookstoves emissions is still largely undetermined. Here we present results from experiments with a field portable oxidation flow reactor (F-OFR) designed to assess aging of cook-stove emissions in both laboratory and field settings. Laboratory tests results are used to compare the quantity and properties of fresh and aged emissions from a traditional open fire and twp alternative stove designs operated on the standard and alternate testing protocols. Diluted cookstove emissions were exposed to a range of oxidant concentrations in the F-OFR. Primary emissions were aged both on-line, to study the influence of combustion variability, and sampled from batched emissions in a smog chamber to examine different aging conditions. Data from real-time particle- and gas-phase instruments and integrated filter samples were collected up and down stream of the OFR. The properties of primary emissions vary strongly with stove type and combustion conditions (e.g. smoldering versus flaming). Experiments aging diluted biomass emissions from distinct phases of stove operation (smoldering and flaming) showed peak SOA production for both phases occurred between 3 and 6 equivalent days of aging with slightly greater production observed in flaming phase emissions. Changing combustion conditions had a stronger influence than aging on POA+SOA `emission factors'. Aerosol Chemical Speciation Monitor data show a substantial evolution of aerosol

Electrical Aspects of Flames in Microgravity Combustion

Science.gov (United States)

Dunn-Rankin, D.; Strayer, B.; Weinberg, F.; Carleton, F.

1999-01-01

A principal characteristic of combustion in microgravity is the absence of buoyancy driven flows. In some cases, such as for spherically symmetrical droplet burning, the absence of buoyancy is desirable for matching analytical treatments with experiments. In other cases, however, it can be more valuable to arbitrarily control the flame's convective environment independent of the environmental gravitational condition. To accomplish this, we propose the use of ion generated winds driven by electric fields to control local convection of flames. Such control can produce reduced buoyancy (effectively zero buoyancy) conditions in the laboratory in 1-g facilitating a wide range of laser diagnostics that can probe the system without special packaging required for drop tower or flight tests. In addition, the electric field generated ionic winds allow varying gravitational convection equivalents even if the test occurs in reduced gravity environments.

Flame image monitoring and analysis in combustion management

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Popovic, D [CEZ, a.s. Elektrarna Detmarovice, Detmarovice (Czech Republic); Huttunen, A J; Nihtinen, J J [Imatran Voima Oy, IVO Technology Centre, Vantaa (Finland)

1998-12-31

When NO{sub x} emissions are reduced with new low-NO{sub x} burners and infurnace modifications in old pulverised fuel boilers, many changes in the firing conditions may occur. Depending on coal quality and the original furnace design, low-NO{sub x} burners, overtire air, low-excess-air firing and other primary modifications in various combinations may cause flame instability, increased slagging, increased minimum load and other difficulties in controlling the burning process. To find and solve these problems quicker, a new type of burner management system for pulverised fuel and oil-fired boilers was developed by Imatran Voima Oy. The DIMAC combustion management system monitors and analyses individually each burner or burner level. There are special software for wall and corner fired boilers. The DIMAC system is comprised of two functional subsystems: flame monitoring and flame analysis. The DIMAC enables the power plant operators to minimise NO{sub x} emissions and optimise the burning efficiency with varying coal qualities and boiler loads at the same time so that slagging, unburnt carbon in fly ash and flame stability stay in acceptable limits. It also guarantees that burners operate in good safety conditions in each burner level. The DIMAC system monitors perpendicularly each individual burner and evaluates flame parameters. Real-time flame monitoring and analysis allows the operator to directly see the effect of changing fuel distribution on flame pattern and flame stability. Based on data from the DIMAC references the system can improve boiler efficiency by 0.2 - 0.5 per cent unit as a result of more efficient control of the burning process. At the same time, the NO{sub x} formation can be reduced by 10 - 20 % 2 refs.

Flame image monitoring and analysis in combustion management

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Popovic, D. [CEZ, a.s. Elektrarna Detmarovice, Detmarovice (Czech Republic); Huttunen, A.J.; Nihtinen, J.J. [Imatran Voima Oy, IVO Technology Centre, Vantaa (Finland)

1997-12-31

When NO{sub x} emissions are reduced with new low-NO{sub x} burners and infurnace modifications in old pulverised fuel boilers, many changes in the firing conditions may occur. Depending on coal quality and the original furnace design, low-NO{sub x} burners, overtire air, low-excess-air firing and other primary modifications in various combinations may cause flame instability, increased slagging, increased minimum load and other difficulties in controlling the burning process. To find and solve these problems quicker, a new type of burner management system for pulverised fuel and oil-fired boilers was developed by Imatran Voima Oy. The DIMAC combustion management system monitors and analyses individually each burner or burner level. There are special software for wall and corner fired boilers. The DIMAC system is comprised of two functional subsystems: flame monitoring and flame analysis. The DIMAC enables the power plant operators to minimise NO{sub x} emissions and optimise the burning efficiency with varying coal qualities and boiler loads at the same time so that slagging, unburnt carbon in fly ash and flame stability stay in acceptable limits. It also guarantees that burners operate in good safety conditions in each burner level. The DIMAC system monitors perpendicularly each individual burner and evaluates flame parameters. Real-time flame monitoring and analysis allows the operator to directly see the effect of changing fuel distribution on flame pattern and flame stability. Based on data from the DIMAC references the system can improve boiler efficiency by 0.2 - 0.5 per cent unit as a result of more efficient control of the burning process. At the same time, the NO{sub x} formation can be reduced by 10 - 20 % 2 refs.

Study on Combustion Oscillation of Premixed Flame with Pilot Fuel at Elevated Pressures

Science.gov (United States)

Ohtsuka, Masaya; Yoshida, Shohei; Hirata, Yoshitaka; Kobayashi, Nariyoshi

Acoustically-coupled combustion oscillation is studied for premixed flame with pilot fuel to be used in gas turbine combustors. Premixed gas is passed through swirl vanes and burnt with the centrally injected pilot fuel. The dependencies of pressure, fuel to air ratio, premixed fuel rate, inlet velocity and air temperature on the combustion oscillation are investigated. Two kinds of oscillation modes of ˜100Hz and ˜350Hz are activated according to inlet velocities. Fluctuating pressures are amplified when the premixed fuel rate is over ˜80% at elevated pressures. The fluctuating pressure peak moves to a higher premixed fuel ratio region with increased pressure or fuel to air ratio for the Helmholz type mode. Combustion oscillation occurs when the pilot fuel velocity is changed proportionally with the flame length.

Recent contributions of flame-sampling molecular-beam mass spectrometry to a fundamental understanding of combustion chemistry

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hansen, Nils [Combustion Research Facility, Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA 94551 (United States); Cool, Terrill A. [School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 (United States); Westmoreland, Phillip R. [Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 (United States); Kohse-Hoeinghaus, Katharina [Department of Chemistry, Bielefeld University, D-33615 Bielefeld (Germany)

2009-04-15

Flame-sampling molecular-beam mass spectrometry of premixed, laminar, low-pressure flat flames has been demonstrated to be an efficient tool to study combustion chemistry. In this technique, flame gases are sampled through a small opening in a quartz probe, and after formation of a molecular beam, all flame species are separated using mass spectrometry. The present review focuses on critical aspects of the experimental approach including probe sampling effects, different ionization processes, and mass separation procedures. The capability for isomer-resolved flame species measurements, achievable by employing tunable vacuum-ultraviolet radiation for single-photon ionization, has greatly benefited flame-sampling molecular-beam mass spectrometry. This review also offers an overview of recent combustion chemistry studies of flames fueled by hydrocarbons and oxygenates. The identity of a variety of intermediates in hydrocarbon flames, including resonantly stabilized radicals and closed-shell intermediates, is described, thus establishing a more detailed understanding of the fundamentals of molecular-weight growth processes. Finally, molecular-beam mass-spectrometric studies of reaction paths in flames of alcohols, ethers, and esters, which have been performed to support the development and validation of kinetic models for bio-derived alternative fuels, are reviewed. (author)

Bounds for the propagation speed of combustion flames

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fort, Joaquim; Campos, Daniel; Gonzalez, Josep R; Velayos, Joaquim

2004-01-01

We focus on a combustion model for premixed flames based on two coupled equations determining the spatial dynamics of temperature and fuel density. We rewrite these equations as a classical reaction-diffusion model, so that we can apply some known methods for the prediction of lower and upper bounds to the front speed. The predictions are compared to simulations, which show that our new bounds substantially improve those following from the linearization method, used in the previous work of Fort et al (2000 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 33 6953). Radiative losses lead to pulses rather than fronts. We find a bound for their speed which (in contrast to the linearization one) correctly predicts the order of magnitude of the flame speed

Bounds for the propagation speed of combustion flames

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fort, Joaquim [Departament de FIsica, Universitat de Girona, Campus de Montilivi, 17071 Girona, Catalonia (Spain); Campos, Daniel [Grup de FIsica EstadIstica, Departament de FIsica, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, E-08193 Bellaterra (Spain); Gonzalez, Josep R [Grup de Mecanica de Fluids, Departament d' Enginyeria Mecanica, Universitat de Girona, Campus de Montilivi, 17071 Girona, Catalonia (Spain); Velayos, Joaquim [Grup de Mecanica de Fluids, Departament d' Enginyeria Mecanica, Universitat de Girona, Campus de Montilivi, 17071 Girona, Catalonia (Spain)

2004-07-23

We focus on a combustion model for premixed flames based on two coupled equations determining the spatial dynamics of temperature and fuel density. We rewrite these equations as a classical reaction-diffusion model, so that we can apply some known methods for the prediction of lower and upper bounds to the front speed. The predictions are compared to simulations, which show that our new bounds substantially improve those following from the linearization method, used in the previous work of Fort et al (2000 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 33 6953). Radiative losses lead to pulses rather than fronts. We find a bound for their speed which (in contrast to the linearization one) correctly predicts the order of magnitude of the flame speed.

A study of Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 methanol catalysts prepared by flame combustion synthesis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Joakim Reimer; Johannessen, Tue; Wedel, Stig

2003-01-01

The flame combustion synthesis of Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 catalysts for the synthesis of methanol from CO, CO2 and H2 is investigated. The oxides are generated in a premixed flame from the acetyl-acetonate vapours of Cu, Zn and Al mixed with the fuel and air prior to combustion. The flame-generated powder...... temperature and quench-cooling of the flame tend to increase the dispersion of the phases and the specific surface area of the particles. Properties of both the ternary composition, the three binary compositions and the pure oxides are discussed. The calculation of simultaneous phase and chemical equilibrium...

Numerical study of flame structure in the mild combustion regime

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mardani Amir

2015-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper, turbulent non-premixed CH4+H2 jet flame issuing into a hot and diluted co-flow air is studied numerically. This flame is under condition of the moderate or intense low-oxygen dilution (MILD combustion regime and related to published experimental data. The modelling is carried out using the EDC model to describe turbulence-chemistry interaction. The DRM-22 reduced mechanism and the GRI2.11 full mechanism are used to represent the chemical reactions of H2/methane jet flame. The flame structure for various O2 levels and jet Reynolds numbers are investigated. The results show that the flame entrainment increases by a decrease in O2 concentration at air side or jet Reynolds number. Local extinction is seen in the upstream and close to the fuel injection nozzle at the shear layer. It leads to the higher flame entertainment in MILD regime. The turbulence kinetic energy decay at centre line of jet decreases by an increase in O2 concentration at hot Co-flow. Also, increase in jet Reynolds or O2 level increases the mixing rate and rate of reactions.

Taylor dispersion in premixed combustion: Questions from turbulent combustion answered for laminar flames

Science.gov (United States)

Daou, Joel; Pearce, Philip; Al-Malki, Faisal

2018-02-01

We present a study of Taylor dispersion in premixed combustion and use it to clarify fundamental issues related to flame propagation in a flow field. In particular, simple analytical formulas are derived for variable density laminar flames with arbitrary Lewis number Le providing clear answers to important questions arising in turbulent combustion, when these questions are posed for the case of one-scale laminar parallel flows. Exploiting, in the context of a laminar Poiseuille flow model, a thick flame distinguished asymptotic limit for which the flow amplitude is large with the Reynolds number Re fixed, three main contributions are made. First, a link is established between Taylor dispersion [G. Taylor, Proc. R. Soc. London Ser. A 219, 186 (1953), 10.1098/rspa.1953.0139] and Damköhler's second hypothesis [G. Damköhler, Ber. Bunsen. Phys. Chem. 46, 601 (1940)] by describing analytically the enhancement of the effective propagation speed UT due to small flow scales. More precisely, it is shown that Damköhler's hypothesis is only partially correct for one-scale parallel laminar flows. Specifically, while the increase in UT due to the flow is shown to be directly associated with the increase in the effective diffusivity as suggested by Damköhler, our results imply that UT˜Re (for Re≫1 ) rather than UT˜√{Re} , as implied by Damköhler's hypothesis. Second, it is demonstrated analytically and confirmed numerically that, when UT is plotted versus the flow amplitude for fixed values of Re, the curve levels off to a constant value depending on Re. We may refer to this effect as the laminar bending effect as it mimics a similar bending effect known in turbulent combustion. Third, somewhat surprising implications associated with the dependence of UT and of the effective Lewis number Leeff on the flow are reported. For example, Leeff is found to vary from Le to Le-1 as Re varies from small to large values. Also, UT is found to be a monotonically increasing function

Quantification of Optical and Physical Properties of Combustion-Generated Carbonaceous Aerosols (

Science.gov (United States)

Perera, Inoka Eranda; Litton, Charles D

2015-03-01

A series of experiments were conducted to quantify and characterize the optical and physical properties of combustion-generated aerosols during both flaming and smoldering combustion of three materials common to underground mines-Pittsburgh Seam coal, Styrene Butadiene Rubber (a common mine conveyor belt material), and Douglas-fir wood-using a combination of analytical and gravimetric measurements. Laser photometers were utilized in the experiments for continuous measurement of aerosol mass concentrations and for comparison to measurements made using gravimetric filter samples. The aerosols of interest lie in the size range of tens to a few hundred nanometers, out of range of the standard photometer calibration. To correct for these uncertainties, the photometer mass concentrations were compared to gravimetric samples to determine if consistent correlations existed. The response of a calibrated and modified combination ionization/photoelectric smoke detector was also used. In addition, the responses of this sensor and a similar, prototype ionization/photoelectric sensor, along with discrete angular scattering, total scattering, and total extinction measurements, were used to define in real time the size, morphology, and radiative transfer properties of these differing aerosols that are generally in the form of fractal aggregates. SEM/TEM images were also obtained in order to compare qualitatively the real-time, continuous experimental measurements with the visual microscopic measurements. These data clearly show that significant differences exist between aerosols from flaming and from smoldering combustion and that these differences produce very different scattering and absorption signatures. The data also indicate that ionization/photoelectric sensors can be utilized to measure continuously and in real time aerosol properties over a broad spectrum of applications related to adverse environmental and health effects.

Near wall combustion modeling in spark ignition engines. Part B: Post-flame reactions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Demesoukas, Sokratis; Caillol, Christian; Higelin, Pascal; Boiarciuc, Andrei; Floch, Alain

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Models for the post flame reactions (CO and hydrocarbons) and heat release rate are proposed. • ‘Freezing’ effect of CO kinetics is captured but equilibrium CO concentrations are low. • Reactive–diffusive processes are modeled for hydrocarbons and the last stage of combustion is captured. - Abstract: Reduced fuel consumption, low pollutant emissions and adequate output performance are key features in the contemporary design of spark ignition engines. Zero-dimensional numerical simulation is an attractive alternative to engine experiments for the evaluation of various engine configurations. Both flame front reaction and post-flame processes contribute to the heat release rate. The contribution of this work is to highlight and model the role of post-flame reactions (CO and hydrocarbons) in the heat release rate. The modeling approach to CO kinetics used two reactions considered to be dominant and thus more suitable for the description of CO chemical mechanism. Equilibrium concentrations of all the species involved were calculated by a two-zone thermodynamic model. The computed characteristic time of CO kinetics was found to be of a similar order to the results of complex chemistry simulations. The proposed model captured the ‘freezing’ effect (reaction rate is almost zero) for temperatures lower than 1800 K and followed the trends of the measured values at exhaust. However, a consistent underestimation of CO levels at the exhaust was observed. The impact of the remaining CO on the combustion efficiency is considerable especially for rich mixtures. For a remaining 0.4% CO mass fraction, the impact on combustion inefficiency is 0.1%. Unburnt hydrocarbon, which have not reacted within the flame front before quenching, diffuse in the burnt gas and react. In this work, a global reaction rate models the kinetic behavior of hydrocarbon. The diffusion process was modeled by a relaxation equation applied on the calculated kinetic concentration

Flame macrostructures, combustion instability and extinction strain scaling in swirl-stabilized premixed CH4/H2 combustion

KAUST Repository

Shanbhogue, S.J.; Sanusi, Y.S.; Taamallah, S.; Habib, M.A.; Mokheimer, E.M.A.; Ghoniem, A.F.

2016-01-01

© 2015 The Combustion Institute. In this paper, we report results from an experimental investigation on transitions in the average flame shape (or microstructure) under acoustically coupled and uncoupled conditions in a 50 kW swirl stabilized

Experimental and numerical study of premixed hydrogen/air flame propagating in a combustion chamber.

Science.gov (United States)

Xiao, Huahua; Sun, Jinhua; Chen, Peng

2014-03-15

An experimental and numerical study of dynamics of premixed hydrogen/air flame in a closed explosion vessel is described. High-speed shlieren cinematography and pressure recording are used to elucidate the dynamics of the combustion process in the experiment. A dynamically thickened flame model associated with a detailed reaction mechanism is employed in the numerical simulation to examine the flame-flow interaction and effect of wall friction on the flame dynamics. The shlieren photographs show that the flame develops into a distorted tulip shape after a well-pronounced classical tulip front has been formed. The experimental results reveal that the distorted tulip flame disappears with the primary tulip cusp and the distortions merging into each other, and then a classical tulip is repeated. The combustion dynamics is reasonably reproduced in the numerical simulations, including the variations in flame shape and position, pressure build-up and periodically oscillating behavior. It is found that both the tulip and distorted tulip flames can be created in the simulation with free-slip boundary condition at the walls of the vessel and behave in a manner quite close to that in the experiments. This means that the wall friction could be unimportant for the tulip and distorted tulip formation although the boundary layer formed along the sidewalls has an influence to a certain extent on the flame behavior near the sidewalls. The distorted tulip flame is also observed to be produced in the absence of vortex flow in the numerical simulations. The TF model with a detailed chemical scheme is reliable for investigating the dynamics of distorted tulip flame propagation and its underlying mechanism. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Unsteady Flame Embedding (UFE) Subgrid Model for Turbulent Premixed Combustion Simulations

KAUST Repository

El-Asrag, Hossam

2010-01-04

We present a formulation for an unsteady subgrid model for premixed combustion in the flamelet regime. Since chemistry occurs at the unresolvable scales, it is necessary to introduce a subgrid model that accounts for the multi-scale nature of the problem using the information available on the resolved scales. Most of the current models are based on the laminar flamelet concept, and often neglect the unsteady effects. The proposed model\\'s primary objective is to encompass many of the flame/turbulence interactions unsteady features and history effects. In addition it provides a dynamic and accurate approach for computing the subgrid flame propagation velocity. The unsteady flame embedding approach (UFE) treats the flame as an ensemble of locally one-dimensional flames. A set of elemental one dimensional flames is used to describe the turbulent flame structure at the subgrid level. The stretched flame calculations are performed on the stagnation line of a strained flame using the unsteady filtered strain rate computed from the resolved- grid. The flame iso-surface is tracked using an accurate high-order level set formulation to propagate the flame interface at the coarse resolution with minimum numerical diffusion. In this paper the solver and the model components are introduced and used to investigate two unsteady flames with different Lewis numbers in the thin reaction zone regime. The results show that the UFE model captures the unsteady flame-turbulence interactions and the flame propagation speed reasonably well. Higher propagation speed is observed for the lower than unity Lewis number flame because of the impact of differential diffusion.

Combustion engineering

CERN Document Server

Ragland, Kenneth W

2011-01-01

Introduction to Combustion Engineering The Nature of Combustion Combustion Emissions Global Climate Change Sustainability World Energy Production Structure of the Book   Section I: Basic Concepts Fuels Gaseous Fuels Liquid Fuels Solid Fuels Problems Thermodynamics of Combustion Review of First Law Concepts Properties of Mixtures Combustion StoichiometryChemical EnergyChemical EquilibriumAdiabatic Flame TemperatureChemical Kinetics of CombustionElementary ReactionsChain ReactionsGlobal ReactionsNitric Oxide KineticsReactions at a Solid SurfaceProblemsReferences  Section II: Combustion of Gaseous and Vaporized FuelsFlamesLaminar Premixed FlamesLaminar Flame TheoryTurbulent Premixed FlamesExplosion LimitsDiffusion FlamesGas-Fired Furnaces and BoilersEnergy Balance and EfficiencyFuel SubstitutionResidential Gas BurnersIndustrial Gas BurnersUtility Gas BurnersLow Swirl Gas BurnersPremixed-Charge Engine CombustionIntroduction to the Spark Ignition EngineEngine EfficiencyOne-Zone Model of Combustion in a Piston-...

Effect of multiphase radiation on coal combustion in a pulverized coal jet flame

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, Bifen; Roy, Somesh P.; Zhao, Xinyu; Modest, Michael F.

2017-01-01

The accurate modeling of coal combustion requires detailed radiative heat transfer models for both gaseous combustion products and solid coal particles. A multiphase Monte Carlo ray tracing (MCRT) radiation solver is developed in this work to simulate a laboratory-scale pulverized coal flame. The MCRT solver considers radiative interactions between coal particles and three major combustion products (CO 2 , H 2 O, and CO). A line-by-line spectral database for the gas phase and a size-dependent nongray correlation for the solid phase are employed to account for the nongray effects. The flame structure is significantly altered by considering nongray radiation and the lift-off height of the flame increases by approximately 35%, compared to the simulation without radiation. Radiation is also found to affect the evolution of coal particles considerably as it takes over as the dominant mode of heat transfer for medium-to-large coal particles downstream of the flame. To investigate the respective effects of spectral models for the gas and solid phases, a Planck-mean-based gray gas model and a size-independent gray particle model are applied in a frozen-field analysis of a steady-state snapshot of the flame. The gray gas approximation considerably underestimates the radiative source terms for both the gas phase and the solid phase. The gray coal approximation also leads to under-prediction of the particle emission and absorption. However, the level of under-prediction is not as significant as that resulting from the employment of the gray gas model. Finally, the effect of the spectral property of ash on radiation is also investigated and found to be insignificant for the present target flame. - Highlights: • A Monte Carlo–based nongray radiation solver is developed to study effects of radiation. • Radiation alters the lift-off height, and the distribution of temperature andspecies for the target flame. • Radiation alters the heat transfer mechanism of medium

Flame blowout and pollutant emissions in vitiated combustion of conventional and bio-derived fuels

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Bhupinder

The widening gap between the demand and supply of fossil fuels has catalyzed the exploration of alternative sources of energy. Interest in the power, water extraction and refrigeration (PoWER) cycle, proposed by the University of Florida, as well as the desirability of using biofuels in distributed generation systems, has motivated the exploration of biofuel vitiated combustion. The PoWER cycle is a novel engine cycle concept that utilizes vitiation of the air stream with externally-cooled recirculated exhaust gases at an intermediate pressure in a semi-closed cycle (SCC) loop, lowering the overall temperature of combustion. It has several advantages including fuel flexibility, reduced air flow, lower flame temperature, compactness, high efficiency at full and part load, and low emissions. Since the core engine air stream is vitiated with the externally cooled exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) stream, there is an inherent reduction in the combustion stability for a PoWER engine. The effect of EGR flow and temperature on combustion blowout stability and emissions during vitiated biofuel combustion has been characterized. The vitiated combustion performance of biofuels methyl butanoate, dimethyl ether, and ethanol have been compared with n-heptane, and varying compositions of syngas with methane fuel. In addition, at high levels of EGR a sharp reduction in the flame luminosity has been observed in our experimental tests, indicating the onset of flameless combustion. This drop in luminosity may be a result of inhibition of processes leading to the formation of radiative soot particles. One of the objectives of this study is finding the effect of EGR on soot formation, with the ultimate objective of being able to predict the boundaries of flameless combustion. Detailed chemical kinetic simulations were performed using a constant-pressure continuously stirred tank reactor (CSTR) network model developed using the Cantera combustion code, implemented in C++. Results have

The atomization and the flame structure in the combustion of residual fuel oils; La atomizacion y estructura de flama en la combustion de combustibles residuales

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bolado Estandia, Ramon [Instituto de Investigaciones Electricas, Cuernavaca (Mexico)

1986-12-31

In this article a research on the combustion of heavy residual fuel oils is presented. The type of flames studied were obtained by means of the burning of sprays produced by an atomizer designed and calibrated specially for the research purpose. The flame characteristics that were analyzed are its length, its luminosity, the temperature, the distribution of the droplets size and mainly the burning regime of the droplets in the flame. The experimental techniques that were used for these studies were shadow micro-photography, suction pyrometry and of total radiation, laser diffraction, 35 mm photography, and impact push. The analysis of the experimental results, together with the results of the application of a mathematical model, permitted to establish two parameters, that quantitatively related determine the burning regime of the droplets in a flame of sprays of residual heavy fuel oil. [Espanol] En este articulo se presenta una investigacion sobre la combustion de combustibles residuales pesados. El tipo de flamas estudiadas se obtuvieron mediante el quemado de sprays producidos por un atomizador disenado y calibrado especialmente para el proposito de la investigacion. Las caracteristicas de flama que se analizaron son la longitud, la luminosidad, la temperatura, la distribucion de tamano de gotas y, principalmente, el regimen de quemado de gotas en la flama. Las tecnicas experimentales que se usaron para estos estudios fueron microfotografia de sombras, pirometria de succion y de radiacion total, difraccion laser, fotografia de 35 mm y empuje de impacto. El analisis de resultados experimentales, junto con los resultados de la aplicacion de un modelo matematico, permitio establecer dos parametros, que relacionados cuantitativamente, determinan el regimen de quemado de gotas en una flama de sprays de combustible residual pesado.

The atomization and the flame structure in the combustion of residual fuel oils; La atomizacion y estructura de flama en la combustion de combustibles residuales

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bolado Estandia, Ramon [Instituto de Investigaciones Electricas, Cuernavaca (Mexico)

1985-12-31

In this article a research on the combustion of heavy residual fuel oils is presented. The type of flames studied were obtained by means of the burning of sprays produced by an atomizer designed and calibrated specially for the research purpose. The flame characteristics that were analyzed are its length, its luminosity, the temperature, the distribution of the droplets size and mainly the burning regime of the droplets in the flame. The experimental techniques that were used for these studies were shadow micro-photography, suction pyrometry and of total radiation, laser diffraction, 35 mm photography, and impact push. The analysis of the experimental results, together with the results of the application of a mathematical model, permitted to establish two parameters, that quantitatively related determine the burning regime of the droplets in a flame of sprays of residual heavy fuel oil. [Espanol] En este articulo se presenta una investigacion sobre la combustion de combustibles residuales pesados. El tipo de flamas estudiadas se obtuvieron mediante el quemado de sprays producidos por un atomizador disenado y calibrado especialmente para el proposito de la investigacion. Las caracteristicas de flama que se analizaron son la longitud, la luminosidad, la temperatura, la distribucion de tamano de gotas y, principalmente, el regimen de quemado de gotas en la flama. Las tecnicas experimentales que se usaron para estos estudios fueron microfotografia de sombras, pirometria de succion y de radiacion total, difraccion laser, fotografia de 35 mm y empuje de impacto. El analisis de resultados experimentales, junto con los resultados de la aplicacion de un modelo matematico, permitio establecer dos parametros, que relacionados cuantitativamente, determinan el regimen de quemado de gotas en una flama de sprays de combustible residual pesado.

International cooperative research project between NEDO and NASA on advanced combustion science utilizing microgravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2001-03-01

This paper describes an international cooperative research project between NEDO and NASA on advanced combustion science utilizing microgravity. In June, 1994, NEDO and NASA reached a basic agreement with each other about this cooperative R and D on combustion under microgravity conditions. In fiscal 2000, Japan proposed an experiment using the drop tower facilities and parabolic aircraft at NASA Glen Research Center and at JAMIC (Japan Microgravity Center). In other words, the proposals from Japan included experiments on combustion of droplets composed of diversified fuels under different burning conditions (vaporization), flame propagation in smoldering porous materials and dispersed particles under microgravity conditions, and control of interactive combustion of two droplets by acoustical and electrical perturbations. Additionally proposed were experiments on effect of low external air flow on solid material combustion under microgravity, and sooting and radiation effects on the burning of large droplets under microgravity conditions. This report gives an outline of the results of these five cooperative R and D projects. The experiments were conducted under ordinary normal gravity and microgravity conditions, with the results compared and examined mutually. (NEDO)

Identification of combustion intermediates in low-pressure premixed pyridine/oxygen/argon flames.

Science.gov (United States)

Tian, Zhenyu; Li, Yuyang; Zhang, Taichang; Zhu, Aiguo; Qi, Fei

2008-12-25

Combustion intermediates of two low-pressure premixed pyridine/oxygen flames with respective equivalence ratios of 0.56 (C/O/N = 1:4.83:0.20) and 2.10 (C/O/N = 1:1.29:0.20) have been identified with tunable synchrotron vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) photoionization and molecular-beam mass spectrometry techniques. About 80 intermediates in the rich flame and 60 intermediates in the lean flame, including nitrogenous, oxygenated, and hydrocarbon intermediates, have been identified by measurements of photoionization mass spectra and photoionization efficiency spectra. Some radicals and new nitrogenous intermediates are identified in the present work. The experimental results are useful for studying the conversion of volatile nitrogen compounds and understanding the formation mechanism of NO(x) in flames of nitrogenous fuels.

Combustion

CERN Document Server

Glassman, Irvin

1987-01-01

Combustion, Second Edition focuses on the underlying principles of combustion and covers topics ranging from chemical thermodynamics and flame temperatures to chemical kinetics, detonation, ignition, and oxidation characteristics of fuels. Diffusion flames, flame phenomena in premixed combustible gases, and combustion of nonvolatile fuels are also discussed. This book consists of nine chapters and begins by introducing the reader to heats of reaction and formation, free energy and the equilibrium constants, and flame temperature calculations. The next chapter explores the rates of reactio

The flame structure in round and plane propane microjet combustion in a transverse acoustic field at low Reynolds numbers

Science.gov (United States)

Kozlov, V. V.; Grek, G. R.; Katasonov, M. M.; Korobeinichev, O. P.; Litvinenko, Yu. A.; Shmakov, A. G.

2014-12-01

The results of experimental studies of the structure and features of flame evolution under propane combustion in round and plane microjet flows at low Reynolds numbers in a transverse acoustic field are discussed in this paper. The specific features of flame evolution under these conditions are shown. Based on the new information obtained on free microjet evolution, new phenomena in flame evolution in a transverse acoustic field with round and plane propane microjet combustion are discovered and explained.

Large eddy simulation of the low temperature ignition and combustion processes on spray flame with the linear eddy model

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, Haiqiao; Zhao, Wanhui; Zhou, Lei; Chen, Ceyuan; Shu, Gequn

2018-03-01

Large eddy simulation coupled with the linear eddy model (LEM) is employed for the simulation of n-heptane spray flames to investigate the low temperature ignition and combustion process in a constant-volume combustion vessel under diesel-engine relevant conditions. Parametric studies are performed to give a comprehensive understanding of the ignition processes. The non-reacting case is firstly carried out to validate the present model by comparing the predicted results with the experimental data from the Engine Combustion Network (ECN). Good agreements are observed in terms of liquid and vapour penetration length, as well as the mixture fraction distributions at different times and different axial locations. For the reacting cases, the flame index was introduced to distinguish between the premixed and non-premixed combustion. A reaction region (RR) parameter is used to investigate the ignition and combustion characteristics, and to distinguish the different combustion stages. Results show that the two-stage combustion process can be identified in spray flames, and different ignition positions in the mixture fraction versus RR space are well described at low and high initial ambient temperatures. At an initial condition of 850 K, the first-stage ignition is initiated at the fuel-lean region, followed by the reactions in fuel-rich regions. Then high-temperature reaction occurs mainly at the places with mixture concentration around stoichiometric mixture fraction. While at an initial temperature of 1000 K, the first-stage ignition occurs at the fuel-rich region first, then it moves towards fuel-richer region. Afterwards, the high-temperature reactions move back to the stoichiometric mixture fraction region. For all of the initial temperatures considered, high-temperature ignition kernels are initiated at the regions richer than stoichiometric mixture fraction. By increasing the initial ambient temperature, the high-temperature ignition kernels move towards richer

Hydrogen-enriched non-premixed jet flames : analysis of the flame surface, flame normal, flame index and Wobbe index

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ranga Dinesh, K.K.J.; Jiang, X.; Oijen, van J.A.

2014-01-01

A non-premixed impinging jet flame is studied using three-dimensional direct numerical simulation with detailed chemical kinetics in order to investigate the influence of fuel variability on flame surface, flame normal, flame index and Wobbe index for hydrogen-enriched combustion. Analyses indicate

Some relevant parameters for assessing fire hazards of combustible mine materials using laboratory scale experiments.

Science.gov (United States)

Litton, Charles D; Perera, Inoka E; Harteis, Samuel P; Teacoach, Kara A; DeRosa, Maria I; Thomas, Richard A; Smith, Alex C

2018-04-15

When combustible materials ignite and burn, the potential for fire growth and flame spread represents an obvious hazard, but during these processes of ignition and flaming, other life hazards present themselves and should be included to ensure an effective overall analysis of the relevant fire hazards. In particular, the gases and smoke produced both during the smoldering stages of fires leading to ignition and during the advanced flaming stages of a developing fire serve to contaminate the surrounding atmosphere, potentially producing elevated levels of toxicity and high levels of smoke obscuration that render the environment untenable. In underground mines, these hazards may be exacerbated by the existing forced ventilation that can carry the gases and smoke to locations far-removed from the fire location. Clearly, materials that require high temperatures (above 1400 K) and that exhibit low mass loss during thermal decomposition, or that require high heat fluxes or heat transfer rates to ignite represent less of a hazard than materials that decompose at low temperatures or ignite at low levels of heat flux. In order to define and quantify some possible parameters that can be used to assess these hazards, small-scale laboratory experiments were conducted in a number of configurations to measure: 1) the toxic gases and smoke produced both during non-flaming and flaming combustion; 2) mass loss rates as a function of temperature to determine ease of thermal decomposition; and 3) mass loss rates and times to ignition as a function of incident heat flux. This paper describes the experiments that were conducted, their results, and the development of a set of parameters that could possibly be used to assess the overall fire hazard of combustible materials using small scale laboratory experiments.

Measurement of Soot Volume Fraction and Temperature for Oxygen-Enriched Ethylene Combustion Based on Flame Image Processing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Weijie Yan

2017-05-01

Full Text Available A method for simultaneously visualizing the two-dimensional distributions of temperature and soot volume fraction in an ethylene flame was presented. A single-color charge-coupled device (CCD camera was used to capture the flame image in the visible spectrum considering the broad-response spectrum of the R and G bands of the camera. The directional emissive power of the R and G bands were calibrated and used for measurement. Slightly increased temperatures and reduced soot concentration were predicted in the central flame without self-absorption effects considered, an iterative algorithm was used for eliminating the effect of self-absorption. Nine different cases were presented in the experiment to demonstrate the effects of fuel mass flow rate and oxygen concentration on temperature and soot concentration in three different atmospheres. For ethylene combustion in pure-air atmosphere, as the fuel mass flow rate increased, the maximum temperature slightly decreased, and the maximum soot volume fraction slightly increased. For oxygen fractions of 30%, 40%, and 50% combustion in O2/N2 oxygen-enhanced atmospheres, the maximum flame temperatures were 2276, 2451, and 2678 K, whereas combustion in O2/CO2 atmospheres were 1916, 2322, and 2535 K. The maximum soot volume fractions were 4.5, 7.0, and 9.5 ppm in oxygen-enriched O2/N2 atmosphere and 13.6, 15.3, and 14.8 ppm in oxygen-enriched O2/CO2 atmosphere. Compared with the O2/CO2 atmosphere, combustion in the oxygen-enriched O2/N2 atmosphere produced higher flame temperature and larger soot volume fraction. Preliminary results indicated that this technique is reliable and can be used for combustion diagnosis.

Flat-flame burner studies of pulverized-coal combustion. Experimental results on char reactivity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Peck, R.E.; Shi, L.

1996-12-01

Structure of laminar, premixed pulverized-coal flames in a 1-D reactor has been studied with emphasis on char reactivity. A 1.1-meter-long tube furnace accommodated high-temperature environments and long residence times for the laminar flames produced by a flat-flame, coal-dust burner. Experiments were conducted at different operating conditions (fuel type/size, fuel-air ratio). Measurements included solid sample composition, major gas species and hydrocarbon species concentrations, and gas- and particle-phase line-of-sight temperatures at different axial locations in flames. Degree of char burnout increased with coal volatiles content and decreased with coal particle size. Combustion in furnace was in oxidizer-deficient environment and higher burnout was achieved as the fuel-air ratio neared stoichiometric. For 0-45 {mu}m particles most of the fixed carbon mass loss occurred within 5 cm of the furnace inlet, and char reaction was slow downstream due to low oxidizer concentrations. Fixed carbon consumption of the 45-90 {mu}m particles generally was slower than for the small particles. About 40%-80% of the fixed carbon was oxidized in the furnace. Primary volatiles mass loss occurred within the first 4.5 cm, and more than 90% of the volatiles were consumed in the flames. The flames stabilized in the furnace produced less CH{sub 4} and H{sub 2} in the burnt gas than similar unconfined flames. NO concentrations were found to decrease along the furnace and to increase with decreasing fuel/air ratio. Temperature measurement results showed that gas-phase temperatures were higher than solid-phase temperatures. Temperatures generally decreased with decreasing volatiles content and increased as the equivalence ratio approached one. The results can be used to interpret thermochemical processes occurring in pulverized-coal combustion. (au) 15 refs.

Ignition parameters and early flame kernel development of laser-ignited combustible gas mixtures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kopecek, H.; Wintner, E.; Ruedisser, D.; Iskra, K.; Neger, T.

2002-01-01

Full text: Laser induced breakdown of focused pulsed laser radiation, the subsequent plasma formation and thermalization offers a possibility of ignition of combustible gas mixtures free from electrode interferences, an arbitrary choice of the location within the medium and exact timing regardless of the degree of turbulence. The development and the decreasing costs of solid state laser technologies approach the pay-off for the higher complexity of such an ignition system due to several features unique to laser ignition. The feasability of laser ignition was demonstrated in an 1.5 MW(?) natural gas engine, and several investigations were performed to determine optimal ignition energies, focus shapes and laser wavelengths. The early flame kernel development was investigated by time resolved planar laser induced fluorescence of the OH-radical which occurs predominantly in the flame front. The flame front propagation showed typical features like toroidal initial flame development, flame front return and highly increased flame speed along the laser focus axis. (author)

Experimental and numerical study of temperature fields and flows in flame during the diffusion combustion of certain liquid fuels

Science.gov (United States)

Loboda, E. L.; Matvienko, O. V.; Agafontsev, M. V.; Reyno, V. V.

2017-11-01

The paper represents experimental studying the pulsations of temperature fields and the structure of a flow in the flame formed during the combustion of certain fuels. Also, the paper provides the mathematical modeling of a flow in the flame formed during the combustion of diesel fuels, as well as the comparison with experimental data and the estimation of the scale for turbulent vortices in flame. The experimental results are in satisfactory agreement with numerical modeling, which confirms the hypothesis of similarity for the pulsations of hydrodynamic and thermodynamic parameters.

Fuel rich and fuel lean catalytic combustion of the stabilized confined turbulent gaseous diffusion flames over noble metal disc burners

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amal S. Zakhary

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Catalytic combustion of stabilized confined turbulent gaseous diffusion flames using Pt/Al2O3 and Pd/Al2O3 disc burners situated in the combustion domain under both fuel-rich and fuel-lean conditions was experimentally studied. Commercial LPG fuel having an average composition of: 23% propane, 76% butane, and 1% pentane was used. The thermal structure of these catalytic flames developed over Pt/Al2O3 and Pd/Al2O3 burners were examined via measuring the mean temperature distribution in the radial direction at different axial locations along the flames. Under-fuel-rich condition the flames operated over Pt catalytic disc attained high temperature values in order to express the progress of combustion and were found to achieve higher activity as compared to the flames developed over Pd catalytic disc. These two types of catalytic flames demonstrated an increase in the reaction rate with the downstream axial distance and hence, an increase in the flame temperatures was associated with partial oxidation towards CO due to the lack of oxygen. However, under fuel-lean conditions the catalytic flame over Pd catalyst recorded comparatively higher temperatures within the flame core in the near region of the main reaction zone than over Pt disc burner. These two catalytic flames over Pt and Pd disc burners showed complete oxidation to CO2 since the catalytic surface is covered by more rich oxygen under the fuel-lean condition.

Improved Combustion Products Monitor for the ISS, Phase II

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Compound Specific Analyzer – Combustion Products, used on the International Space Station as a warning monitor of smoldering or combustion events, is being...

Improved Combustion Products Monitor for the ISS, Phase I

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Compound Specific Analyzer - Combustion Products is used on the International Space Station as a warning monitor of smoldering or combustion events and, after...

Combustion Gases And Heat Release Analysis During Flame And Flameless Combustion Of Wood Pellets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Horváth Jozef

2015-06-01

Full Text Available With the growing prices of fossil fuels, alternative fuels produced of biomass come to the fore. They are made of waste materials derived from the processing of wood and wood materials. The main objective of this study was to analyse the fire-technical characteristics of wood pellets. The study analysed three dust samples acquired from wood pellets made of various types of wood biomass. Wood pellet dust is produced when manipulating with pellets. During this process a potentially hazardous situations may occur. Biomass is chemically composed mostly of hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin. During straining of the biomass by heat flux, combustion initiation occurs. Also, there was a change in the composition of material throughout combustion gases production, and the amount of heat generated by a flame or flameless combustion. Measurement of fire characteristics was conducted according to ISO 5660-1 standard using a cone calorimeter. Two samples of wood pellet dust were tested under the heat flux of 35 kW.m−2 and 50 kW.m−2. The process of combustion, the time to ignition, the carbon monoxide concentration and the amount of released heat were observed.

Stratified turbulent Bunsen flames : flame surface analysis and flame surface density modelling

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ramaekers, W.J.S.; Oijen, van J.A.; Goey, de L.P.H.

2012-01-01

In this paper it is investigated whether the Flame Surface Density (FSD) model, developed for turbulent premixed combustion, is also applicable to stratified flames. Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) of turbulent stratified Bunsen flames have been carried out, using the Flamelet Generated Manifold

Strained flamelets for turbulent premixed flames II: Laboratory flame results

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kolla, H.; Swaminathan, N. [Department of Engineering, Cambridge University, Cambridge CB2 1PZ (United Kingdom)

2010-07-15

The predictive ability of strained flamelets model for turbulent premixed flames is assessed using Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) calculations of laboratory flames covering a wide range of conditions. Reactant-to-product (RtP) opposed flow laminar flames parametrised using the scalar dissipation rate of reaction progress variable are used as strained flamelets. Two turbulent flames: a rod stabilised V-flame studied by Robin et al. [Combust. Flame 153 (2008) 288-315] and a set of pilot stabilised Bunsen flames studied by Chen et al. [Combust. Flame 107 (1996) 223-244] are calculated using a single set of model parameters. The V-flame corresponds to the corrugated flamelets regime. The strained flamelet model and an unstrained flamelet model yield similar predictions which are in good agreement with experimental measurements for this flame. On the other hand, for the Bunsen flames which are in the thin reaction zones regime, the unstrained flamelet model predicts a smaller flame brush compared to experiment. The predictions of the strained flamelets model allowing for fluid-dynamics stretch induced attenuation of the chemical reaction are in good agreement with the experimental data. This model predictions of major and minor species are also in good agreement with experimental data. The results demonstrate that the strained flamelets model using the scalar dissipation rate can be used across the combustion regimes. (author)

Moisture effects on carbon and nitrogen emission from burning of wildland biomass

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L.-W. A. Chen

2010-07-01

Full Text Available Carbon (C and nitrogen (N released from biomass burning have multiple effects on the Earth's biogeochemical cycle, climate change, and ecosystem. These effects depend on the relative abundances of C and N species emitted, which vary with fuel type and combustion conditions. This study systematically investigates the emission characteristics of biomass burning under different fuel moisture contents, through controlled burning experiments with biomass and soil samples collected from a typical alpine forest in North America. Fuel moisture in general lowers combustion efficiency, shortens flaming phase, and introduces prolonged smoldering before ignition. It increases emission factors of incompletely oxidized C and N species, such as carbon monoxide (CO and ammonia (NH₃. Substantial particulate carbon and nitrogen (up to 4 times C in CO and 75% of N in NH₃ were also generated from high-moisture fuels, maily associated with the pre-flame smoldering. This smoldering process emits particles that are larger and contain lower elemental carbon fractions than soot agglomerates commonly observed in flaming smoke. Hydrogen (H/C ratio and optical properties of particulate matter from the high-moisture fuels show their resemblance to plant cellulous and brown carbon, respectively. These findings have implications for modeling biomass burning emissions and impacts.

Opposed-Flow Flame Spread over Thin Solid Fuels in a Narrow Channel under Different Gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Xia; Yu, Yong; Wan, Shixin; Wei, Minggang; Hu, Wen-Rui

microgravity. This showed that the horizontal narrow channel can restrict natural convection effectively. In the vertical narrow channel, flame spread became slower as the forced gas flow speed increased. In low speed gas flows, flame spread was not near quench limit. Instead, the spread rate got its maximum value. This was entirely different from the result of microgravity and showed that the vertical narrow channel can not restrict natural convection. For the horizontal narrow channel, when the channel height lowered to 1 cm (The Grashof number was 149 using the half height as a characteristic length), the natural convection was restricted. For vertical narrow channel, a lower height was needed to restrict natural convection. References 1. NASA Technical Standard, "Flammability, Odor, Offgassing, and Compatibility Require-ments and Test Procedures for Materials in Environments That Support Combustion", NASA STD-6001, 1998. 2. Ivanov, A. V., Balashov, Ye. V., Andreeva, T. V., and et al., "Experimental Verification of Material Flammability in Space", NASA CR-1999-209405, 1999. 3. Melikhov, A. S., Bolodyan, I. A., Potyakin, V. I., and et al., "The study of polymer material combustion in simulated microgravity by physical modeling method", In: Sacksteder K, ed, "Fifth Int Microgravity Comb Workshop", NASA CP-1999-208917, 1999, 361. 4. T'ien, J. S., Shih, H.-Y., Jiang, C.-B., and et al., "Mechanisms of flame spread and smol-der wave propagation", In: Ross, H. D., ed, "Microgravity Combustion: Fire in Free Fall", Academic Press, 2001. 299. 5. Olson, S. L., Comb Sci Tech, 76, 233, 1991.

Volatility and mixing states of ultrafine particles from biomass burning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maruf Hossain, A.M.M.; Park, Seungho; Kim, Jae-Seok; Park, Kihong

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► Size distribution, volatility, and mixing states of ultrafine particles emitted from rice straw, oak, and pine burning under different burning conditions were investigated. ► Smoldering combustion emitted larger mode particles in higher numbers than smaller mode particles, while the converse was true for flaming combustion. ► While the flaming combustion and open burning results imply there is internal mixing of OC and BC, smoldering combustion in rice straw produced ultrafine particles devoid of BC. ► Mixing state of ultrafine particles from biomass burning can alter the single scattering albedo, and might even change the sign of radiative forcing. - Abstract: Fine and ultrafine carbonaceous aerosols produced from burning biomasses hold enormous importance in terms of assessing radiation balance and public health hazards. As such, volatility and mixing states of size-selected ultrafine particles (UFP) emitted from rice straw, oak, and pine burning were investigated by using volatility tandem differential mobility analyzer (VTDMA) technique in this study. Rice straw combustion produced unimodal size distributions of emitted aerosols, while bimodal size distributions from combustions of oak (hardwood) and pine (softwood) were obtained. A nearness of flue gas temperatures and a lower CO ratio of flaming combustion (FC) to smoldering combustion (SC) were characteristic differences found between softwood and hardwood. SC emitted larger mode particles in higher numbers than smaller mode particles, while the converse was true for FC. Rice straw open burning UFPs exhibited a volatilization behavior similar to that between FC and SC. In addition, internal mixing states were observed for size-selected UFPs in all biomasses for all combustion conditions, while external mixing states were only observed for rice straw combustion. Results for FC and open burning suggested there was an internal mixing of volatile organic carbon (OC) and non-volatile core (e

Numerical modeling for flame dynamics and combustion processes in a two-sectional porous burner with a detailed chemistry

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shin, Young Jun; Kim, Yong Mo [Hanyang University, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2014-11-15

A two-dimensional model with the detailed chemistry and variable transport properties has been applied to numerically investigate the combustion processes and flame dynamics in the bilayer porous burner. To account for the velocity transition and diffusion influenced by solid matrix, porosity terms are included in the governing equations. Heat transfer coefficient is calculated by Nusselt number to reflect the effect of gas velocity, pore diameter, and material properties. The detailed chemistry is based on GRI 2.11. Numerical results indicate that the present approach is capable of the essential features of the premixed combustion in the porous media in terms of the precise flame structure, pollutant formation, and stabilization characteristics. In this bilayer porous burner, the heat transferred from the downstream flame zone is conducted to the upstream flame region through the solid matrix. This heat transfer process through the solid matrix substantially influences the flame structure and stabilization characteristics in the porous media. The predicted results are compared with experimental data in terms of temperature for gaseous mixture and solid matrix, CO and NO emission level. Based on numerical results, a precise comparison has been made for the freely propagating premixed flames and the premixed flames with a porous media for various inlet velocities.

Combustion Synthesis of Nanomaterials Using Various Flame Configurations

KAUST Repository

Ismail, Mohamed Anwar

2016-02-01

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is an important semiconducting metal oxide and is expected to play an important role in future applications related to photonic crystals, energy storage, and photocatalysis. Two aspects regarding the combustion synthesis have been investigated; scale-up in laboratory synthesis and advanced nanoparticle synthesis. Concerning the scale-up issue, a novel curved wall-jet (CWJ) burner was designed for flame synthesis. This was achieved by injecting precursors of TiO2 through a central port into different flames zones that were stabilized by supplying fuel/air mixtures as an annular-inward jet over the curved wall. This provides a rapid mixing of precursors in the reaction zone with hot products. In order to increase the contact surface between the precursor and reactants as well as its residence time within the hot products, we proposed two different modifications. The CWJ burner was modified by adding a poppet valve on top of the central port to deliver the precursor tangentially into the recirculating flow upstream within the recirculation zone. Another modification was made by adopting double-slit curved wall-jet (DS-CWJ) configuration, one for the reacting mixture and the other for the precursor instead of the central port. Particle growth of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles and their phases were investigated. Ethylene (C2H4), propane (C3H8), and methane (CH4) were used with varying equivalence ratio and Reynolds number and titanium tetraisopropoxide (TTIP) was the precursor. Flow field and flame structure were quantified using particle image velocimetry (PIV) and OH planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) techniques, respectively. TiO2 nanoparticles were characterized using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman Spectroscopy, and BET nitrogen adsorption for surface area analysis. The flow field quantified by PIV consisted of a wall-jet region leading to a recirculation zone, an

Effects of fuel properties on the natural downward smoldering of piled biomass powder: Experimental investigation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

He, Fang; Yi, Weiming; Li, Yongjun; Zha, Jianwen; Luo, Bin

2014-01-01

To validate the modeling of one-dimensional biomass smoldering and combustion, the effects of fuel type, moisture content and particle size on the natural downward smoldering of biomass powder have been investigated experimentally. A cylindrical reactor (inner size Φ26 cm × 22 cm) was constructed, and corn stalk, pine trunk, pyrolysis char and activated char from corn stalk were prepared as powders. The smoldering characteristics were examined for each of the four materials and for different moisture contents and particle sizes. The results revealed the following: 1) The maximum temperature in the fuel bed is only slightly affected by the fuel type and particle size. It increases gradually for original biomass and decreases slowly for chars with the development of the process. 2) The propagation velocity of the char oxidation front is significantly affected by the carbon density and ash content and nearly unaffected by moisture content and particle size. 3) The propagation velocity of the drying front is significantly affected by the moisture content, decreasing from over 10 times the propagation velocity of char oxidation front to about 3 times as the moisture content increased from 3 to 21%. - Highlights: • Natural downward smoldering of four materials, different moisture contents, and different particle sizes were investigated. • Propagation velocity of the char oxidation front differs significantly from that of the drying front. • Carbon density and ash content of fuel significantly affect propagation velocity of the char oxidation front

Direct numerical simulation of two-phases turbulent combustion: application to study of propagation and structure of flames; Simulation numerique directe de la combustion turbulente diphasique: application a l'etude de la propagation et de la structure des flammes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Canneviere, K.

2003-12-15

This work is devoted to the study of the propagation and the structure of two-phases turbulent flames. To this end, Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) are used. First, numerical systems for two-phases flow simulations is presented along with a specific chemical model. Then, a study of laminar spray flames is carried out. An analytical study related to the dynamics of evaporation of droplets is first proposed where the influence on the equivalence ratio of the ratio between the heating delay of the droplet and the evaporation delay is detailed. The simulation of a propagating flame through a cloud of droplets is carried out and a pulsating behavior is highlighted. A study of these flames according to the topology of liquid fuel enabled us to characterize a double flame structure composed of a premixed flame and a diffusion flame. Our last study is devoted to spray turbulent flames. Two-phase combustion of turbulent jets has been simulated. By varying the spray injection parameters (density, equivalence ratio), a database has been generated. This database allowed us to describe local and global flame regimes appearing in the combustion of sprays. They have been categorized in four main structures: open and closed external regime, group combustion and mixed combustion. Eventually, a combustion diagram has been developed. It involves the spray vaporization time, the mean inter-space between droplets or group of droplets and eventually the injected equivalence ratio. (author)

Flame kernel characterization of laser ignition of natural gas-air mixture in a constant volume combustion chamber

Science.gov (United States)

Srivastava, Dhananjay Kumar; Dharamshi, Kewal; Agarwal, Avinash Kumar

2011-09-01

In this paper, laser-induced ignition was investigated for compressed natural gas-air mixtures. Experiments were performed in a constant volume combustion chamber, which simulate end of the compression stroke conditions of a SI engine. This chamber simulates the engine combustion chamber conditions except turbulence of air-fuel mixture. It has four optical windows at diametrically opposite locations, which are used for laser ignition and optical diagnostics simultaneously. All experiments were conducted at 10 bar chamber pressure and 373 K chamber temperature. Initial stage of combustion phenomena was visualized by employing Shadowgraphy technique using a high speed CMOS camera. Flame kernel development of the combustible fuel-air mixture was investigated under different relative air-fuel ratios ( λ=1.2-1.7) and the images were interrogated for temporal propagation of flame front. Pressure-time history inside the combustion chamber was recorded and analyzed. This data is useful in characterizing the laser ignition of natural gas-air mixture and can be used in developing an appropriate laser ignition system for commercial use in SI engines.

Chemical Pollution from Combustion of Modern Spacecraft Materials

Science.gov (United States)

Mudgett, Paul D.

2013-01-01

Fire is one of the most critical contingencies in spacecraft and any closed environment including submarines. Currently, NASA uses particle based technology to detect fires and hand-held combustion product monitors to track the clean-up and restoration of habitable cabin environment after the fire is extinguished. In the future, chemical detection could augment particle detection to eliminate frequent nuisance false alarms triggered by dust. In the interest of understanding combustion from both particulate and chemical generation, NASA Centers have been collaborating on combustion studies at White Sands Test Facility using modern spacecraft materials as fuels, and both old and new technology to measure the chemical and particulate products of combustion. The tests attempted to study smoldering pyrolysis at relatively low temperatures without ignition to flaming conditions. This paper will summarize the results of two 1-week long tests undertaken in 2012, focusing on the chemical products of combustion. The results confirm the key chemical products are carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen cyanide (HCN), hydrogen fluoride (HF) and hydrogen chloride (HCl), whose concentrations depend on the particular material and test conditions. For example, modern aerospace wire insulation produces significant concentration of HF, which persists in the test chamber longer than anticipated. These compounds are the analytical targets identified for the development of new tunable diode laser based hand-held monitors, to replace the aging electrochemical sensor based devices currently in use on the International Space Station.

Flame macrostructures, combustion instability and extinction strain scaling in swirl-stabilized premixed CH4/H2 combustion

KAUST Repository

Shanbhogue, S.J.

2016-01-01

© 2015 The Combustion Institute. In this paper, we report results from an experimental investigation on transitions in the average flame shape (or microstructure) under acoustically coupled and uncoupled conditions in a 50 kW swirl stabilized combustor. The combustor burns CH4/H2 mixtures at atmospheric pressure and temperature for a fixed Reynolds number of 20,000 and fixed swirl angle. For both cases, essentially four different flame shapes are observed, with the transition between flame shapes occurring at the same equivalence ratio (for the same fuel mixture) irrespective of whether the combustor is acoustically coupled or uncoupled. The transition equivalence ratio depends on the fuel mixture. For the baseline case of pure methane, the combustor is stable close to the blowoff limit and the average flame in this case is stabilized inside the inner recirculation zone. As the equivalence ratio is raised, the combustor transitions to periodic oscillations at a critical equivalence ratio of φ=0.65. If hydrogen is added to the mixture, the same transition occurs at lower equivalence ratios. For all cases that we investigated, flame shapes captured using chemiluminescence imaging show that the transition to harmonic oscillations in the acoustically coupled cases is preceded by the appearance of the flame in the outer recirculation zone. We examine the mechanism associated with the transition of the flame between different shapes and, ultimately, the propagation of the flame into the outer recirculation zone as the equivalence ratio is raised. Using the extinction strain rates for each mixture at different equivalence ratios, we show that these transitions in the flame shape and in the instability (in the coupled case) for different fuel mixtures collapse as a function of a normalized strain rate : κextDU∞. We show that the results as consistent with a mechanism in which the flame must overcome higher strains prevailing in the outer recirculation zone, in order

Primary emissions and secondary aerosol production potential from woodstoves for residential heating: Influence of the stove technology and combustion efficiency

Science.gov (United States)

Bertrand, Amelie; Stefenelli, Giulia; Bruns, Emily A.; Pieber, Simone M.; Temime-Roussel, Brice; Slowik, Jay G.; Prévôt, André S. H.; Wortham, Henri; El Haddad, Imad; Marchand, Nicolas

2017-11-01

To reduce the influence of biomass burning on air quality, consumers are encouraged to replace their old woodstove with new and cleaner appliances. While their primary emissions have been extensively investigated, the impact of atmospheric aging on these emissions, including secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation, remains unknown. Here, using an atmospheric smog chamber, we aim at understanding the chemical nature and quantify the emission factors of the primary organic aerosols (POA) from three types of appliances for residential heating, and to assess the influence of aging thereon. Two, old and modern, logwood stoves and one pellet burner were operated under typical conditions. Emissions from an entire burning cycle (past the start-up operation) were injected, including the smoldering and flaming phases, resulting in highly variable emission factors. The stoves emitted a significant fraction of POA (up to 80%) and black carbon. After ageing, the total mass concentration of organic aerosol (OA) increased on average by a factor of 5. For the pellet stove, flaming conditions were maintained throughout the combustion. The aerosol was dominated by black carbon (over 90% of the primary emission) and amounted to the same quantity of primary aerosol emitted by the old logwood stove. However, after ageing, the OA mass was increased by a factor of 1.7 only, thus rendering OA emissions by the pellet stove almost negligible compared to the other two stoves tested. Therefore, the pellet stove was the most reliable and least polluting appliance out of the three stoves tested. The spectral signatures of the POA and aged emissions by a High Resolution - Time of Flight - Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (Electron Ionization (EI) at 70 eV) were also investigated. The m/z 44 (CO2+) and high molecular weight fragments (m/z 115 (C9H7+), 137 (C8H9O2+), 167 (C9H11O3+) and 181 (C9H9O4+, C14H13+)) correlate with the modified combustion efficiency (MCE) allowing us to discriminate further

Investigation of Turbulent Hydrogen Premixed Flame Topologies at Different Combustion Regimes Using Computational Singular Perturbation

Science.gov (United States)

Tingas, Efstathios-Alexandros; Hernandez Perez, Francisco; Im, Hong

2017-11-01

The investigation of turbulent flames at higher Reynolds and Karlovitz numbers has been gaining research interest, due to the advances in the computational power that has facilitated the use of direct numerical simulations (DNS). One of the additional challenges associated with highly turbulent premixed flames is the difficulties in identifying the turbulent flame topologies as the flame structures become severely corrugated or even disrupted by the small scale turbulent eddies. In these conditions, the conventional methods using a scalar iso-surface may lead to uncertainties in describing the flame front dynamics. In this study, the computational singular perturbation (CSP) is utilized as an automated tool to identify the flame front topologies based on the dynamical time scales and eigenvalues. In particular, the tangential stretch rate (TSR) approach, an extended generalized method to depict the dynamics of chemical and transport processes, is used for the flame front identification. The CSP/TSR approach and tools are used to compare the flame fronts of two turbulent H2/air premixed flames and to identify their similarities/differences, from a dynamical point of view. The results for two different combustion regimes are analyzed and compared.

Combustion performance, flame, and soot characteristics of gasoline–diesel pre-blended fuel in an optical compression-ignition engine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jeon, Joonho; Lee, Jong Tae; Kwon, Sang Il; Park, Sungwook

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Gasoline–diesel pre-blended fuel was investigated in an optical direct-injection diesel engine. • KIVA3V-CHEMKIN code modeled blended fuel spray and combustion with discrete multi-component model. • Flame and soot characteristics in the combustion chamber were shown by optical kits. • Combustion performance and soot emissions for gasoline–diesel blended fuel were discussed. - Abstract: Among the new combustion technologies available for internal combustion engines to enhance performance and reduce exhausted emissions, the homogeneous charge compression ignition method is one of the most effective strategies for the compression-ignition engine. There are some challenges to realize the homogeneous charge compression ignition method in the compression-ignition engine. The use of gasoline–diesel blended fuel has been suggested as an alternative strategy to take advantages of homogeneous charge compression ignition while overcoming its challenges. Gasoline and diesel fuels are reference fuels for the spark-ignition and compression-ignition engines, respectively, both of which are widely used. The application of both these fuels together in the compression-ignition engine has been investigated using a hybrid injection system combining port fuel injection (gasoline) and direct injection (diesel); this strategy is termed reactivity controlled compression ignition. However, the pre-blending of gasoline and diesel fuels for direct injection systems has been rarely studied. For the case of direct injection of pre-blended fuel into the cylinder, various aspects of blended fuels should be investigated, including their spray breakup, fuel/air mixing, combustion development, and emissions. In the present study, the use of gasoline–diesel pre-blended fuel in an optical single-cylinder compression-ignition engine was investigated under various conditions of injection timing and pressure. Furthermore, KIVA-3V release 2 code was employed to model the

Combustion

CERN Document Server

Glassman, Irvin

2008-01-01

Combustion Engineering, a topic generally taught at the upper undergraduate and graduate level in most mechanical engineering programs, and many chemical engineering programs, is the study of rapid energy and mass transfer usually through the common physical phenomena of flame oxidation. It covers the physics and chemistry of this process and the engineering applications-from the generation of power such as the internal combustion automobile engine to the gas turbine engine. Renewed concerns about energy efficiency and fuel costs, along with continued concerns over toxic and particulate emissions have kept the interest in this vital area of engineering high and brought about new developments in both fundamental knowledge of flame and combustion physics as well as new technologies for flame and fuel control. *New chapter on new combustion concepts and technologies, including discussion on nanotechnology as related to combustion, as well as microgravity combustion, microcombustion, and catalytic combustion-all ...

Combustion Characteristics in a Non-Premixed Cool-Flame Regime of n-Heptane in Microgravity

Science.gov (United States)

Takahashi, Fumiaki; Katta, Viswanath R.; Hicks, Michael C.

2015-01-01

A series of distinct phenomena have recently been observed in single-fuel-droplet combustion tests performed on the International Space Station (ISS). This study attempts to simulate the observed flame behavior numerically using a gaseous n-heptane fuel source in zero gravity and a time-dependent axisymmetric (2D) code, which includes a detailed reaction mechanism (127 species and 1130 reactions), diffusive transport, and a radiation model (for CH4, CO, CO2, H2O, and soot). The calculated combustion characteristics depend strongly on the air velocity around the fuel source. In a near-quiescent air environment (combustion experiments.

Method and apparatus for active control of combustion rate through modulation of heat transfer from the combustion chamber wall

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, Jr., Charles E.; Chadwell, Christopher J.

2004-09-21

The flame propagation rate resulting from a combustion event in the combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine is controlled by modulation of the heat transfer from the combustion flame to the combustion chamber walls. In one embodiment, heat transfer from the combustion flame to the combustion chamber walls is mechanically modulated by a movable member that is inserted into, or withdrawn from, the combustion chamber thereby changing the shape of the combustion chamber and the combustion chamber wall surface area. In another embodiment, heat transfer from the combustion flame to the combustion chamber walls is modulated by cooling the surface of a portion of the combustion chamber wall that is in close proximity to the area of the combustion chamber where flame speed control is desired.

Formaldehyde and acetaldehyde emissions from residential wood combustion in Portugal

Science.gov (United States)

Cerqueira, Mário; Gomes, Luís; Tarelho, Luís; Pio, Casimiro

2013-06-01

A series of experiments were conducted to characterize formaldehyde and acetaldehyde emissions from residential combustion of common wood species growing in Portugal. Five types of wood were investigated: maritime pine (Pinus pinaster), eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus), cork oak (Quercus suber), holm oak (Quercus rotundifolia) and pyrenean oak (Quercus pyrenaica). Laboratory experiments were performed with a typical wood stove used for domestic heating in Portugal and operating under realistic home conditions. Aldehydes were sampled from diluted combustion flue gas using silica cartridges coated with 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine and analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection. The average formaldehyde to acetaldehyde concentration ratio (molar basis) in the stove flue gas was in the range of 2.1-2.9. Among the tested wood types, pyrenean oak produced the highest emissions for both formaldehyde and acetaldehyde: 1772 ± 649 and 1110 ± 454 mg kg-1 biomass burned (dry basis), respectively. By contrast, maritime pine produced the lowest emissions: 653 ± 151 and 371 ± 162 mg kg-1 biomass (dry basis) burned, respectively. Aldehydes were sampled separately during distinct periods of the holm oak wood combustion cycles. Significant variations in the flue gas concentrations were found, with higher values measured during the devolatilization stage than in the flaming and smoldering stages.

Examining flow-flame interaction and the characteristic stretch rate in vortex-driven combustion dynamics using PIV and numerical simulation

KAUST Repository

Hong, Seunghyuck; Speth, Raymond L.; Shanbhogue, Santosh J.; Ghoniem, Ahmed F.

2013-01-01

In this paper, we experimentally investigate the combustion dynamics in lean premixed flames in a laboratory scale backward-facing step combustor in which flame-vortex driven dynamics are observed. A series of tests was conducted using propane/hydrogen/air mixtures for various mixture compositions at the inlet temperature ranging from 300K to 500K and at atmospheric pressure. Pressure measurements and high speed particle image velocimetry (PIV) are used to generate pressure response curves and phase-averaged vorticity and streamlines as well as the instantaneous flame front, respectively, which describe unsteady flame and flow dynamics in each operating regime. This work was motivated in part by our earlier study where we showed that the strained flame consumption speed Sc can be used to collapse the pressure response curves over a wide range of operating conditions. In previous studies, the stretch rate at which Sc was computed was determined by trial and error. In this study, flame stretch is estimated using the instantaneous flame front and velocity field from the PIV measurement. Independently, we also use computed strained flame speed and the experimental data to determine the characteristic values of stretch rate near the mode transition points at which the flame configuration changes. We show that a common value of the characteristic stretch rate exists across all the flame configurations. The consumption speed computed at the characteristic stretch rate captures the impact of different operating parameters on the combustor dynamics. These results suggest that the unsteady interactions between the turbulent flow and the flame dynamics can be encapsulated in the characteristic stretch rate, which governs the critical flame speed at the mode transitions and thereby plays an important role in determining the stability characteristics of the combustor. © 2013 The Combustion Institute.

Examining flow-flame interaction and the characteristic stretch rate in vortex-driven combustion dynamics using PIV and numerical simulation

KAUST Repository

Hong, Seunghyuck

2013-08-01

In this paper, we experimentally investigate the combustion dynamics in lean premixed flames in a laboratory scale backward-facing step combustor in which flame-vortex driven dynamics are observed. A series of tests was conducted using propane/hydrogen/air mixtures for various mixture compositions at the inlet temperature ranging from 300K to 500K and at atmospheric pressure. Pressure measurements and high speed particle image velocimetry (PIV) are used to generate pressure response curves and phase-averaged vorticity and streamlines as well as the instantaneous flame front, respectively, which describe unsteady flame and flow dynamics in each operating regime. This work was motivated in part by our earlier study where we showed that the strained flame consumption speed Sc can be used to collapse the pressure response curves over a wide range of operating conditions. In previous studies, the stretch rate at which Sc was computed was determined by trial and error. In this study, flame stretch is estimated using the instantaneous flame front and velocity field from the PIV measurement. Independently, we also use computed strained flame speed and the experimental data to determine the characteristic values of stretch rate near the mode transition points at which the flame configuration changes. We show that a common value of the characteristic stretch rate exists across all the flame configurations. The consumption speed computed at the characteristic stretch rate captures the impact of different operating parameters on the combustor dynamics. These results suggest that the unsteady interactions between the turbulent flow and the flame dynamics can be encapsulated in the characteristic stretch rate, which governs the critical flame speed at the mode transitions and thereby plays an important role in determining the stability characteristics of the combustor. © 2013 The Combustion Institute.

Experiment and Simulation of Autoignition in Jet Flames and its Relevance to Flame Stabilization and Structure

KAUST Repository

Al-Noman, Saeed M.

2016-01-01

temperature coflow air were studied numerically. Several flame configurations were investigated by varying the initial temperature and fuel mole fraction. Characteristics of chemical kinetics structures for autoignited lifted flames were discussed based on the kinetic structures of homogeneous autoignition and flame propagation of premixed mixtures. Results showed that for autoignited lifted flame with tribrachial structure, a transition from autoignition to flame propagation modes occurs for reasonably stoichiometric mixtures. Characteristics of Mild combustion can be treated as an autoignited lean premixed lifted flame. Transition behavior from Mild combustion to a nozzle-attached flame was also investigated by increasing the fuel mole fraction.

Simultaneous identification of transfer functions and combustion noise of a turbulent flame

Science.gov (United States)

Merk, M.; Jaensch, S.; Silva, C.; Polifke, W.

2018-05-01

The Large Eddy Simulation/System Identification (LES/SI) approach allows to deduce a flame transfer function (FTF) from LES of turbulent reacting flow: Time series of fluctuations of reference velocity and global heat release rate resulting from broad-band excitation of a simulated turbulent flame are post-processed via SI techniques to derive a low order model of the flame dynamics, from which the FTF is readily deduced. The current work investigates an extension of the established LES/SI approach: In addition to estimation of the FTF, a low order model for the combustion noise source is deduced from the same time series data. By incorporating such a noise model into a linear thermoacoustic model, it is possible to predict the overall level as well as the spectral distribution of sound pressure in confined combustion systems that do not exhibit self-excited thermoacoustic instability. A variety of model structures for estimation of a noise model are tested in the present study. The suitability and quality of these model structures are compared against each other, their sensitivity regarding certain time series properties is studied. The influence of time series length, signal-to-noise ratio as well as acoustic reflection coefficient of the boundary conditions on the identification are examined. It is shown that the Box-Jenkins model structure is superior to simpler approaches for the simultaneous identification of models that describe the FTF as well as the combustion noise source. Subsequent to the question of the most adequate model structure, the choice of optimal model order is addressed, as in particular the optimal parametrization of the noise model is not obvious. Akaike's Information Criterion and a model residual analysis are applied to draw qualitative and quantitative conclusions on the most suitable model order. All investigations are based on a surrogate data model, which allows a Monte Carlo study across a large parameter space with modest

Reflight of the Solid Surface Combustion Experiment: Opposed-Flow Flame Spread Over Cylindrical Fuels

Science.gov (United States)

Bhattacharjee, Subrata; Altenkirch, Robert A.; Worley, Regis; Tang, Lin; Bundy, Matt; Sacksteder, Kurt; Delichatsios, Michael A.

1997-01-01

The effort described here is a reflight of the Solid Surface Combustion Experiment (SSCE), with extension of the flight matrix first and then experiment modification. The objectives of the reflight are to extend the understanding of the interplay of the radiative processes that affect the flame spread mechanisms.

Twenty-fifth symposium (international) on combustion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1994-01-01

Approximately two-thirds of the papers presented at this conference are contained in this volume. The other one-third appear in special issues of ''Combustion and Flame'', Vol. 99, 1994 and Vol. 100, 1995. Papers are divided into the following sections: Supersonic combustion; Detonations and explosions; Internal combustion engines; Practical aspects of combustion; Incineration and wastes; Sprays and droplet combustion; Coal and organic solids combustion; Soot and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; Reaction kinetics; NO x ; Turbulent flames; Turbulent combustion; Laminar flames; Flame spread, fire and halogenated fire suppressants; Global environmental effects; Ignition; Two-phase combustion; Solid propellant combustion; Materials synthesis; Microgravity; and Experimental diagnostics. Papers have been processed separately for inclusion on the data base

Experimental apparatus with full optical access for combustion experiments with laminar flames from a single circular nozzle at elevated pressures.

Science.gov (United States)

Joo, Peter H; Gao, Jinlong; Li, Zhongshan; Aldén, Marcus

2015-03-01

The design and features of a high pressure chamber and burner that is suitable for combustion experiments at elevated pressures are presented. The high pressure combustion apparatus utilizes a high pressure burner that is comprised of a chamber burner module and an easily accessible interchangeable burner module to add to its flexibility. The burner is well suited to study both premixed and non-premixed flames. The optical access to the chamber is provided through four viewports for direct visual observations and optical-based diagnostic techniques. Auxiliary features include numerous access ports and electrical connections and as a result, the combustion apparatus is also suitable to work with plasmas and liquid fuels. Images of methane flames at elevated pressures up to 25 atm and preliminary results of optical-based measurements demonstrate the suitability of the high pressure experimental apparatus for combustion experiments.

Smoke aerosol chemistry and aging of Siberian biomass burning emissions in a large aerosol chamber

Science.gov (United States)

Kalogridis, A.-C.; Popovicheva, O. B.; Engling, G.; Diapouli, E.; Kawamura, K.; Tachibana, E.; Ono, K.; Kozlov, V. S.; Eleftheriadis, K.

2018-07-01

Vegetation open fires constitute a significant source of particulate pollutants on a global scale and play an important role in both atmospheric chemistry and climate change. To better understand the emission and aging characteristics of smoke aerosols, we performed small-scale fire experiments using the Large Aerosol Chamber (LAC, 1800 m3) with a focus on biomass burning from Siberian boreal coniferous forests. A series of burn experiments were conducted with typical Siberian biomass (pine and debris), simulating separately different combustion conditions, namely, flaming, smoldering and mixed phase. Following smoke emission and dispersion in the combustion chamber, we investigated aging of aerosols under dark conditions. Here, we present experimental data on emission factors of total, elemental and organic carbon, as well as individual organic compounds, such as anhydrosugars, phenolic and dicarboxylic acids. We found that total carbon accounts for up to 80% of the fine mode (PM2.5) smoke aerosol. Higher PM2.5 emission factors were observed in the smoldering compared to flaming phase and in pine compared to debris smoldering phase. For low-temperature combustion, organic carbon (OC) contributed to more than 90% of total carbon, whereas elemental carbon (EC) dominated the aerosol composition in flaming burns with a 60-70% contribution to the total carbon mass. For all smoldering burns, levoglucosan (LG), a cellulose decomposition product, was the most abundant organic species (average LG/OC = 0.26 for pine smoldering), followed by its isomer mannosan or dehydroabietic acid (DA), an important constituent of conifer resin (DA/OC = 0.033). A levoglucosan-to-mannosan ratio of about 3 was observed, which is consistent with ratios reported for coniferous biomass and more generally softwood. The rates of aerosol removal for OC and individual organic compounds were investigated during aging in the chamber in terms of mass concentration loss rates over time under dark

Investigation of non-premixed flame combustion characters in GO2/GH2 shear coaxial injectors using non-intrusive optical diagnostics

Science.gov (United States)

Dai, Jian; Yu, NanJia; Cai, GuoBiao

2015-12-01

Single-element combustor experiments are conducted for three shear coaxial geometry configuration injectors by using gaseous oxygen and gaseous hydrogen (GO2/GH2) as propellants. During the combustion process, several spatially and timeresolved non-intrusive optical techniques, such as OH planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF), high speed imaging, and infrared imaging, are simultaneously employed to observe the OH radical concentration distribution, flame fluctuations, and temperature fields. The results demonstrate that the turbulent flow phenomenon of non-premixed flame exhibits a remarkable periodicity, and the mixing ratio becomes a crucial factor to influence the combustion flame length. The high speed and infrared images have a consistent temperature field trend. As for the OH-PLIF images, an intuitionistic local flame structure is revealed by single-shot instantaneous images. Furthermore, the means and standard deviations of OH radical intensity are acquired to provide statistical information regarding the flame, which may be helpful for validation of numerical simulations in future. Parameters of structure configurations, such as impinging angle and oxygen post thickness, play an important role in the reaction zone distribution. Based on a successful flame contour extraction method assembled with non-linear anisotropic diffusive filtering and variational level-set, it is possible to implement a fractal analysis to describe the fractal characteristics of the non-premixed flame contour. As a result, the flame front cannot be regarded as a fractal object. However, this turbulent process presents a self-similarity characteristic.

Experiment and Simulation of Autoignition in Jet Flames and its Relevance to Flame Stabilization and Structure

KAUST Repository

Al-Noman, Saeed M.

2016-06-01

Autoignition characteristics of pre-vaporized iso-octane, primary reference fuels, gasolines, and dimethyl ether (DME) have been investigated experimentally in a coflow with elevated temperature of air. With the coflow air at relatively low initial temperatures below autoignition temperature Tauto, an external ignition source was required to stabilize the flame. Non-autoignited lifted flames had tribrachial edge structures and their liftoff heights correlated well with the jet velocity scaled by the stoichiometric laminar burning velocity, indicating the importance of the edge propagation speed on flame stabilization balanced with local flow velocity. At high initial temperatures over Tauto, the autoignited flames were stabilized without requiring an external ignition source. The autoignited lifted flames exhibited either tribrachial edge structures or Mild combustion behaviors depending on the level of fuel dilution. For the iso-octane and n-heptane fuels, two distinct transition behaviors were observed in the autoignition regime from a nozzle-attached flame to a lifted tribrachial-edge flame and then a sudden transition to lifted Mild combustion as the jet velocity increased at a certain fuel dilution level. The liftoff data of the autoignited flames with tribrachial edges were analyzed based on calculated ignition delay times for the pre-vaporized fuels. Analysis of the experimental data suggested that ignition delay time may be much less sensitive to initial temperature under atmospheric pressure conditions as compared with predictions. For the gasoline fuels for advanced combustion engines (FACEs), and primary reference fuels (PRFs), autoignited liftoff data were correlated with Research Octane Number and Cetane Number. For the DME fuel, planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) of formaldehyde (CH2O) and CH* chemiluminescence were visualized qualitatively. In the autoignition regime for both tribrachial structure and mild combustion, formaldehyde were found

Emissions of trace gases and aerosols during the open combustion of biomass in the laboratory

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McMeeking, Gavin R.; Kreidenweis, Sonia M.; Baker, Stephen; Carrico, Christian M.; Chow, Judith C.; Collett, Jr., Jeffrey L.; Hao, Wei Min; Holden, Amanda S.; Kirchstetter, Thomas W.; Malm, William C.; Moosmuller, Hans; Sullivan, Amy P.; Wold, Cyle E.

2009-05-15

We characterized the gas- and speciated aerosol-phase emissions from the open combustion of 33 different plant species during a series of 255 controlled laboratory burns during the Fire Laboratory at Missoula Experiments (FLAME). The plant species we tested were chosen to improve the existing database for U.S. domestic fuels: laboratory-based emission factors have not previously been reported for many commonly-burned species that are frequently consumed by fires near populated regions and protected scenic areas. The plants we tested included the chaparral species chamise, manzanita, and ceanothus, and species common to the southeastern US (common reed, hickory, kudzu, needlegrass rush, rhododendron, cord grass, sawgrass, titi, and wax myrtle). Fire-integrated emission factors for gas-phase CO{sub 2}, CO, CH{sub 4}, C{sub 2-4} hydrocarbons, NH{sub 3}, SO{sub 2}, NO, NO{sub 2}, HNO{sub 3} and particle-phase organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC), SO{sub 4}{sup 2-}, NO{sub 3}{sup -}, Cl{sup -}, Na{sup +}, K{sup +}, and NH{sub 4}{sup +} generally varied with both fuel type and with the fire-integrated modified combustion efficiency (MCE), a measure of the relative importance of flaming- and smoldering-phase combustion to the total emissions during the burn. Chaparral fuels tended to emit less particulate OC per unit mass of dry fuel than did other fuel types, whereas southeastern species had some of the largest observed EF for total fine particulate matter. Our measurements often spanned a larger range of MCE than prior studies, and thus help to improve estimates for individual fuels of the variation of emissions with combustion conditions.

Effect of the methyl substitution on the combustion of two methylheptane isomers: Flame chemistry using vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) photoionization mass spectrometry

KAUST Repository

Selim, Hatem

2015-04-16

Alkanes with one or more methyl substitutions are commonly found in liquid transportation fuels, so a fundamental investigation of their combustion chemistry is warranted. In the present work, stoichiometric low-pressure (20 Torr) burner-stabilized flat flames of 2-methylheptane and 3-methylheptane were investigated. Flame species were measured via time-of-flight molecular-beam mass spectrometry, with vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) synchrotron radiation as the ionization source. Mole fractions of major end-products and intermediate species (e.g., alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, aldehydes, and dienes) were quantified axially above the burner surface. Mole fractions of several free radicals were also measured (e.g., CH3, HCO, C2H3, C3H3, and C3H5). Isomers of different species were identified within the reaction pool by an energy scan between 8 and 12 eV at a distance of 2.5 mm away from the burner surface. The role of methyl substitution location on the alkane chain was determined via comparisons of similar species trends obtained from both flames. The results revealed that the change in CH3 position imposed major differences on the combustion of both fuels. Comparison with numerical simulations was performed for kinetic model testing. The results provide a comprehensive set of data about the combustion of both flames, which can enhance the erudition of both fuels combustion chemistry and also improve their chemical kinetic reaction mechanisms. © 2015 American Chemical Society.

Plasma assisted combustion : Interaction of a flat flame with a nanosecond dielectric barrier discharge plasma

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Elkholy, A.H.E.; van Oijen, J.A.; de Goey, L.P.H.

2016-01-01

Using of non-equilibrium Plasma-assisted for ignition, combustion and high speed flow applications are rapidly developing in the last decades due to its ability to produce a large amount of radicals and excited species. Which has a great potential in flame stabilization and emission control.

Ion measurements in premixed methane-oxygen flames

KAUST Repository

Alquaity, Awad

2014-07-25

Ions are formed as a result of chemi-ionization processes in combustion systems. Recently, there has been an increasing interest in understanding flame ion chemistry due to the possible application of external electric fields to reduce emissions and improve combustion efficiency by active control of combustion process. In order to predict the effect of external electric fields on combustion plasma, it is critical to gain a good understanding of the flame ion chemistry. In this work, a Molecular Beam Mass Spectrometer (MBMS) is utilized to measure ion concentration profiles in premixed methane-oxygen-argon burner-stabilized flames. Lean, stoichiometric and rich flames at atmospheric pressure are used to study the dependence of ion chemistry on equivalence ratio of premixed flames. The relative ion concentration profiles are compared qualitatively with previous methane-oxygen studies and show good agreement. The relative ion concentration data obtained in the present study can be used to validate and improve ion chemistry models for methane-oxygen flames.

Measurements and Modeling of SiCl(4) Combustion in a Low-Pressure H2/O2 Flame

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Moore, T; Brady, B; Martin, L. R

2006-01-01

.... A gas-phase chemical kinetics mechanism for the combustion of SiCl in an H2/O2/Ar flame was proposed, and experimental results were compared with predictions for a premixed, one-dimensional laminar...

Low and High Temperature Combustion Chemistry of Butanol Isomers in Premixed Flames and Autoignition Systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sarathy, S M; Pitz, W J; Westbrook, C K; Mehl, M; Yasunaga, K; Curran, H J; Tsujimura, T; Osswald, P; Kohse-Hoinghaus, K

2010-12-12

Butanol is a fuel that has been proposed as a bio-derived alternative to conventional petroleum derived fuels. The structural isomer in traditional 'bio-butanol' fuel is n-butanol, but newer conversion technologies produce iso-butanol as a fuel. In order to better understand the combustion chemistry of bio-butanol, this study presents a comprehensive chemical kinetic model for all the four isomers of butanol (e.g., 1-, 2-, iso- and tert-butanol). The proposed model includes detailed high temperature and low temperature reaction pathways. In this study, the primary experimental validation target for the model is premixed flat low-pressure flame species profiles obtained using molecular beam mass spectrometry (MBMS). The model is also validated against previously published data for premixed flame velocity and n-butanol rapid compression machine and shock tube ignition delay. The agreement with these data sets is reasonably good. The dominant reaction pathways at the various pressures and temperatures studied are elucidated. At low temperature conditions, we found that the reaction of alphahydroxybutyl with O{sub 2} was important in controlling the reactivity of the system, and for correctly predicting C{sub 4} aldehyde profiles in low pressure premixed flames. Enol-keto isomerization reactions assisted by HO{sub 2} were also found to be important in converting enols to aldehydes and ketones in the low pressure premixed flames. In the paper, we describe how the structural features of the four different butanol isomers lead to differences in the combustion properties of each isomer.

An Investigation on Flame Shape and Size for a High-Pressure Turbulent Non-Premixed Swirl Combustion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhongya Xi

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Flame shape and size for a high-pressure turbulent non-premixed swirl combustion were experimentally investigated over a wide range of varying parameters including fuel mass flow rate, combustor pressure, primary-air mass flow rate, and nozzle exit velocity. A CFD simulation was conducted to predict the flame profile. Meanwhile, a theoretical calculation was also performed to estimate flame length. It was observed that flame length increased linearly with increasing fuel mass flow rate but decreased with the increment of combustor pressure in the power function. The flame diminished at a larger primary-air mass flow rate but remained unaffected by the increasing nozzle exit velocity. Considering the global effect of all parameters at a particular pressure, the flame length generally decreased as the primary-air to fuel ratio increased. This was attributed to the reduced air entrainment required to dilute the fuel to stoichiometric proportions. The CFD simulation offered a good prediction of the variation trends of flame length, although some deviations from experimental values were observed. The theoretical calculation estimated the trends of flame length variation particularly well. Nevertheless the difference between the theoretical and experimental results was found to be due to the swirl influence. Hence, a swirl factor was proposed to be added to the original equation for swirl flames.

Experimental validation for combustion analysis of GOTHIC 6.1b code in 2-dimensional premixed combustion experiments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, J. Y.; Lee, J. J.; Park, K. C.

2003-01-01

In this study, the prediction capability of GOTHIC code for hydrogen combustion phenomena was validated with the results of two-dimensional premixed hydrogen combustion experiment executed by Seoul National University. In the experimental results, we could confirm the propagation characteristics of hydrogen flame such as buoyancy effect, flame front shape etc.. The combustion time of the tests was about 0.1 sec.. In the GOTHIC analyses results, the GOTHIC code could predict the overall hydrogen flame propagation characteristics but the buoyancy effect and flame shape did not compare well with the experimental results. Especially, in case of the flame propagate to the dead-end, GOTHIC predicted the flame did not affected by the flow and this cause quite different results in flame propagation from experimental results. Moreover the combustion time of the analyses was about 1 sec. which is ten times longer than the experimental result. To obtain more reasonable analysis results, it is necessary that combustion model parameters in GOTHIC code apply appropriately and hydrogen flame characteristics be reflected in solving governing equations

Evaluation of turbulent transport and flame surface dissipation using direct numerical simulation of turbulent combustion; Evaluation des termes de transport et de dissipation de surface de flamme par simulation numerique directe de la combustion turbulente

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Boughanem, H.

1998-03-24

The assumption of gradient transport for the mean reaction progress variable has a limited domain of validity in premixed turbulent combustion. The existence of two turbulent transport regimes, gradient and counter-gradient, is demonstrated in the present work using Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) of plane flame configurations. The DNS data base describes the influence of the heat release factor, of the turbulence-to-flame velocity ratio, and of an external pressure gradient. The simulations reveal a strong correlation between the regime of turbulent transport and the turbulent flame speed and turbulent flame thickness. These effects re not well described by current turbulent combustion models. A conditional approach `fresh gases / burnt gases` is proposed to overcome these difficulties. Furthermore, he development of flame instabilities in turbulent configurations is also observed in the simulations. A criterion is derived that determines the domain of occurrence of these instabilities (Darrieus- Landau instabilities, Rayleigh- Taylor instabilities, thermo-diffusive instabilities). This criterion suggests that the domain of occurrence of flame instabilities is not limited to small Reynolds numbers. (author) 98 refs.

Combustion chemistry and flame structure of furan group biofuels using molecular-beam mass spectrometry and gas chromatography - Part I: Furan.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Dong; Togbé, Casimir; Tran, Luc-Sy; Felsmann, Daniel; Oßwald, Patrick; Nau, Patrick; Koppmann, Julia; Lackner, Alexander; Glaude, Pierre-Alexandre; Sirjean, Baptiste; Fournet, René; Battin-Leclerc, Frédérique; Kohse-Höinghaus, Katharina

2014-03-01

Fuels of the furan family, i.e. furan itself, 2-methylfuran (MF), and 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF) are being proposed as alternatives to hydrocarbon fuels and are potentially accessible from cellulosic biomass. While some experiments and modeling results are becoming available for each of these fuels, a comprehensive experimental and modeling analysis of the three fuels under the same conditions, simulated using the same chemical reaction model, has - to the best of our knowledge - not been attempted before. The present series of three papers, detailing the results obtained in flat flames for each of the three fuels separately, reports experimental data and explores their combustion chemistry using kinetic modeling. The first part of this series focuses on the chemistry of low-pressure furan flames. Two laminar premixed low-pressure (20 and 40 mbar) flat argon-diluted (50%) flames of furan were studied at two equivalence ratios (φ=1.0 and 1.7) using an analytical combination of high-resolution electron-ionization molecular-beam mass spectrometry (EI-MBMS) in Bielefeld and gas chromatography (GC) in Nancy. The time-of-flight MBMS with its high mass resolution enables the detection of both stable and reactive species, while the gas chromatograph permits the separation of isomers. Mole fractions of reactants, products, and stable and radical intermediates were measured as a function of the distance to the burner. A single kinetic model was used to predict the flame structure of the three fuels: furan (in this paper), 2-methylfuran (in Part II), and 2,5-dimethylfuran (in Part III). A refined sub-mechanism for furan combustion, based on the work of Tian et al. [Combustion and Flame 158 (2011) 756-773] was developed which was then compared to the present experimental results. Overall, the agreement is encouraging. The main reaction pathways involved in furan combustion were delineated computing the rates of formation and consumption of all species. It is seen that the

Heat Transfer to a Thin Solid Combustible in Flame Spreading at Microgravity

Science.gov (United States)

Bhattacharjee, S.; Altenkirch, R. A.; Olson, S. L.; Sotos, R. G.

1991-01-01

The heat transfer rate to a thin solid combustible from an attached diffusion flame, spreading across the surface of the combustible in a quiescent, microgravity environment, was determined from measurements made in the drop tower facility at NASA-Lewis Research Center. With first-order Arrhenius pyrolysis kinetics, the solid-phase mass and energy equations along with the measured spread rate and surface temperature profiles were used to calculate the net heat flux to the surface. Results of the measurements are compared to the numerical solution of the complete set of coupled differential equations that describes the temperature, species, and velocity fields in the gas and solid phases. The theory and experiment agree on the major qualitative features of the heat transfer. Some fundamental differences are attributed to the neglect of radiation in the theoretical model.

Analysis of Flame Characteristics in a Laboratory-Scale Turbulent Lifted Jet Flame via DNS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Haiou Wang

2013-09-01

Full Text Available A fully compressible 3D solver for reacting flows has been developed and applied to investigate a turbulent lifted jet flame in a vitiated coflow by means of direct numerical simulation (DNS to validate the solver and analyze the flame characteristics. An eighth-order central differencing scheme is used for spatial discretization and a fourth-order Runge-Kutta method is employed for time integration. The DNS results agree well with the experimental measurements for the conditional means of reactive scalars. However, the lift-off height is under predicted. The mean axial velocity develops into a self-similar profile after x/D = 6. The normalized flame index is employed to characterize the combustion regime. It is found that at the flame base the gradients of the reactants are opposed and diffusion combustion is dominant. Further downstream, the contribution of premixed combustion increases and peaks at x/D = 8. Finally, the stabilization process is examined. The turbulent lifted flame is proved to stabilize in the lean mixtures and low scalar dissipation rate regions.

Combustion of Biogas Released from Palm Oil Mill Effluent and the Effects of Hydrogen Enrichment on the Characteristics of the Biogas Flame

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Seyed Ehsan Hosseini

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Biogas released from palm oil mill effluent (POME could be a source of air pollution, which has illustrated negative effects on the global warming. To protect the environment from toxic emissions and use the energy of POME biogas, POME is conducted to the closed digestion systems and released biogas is captured. Since POME biogas upgrading is a complicated process, it is not economical and thus new combustion techniques should be examined. In this paper, POME biogas (40% CO2 and 60% CH4 has been utilized as a fuel in a lab-scale furnace. A computational approach by standard k-ε combustion and turbulence model is applied. Hydrogen is added to the biogas components and the impacts of hydrogen enrichment on the temperature distribution, flame stability, and pollutant formation are studied. The results confirm that adding hydrogen to the POME biogas content could improve low calorific value (LCV of biogas and increases the stability of the POME biogas flame. Indeed, the biogas flame length rises and distribution of the temperature within the chamber is uniform when hydrogen is added to the POME biogas composition. Compared to the pure biogas combustion, thermal NOx formation increases in hydrogen-enriched POME biogas combustion due to the enhancement of the furnace temperature.

Systematic application of flame diagnostics techniques for performance and emissions development of modern combustion systems; Systematischer Einsatz der Flammendiagnostik fuer die Leistungs- und Emissionsentwicklung moderner Brennverfahren

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Winklhofer, E.; Beidl, C.; Hirsch, A.; Piock, W. [AVL List GmbH, Graz (Austria)

2004-07-01

In engine engineering, the information and benefits gained from optical flame diagnostics, especially in the combination with thermodynamic and CFD analysis of airflow and combustion are well accepted. It is, however, a specific challenge to implement techniques which are well established in basic engine R and D into the processes of series development or engine calibration. Any technique taken over from successfull predevelopment applications, is expected to equally well support series development. But in order to do this, it must also be suited to easily blend into the procedures of standard multicylinder engine tests. Development speed and results quality improve consideraly, whenever engineers within their routine engine tests gain knowledge about and evaluation of flame properties which allow identification of possible improvements of combustion efficiency, power density and emissions in an early, upfront development phase. Diagnostic systems employed for such tasks make use of fiber optic sensors which in spark ignited engines may be implanted into the bodies of sensor spark plugs. Their mechanic, thermal and electric properties comply with those of the originals, thus enabling their continuous use on the test bed. The arrangement of standard fiber optic channels allows flame radiation monitoring either within the axial proximity of the sensor plug, or of the entire combustion chamber compression volume. Signal recording and signal analysis is accomplished with Visiolution system techniques. Test results are evaluated on the basis of Visiolution algorithms. Data reduction schemes provide numerical figures of merit, describing, e. g. direction, velocity and symmetry of a spark ignited flame kernel. When knock center distribution is analysed, actual distribution statistics are checked against best concept distributions, whenever diffusion flames are detected against expectations of ideal premixed flames, their position, timing and intensity is evaluated. Such

Investigation of a flame holder geometry effect on flame structure in non-premixed combustion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hashemi, S. A.; Hajialigol, N.; Fattahi, A.; Heydari, R.; Mazaheri, K.

2013-01-01

In this paper the effect of flame holder geometry on flame structure is studied. The obtained numerical results using realizable k-ε and β-PDF models show a good agreement with experimental data. The results show that increasing in flame holder length decreases flame length and increases flame temperature. Additionally, it is observed that flame lengths decrease by increasing in flame holder radius and increase for larger radii. Furthermore in various radii, the flame temperature is higher for smaller flame lengths. It was found that behavior of flame structure is mainly affected by the mass flow rate of hot gases that come near the reactant by the recirculation zone.

Investigation of a flame holder geometry effect on flame structure in non-premixed combustion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hashemi, S. A.; Hajialigol, N.; Fattahi, A.; Heydari, R. [University of Kashan, Kashan (Iran, Islamic Republic of); Mazaheri, K. [University of Tarbiat Moddares, Tehran (Iran, Islamic Republic of)

2013-11-15

In this paper the effect of flame holder geometry on flame structure is studied. The obtained numerical results using realizable k-ε and β-PDF models show a good agreement with experimental data. The results show that increasing in flame holder length decreases flame length and increases flame temperature. Additionally, it is observed that flame lengths decrease by increasing in flame holder radius and increase for larger radii. Furthermore in various radii, the flame temperature is higher for smaller flame lengths. It was found that behavior of flame structure is mainly affected by the mass flow rate of hot gases that come near the reactant by the recirculation zone.

Thermo-acoustic instabilities in lean premixed swirl-stabilized combustion and their link to acoustically coupled and decoupled flame macrostructures

KAUST Repository

Taamallah, Soufien; LaBry, Zachary A.; Shanbhogue, Santosh J.; Ghoniem, Ahmed F.

2015-01-01

© 2014 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. We investigate the onset of thermo-acoustic instabilities and their link to the mean flame configurations - or macrostructures - under acoustically coupled

A priori tests of combustion models based on a CH{sub 4}/H{sub 2} Triple Flame

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dombard, J.; Naud, B.; Jimenez Sanchez, C.

2008-07-01

This document reproduces the final project of Jerome Dombard, presented on June 25, 2008, for the obtention of the Master degree MIMSE (Master Ingenierie Mathematique, Statistique et Economique) of Bordeaux University (Universite Bordeaux 1). We make an a priori study of FPI/FGM-type turbulent combustion models using a 2D DNS of a triple flame. A reduced chemical scheme of 16 species and 12 reactions is used (ARM1, proposed by J.-Y. Chen at Berkeley University). The fuel (CH4/H2 mixture) and oxidizer (air) correspond to the inlet composition of the Sydney bluff-body stabilised flame experiments (flames HM1-3). First, we compute 1D laminar premixed flames. The purpose of those calculations is twofold: 1. check the differences between different computer programs and different treatments of molecular diffusion, and 2. calibrate the 2D-DNS of the laminar triple flame (mainly decide on the grid resolution). Then, the solution of the 2D laminar triple flame is used to test a priori FPI/FGM tables. Finally, preliminary considerations on sub-grid scale modelling in the context of Large Eddy Simulation are made. (Author) 14 refs.

Combustion and radiation modeling of laminar premixed flames using OpenFOAM: A numerical investigation of radiative heat transfer in the RADIADE project

OpenAIRE

Haider, Sajjad; Pang, Kar Mun; Ivarsson, Anders; Schramm, Jesper

2013-01-01

This paper presents the computational fluid dynamics modelling of a laminar premixed flame. A specific solver named ’rareLTSFoam’ is developed using OpenFOAM ® code. The solver is used to simulate experimental stoichiometric and rich laminar premixed flames. The modelling is carried out for thermal flow and combusting flow cases. The results show that without including radiation modelling, the predicted flame temperature is higher than the measured values. P1 radiation Model is used with sub-...

Flame Structure and Chemiluminescence Emissions of Inverse Diffusion Flames under Sinusoidally Driven Plasma Discharges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Grazia De Giorgi

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Reduction of nitric oxides (NOx in aircraft engines and in gas turbines by lean combustion is of great interest in the design of novel combustion systems. However, the stabilization of the flame under lean conditions is a main issue. In this context, the present work investigates the effects of sinusoidal dielectric barrier discharge (DBD on a lean inverse diffusive methane/air flame in a Bunsen-type burner under different actuation conditions. The flame appearance was investigated with fixed methane loading (mass flux, but with varying inner airflow rate. High-speed flame imaging was done by using an intensified (charge-coupled device CCD camera equipped with different optical filters in order to selectively record signals from the chemiluminescent species OH*, CH*, or CO2* to evaluate the flame behavior in presence of plasma actuation. The electrical power consumption was less than 33 W. It was evident that the plasma flame enhancement was significantly influenced by the plasma discharges, particularly at high inner airflow rates. The flame structure changes drastically when the dissipated plasma power increases. The flame area decreases due to the enhancement of mixing and chemical reactions that lead to a more anchored flame on the quartz exit with a reduction of the flame length.

Flame structure and NO generation in oxy-fuel combustion at high pressures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seepana, Sivaji; Jayanti, Sreenivas

2009-01-01

A numerical study of oxy-fuel combustion has been carried out in the pressure range of 0.1-3 MPa with methane as the fuel and carbondioxide-diluted oxygen with trace amount of nitrogen (termed here as c a ir) as the oxidant. The flame structure and NO generation rate have been calculated using the flamelet model with the detailed GRI 3.0 mechanism for two oxygen concentrations of 23.3% and 20% by weight in the oxidant at a strain rate of 40 s -1 (corresponding to a scalar dissipation rate of 1 s -1 ). It is observed that, for the reference case of 23.3 wt.% of oxygen, as the pressure increases, the peak temperature of the flame increases rapidly up to a pressure of 0.5 MPa, and more gradually at higher pressures. The concentrations of important intermediate radicals such as CH 3 , H and OH decrease considerably with increasing pressure while NO concentration follows the same trend as the temperature. Reducing the oxygen concentration to 20% by weight leads to an order of magnitude reduction in NO concentration. Also, for pressures greater than 0.3 MPa, the NO concentration decreases with increasing pressure in spite of the increasing peak flame temperatures. This can be attributed to the increasing domination of recombination reactions leading to less availability of the intermediate radicals H and OH which are necessary for the formation of NO by the thermal route. It is concluded that a stable, low NO x oxy-fuel flame can be obtained at high pressures at slightly increased dilution of oxygen

Unsteady Flame Embedding

KAUST Repository

El-Asrag, Hossam A.

2011-01-01

Direct simulation of all the length and time scales relevant to practical combustion processes is computationally prohibitive. When combustion processes are driven by reaction and transport phenomena occurring at the unresolved scales of a numerical simulation, one must introduce a dynamic subgrid model that accounts for the multiscale nature of the problem using information available on a resolvable grid. Here, we discuss a model that captures unsteady flow-flame interactions- including extinction, re-ignition, and history effects-via embedded simulations at the subgrid level. The model efficiently accounts for subgrid flame structure and incorporates detailed chemistry and transport, allowing more accurate prediction of the stretch effect and the heat release. In this chapter we first review the work done in the past thirty years to develop the flame embedding concept. Next we present a formulation for the same concept that is compatible with Large Eddy Simulation in the flamelet regimes. The unsteady flame embedding approach (UFE) treats the flame as an ensemble of locally one-dimensional flames, similar to the flamelet approach. However, a set of elemental one-dimensional flames is used to describe the turbulent flame structure directly at the subgrid level. The calculations employ a one-dimensional unsteady flame model that incorporates unsteady strain rate, curvature, and mixture boundary conditions imposed by the resolved scales. The model is used for closure of the subgrid terms in the context of large eddy simulation. Direct numerical simulation (DNS) data from a flame-vortex interaction problem is used for comparison. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011.

Inhibition Effect of Phosphorus Flame Retardants on the Fire Disasters Induced by Spontaneous Combustion of Coal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yibo Tang

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Coal spontaneous combustion (CSC generally induces fire disasters in underground mines, thus causing serious casualties, environmental pollution, and property loss around the world. By using six P-containing additives to process three typical coal samples, this study investigated the variations of the self-ignition characteristics of the coal samples before and after treatment. The analysis was performed by combining thermogravimetric analysis/differential scanning calorimetry (TG/DSC Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR and low temperature oxidation. Experimental results showed that P-containing inhibitors could effectively restrain the heat emitted in the combustion of coal samples and therefore the ignition temperature of the coal samples was delayed at varying degrees. The combustion rate of the coal samples was reduced as well. At the temperatures ranging from 50°C to 150°C, the activation energy of the coal samples after the treatment was found to increase, which indicated that the coal samples were more difficult to be oxidized. After being treated with phosphorus flame retardants (PFRs, the content of several active groups represented by the C-O structure in the three coal samples was proved to be obviously changed. This suggested that PFRs could significantly inhibit the content of CO generated by the low temperature oxidation of coal, and the flame-retardant efficiency grew with the increasing temperature. At 200°C, the maximal inhibition efficiency reached approximately 85%.

Combustion chemistry and formation of pollutants; Chimie de la combustion et formation des polluants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1996-12-31

This book of proceedings reports on 7 papers on combustion chemistry and formation of pollutants presented during the workshop organized by the `Combustion and Flames` section of the French society of thermal engineers. The chemistry of combustion is analyzed in various situations such as: turbojet engines, spark ignition engines, industrial burners, gas turbines etc... Numerical simulation is used to understand the physico-chemical processes involved in combustion, to describe the kinetics of oxidation, combustion and flame propagation, and to predict the formation of pollutants. (J.S.)

Study of new technique of solid combustible materials to determination of volatile elements by flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Campos, R.C. de.

1988-01-01

A new technique for direct trace element analysis of solid combustible materials is described. The samples (up to 10 mg) are weighed on a graphite platform wich is then placed in a quartz tube, at the focal point of three infrared lamps. When the lamps are turned on, the sample burns in a stream of air, and the resulting dry aerosol containing volatile elements such as Hg, Cd, Bi, Tl, Zn, Pb and Cu is carried into the mixing chamber and thence into the flame, where the atomic absorption measurement is carried out. This technique overcomes chemical sample preparation steps, avoiding contaminations of losses associated with these steps. A ''furnace in flame'' system where the aerosol is transported to a flame heated T-tube is also described. The influence of flame stoichiometry, observation height, platform material and air flux intensity was studied inorder to determine optimal analytical conditions. (author) [pt

Experimental Investigation into the Combustion Characteristics of Propane Hydrates in Porous Media

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiang-Ru Chen

2015-02-01

Full Text Available The combustion characteristics of both pure propane hydrates and the mixtures of hydrates and quartz sands were investigated by combustion experiments. The flame propagation, flame appearance, burning time and temperature in different hydrate layers were studied. For pure propane hydrate combustion, the initial flame falls in the “premixed” category. The flame propagates very rapidly, mainly as a result of burnt gas expansion. The flame finally self-extinguishes with some proportion of hydrates remaining unburned. For the hydrate-sand mixture combustion, the flame takes the form of many tiny discontinuous flames appearing and disappearing at different locations. The burn lasts for a much shorter amount of time than pure hydrate combustion. High porosity and high hydrate saturation is beneficial to the combustion. The hydrate combustion is the combustion of propane gas resulting from the dissociation of the hydrates. In both combustion test scenarios, the hydrate-dissociated water plays a key role in the fire extinction, because it is the main resistance that restrains the heat transfer from the flame to the hydrates and that prevents the hydrate-dissociated gas from releasing into the combustion zone.

Emission and combustion characteristics of multiple stage diesel combustion; Nidan nensho ni yoru diesel kikan no nensho to haishutsubutsu tokusei

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hashizume, T; Miyamoto, T; Tsujimura, K [New A.C.E. Institute Co. Ltd., Tokyo (Japan); Kobayashi, S; Shimizu, K [Japan Automobile Research Institute, Tsukuba (Japan)

1997-10-01

A new concept of multiple stage diesel combustion was studied by means of engine test, combustion observation and numerical simulation, in order to reduce NOx emissions at high load conditions. With this concept, the premixed combustion occurs under the fuel lean conditions and the diffusion combustion occurs under the high temperature conditions. As seen in the result of combustion observation, a first stage combustion occurs with no luminous flame. A second stage combustion occurs with a luminous flame after very short ignition delay period. However the luminous flame is disappeared immediately. Because cylinder temperature is high, and hence soot oxidizes immediately. 5 refs., 11 figs., 1 tab.

Flame retardancy and thermal degradation of cotton textiles based on UV-curable flame retardant coatings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Xing, Weiyi [State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, 96 Jinzai Road, Hefei, Anhui 230026 (China); Suzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Science and Technology of China, 166 Ren' ai Road, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215123 (China); Jie, Ganxin [State Key Laboratory of Environmental Adaptability for Industrial Products, China National Electric Apparatus Research Institute, Guangzhou 510300 (China); Song, Lei; Hu, Shuang; Lv, Xiaoqi; Wang, Xin [State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, 96 Jinzai Road, Hefei, Anhui 230026 (China); Hu, Yuan, E-mail: yuanhu@ustc.edu.cn [State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, 96 Jinzai Road, Hefei, Anhui 230026 (China); Suzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Science and Technology of China, 166 Ren' ai Road, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215123 (China)

2011-01-20

The flame retardant coatings were prepared through UV-curable technique using tri(acryloyloxyethyl) phosphate (TAEP) and triglycidyl isocyanurate acrylate (TGICA). Results from FTIR-ATR spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that flame retardant coatings were successfully coated onto the surface of cotton fabrics. The flame retardancy of the treated fabrics was studied by Micro-scale Combustion Calorimeter (MCC) and limited oxygen index (LOI). The cottons coated flame retardant coatings had the lower peak heat release rate (PHRR), heat release capacity (HRC), total heat of combustion (THC) and higher LOI value compared with untreated cotton. The results from TGA test showed that the flame retardant coatings lowered the decomposition temperature of treated fabric. The thermal decomposition of cottons was monitored by real time FTIR analysis and thermogravimetric analysis/infrared spectrometry (TGA-IR). The enhanced flame retardant action might be caused by thermal decomposition of TAEP structure, producing acidic intermediates, which could react with fabrics to alter its thermal decomposition process.

Trace gas emissions from burning Florida wetlands

Science.gov (United States)

Cofer, Wesley R., III; Levine, Joel S.; Lebel, Peter J.; Winstead, Edward L.; Koller, Albert M., Jr.; Hinkle, C. Ross

1990-01-01

Measurements of biomass burn-produced trace gases were obtained using a helicopter at low altitudes above burning Florida wetlands on November 9, 1987, and from both helicopter and light-aircraft samplings on November 7, 1988. Carbon dioxide normalized emission ratios for carbon monoxide, hydrogen, methane, total nonmethane hydrocarbons, and nitrous oxide were obtained over burning graminoid wetlands consisting primarily of Spartina bakeri and Juncus roemerianus. Some interspersed scrub oak and saw palmetto were also burned. No significant differences were observed in the emission ratios determined for these gases from samples collected over flaming, mixed, and smoldering phases of combustion during the 1987 fire. Combustion-categorized differences in emission ratios were small for the 1988 fire. Combustion efficiency was relatively good (low emission ratios for reduced gases) for both fires. It is believed that the consistently low emission ratios were a unique result of graminoid wetlands fires, in which the grasses and rushes burned rapidly down to standing water and were quickly extinguished. Consequently, the efficiency of the combustion was good and the amount and duration of smoldering combustion was greatly deminished.

Spray combustion of Jet-A and diesel fuels in a constant volume combustion chamber

KAUST Repository

Jing, Wei

2015-01-01

This work investigates the spray combustion of Jet-A fuel in an optical constant-volume combustion chamber under different ambient initial conditions. Ambient temperature was varied at 800 K, 1000 K, and 1200 K and five different ambient O2 concentrations were used, spanning 10-21%. These ambient conditions can be used to mimic practical diesel engine working conditions under different fuel injection timings and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) levels. Both transient and quasi-steady state analyses were conducted. The transient analysis focused on the flame development from the beginning to the end of the combustion process, illustrating how the flame structure evolves with time. The quasi-steady state analysis concentrated on the stable flame structure and compared the flame emissions in terms of spatially integrated intensity, flame effective area, and intensity per pixel. The transient analysis was based on measurements using high-speed imaging of both OH∗ chemiluminescence and broadband natural luminosity (NL). For the quasi-steady state analysis, three flame narrow-band emissions (OH∗ at 310 nm, Band A at 430 nm and Band B at 470 nm) were captured using an ICCD camera. Based on the current Jet-A data and diesel data obtained from previous experiments, a comparison between Jet-A and diesel was made in terms of flame development during the transient state and spatially integrated intensity, flame effective area, and intensity per pixel during the quasi-steady state. For the transient results, Jet-A shares a similar flame development trend to diesel, but featuring a narrower region of NL and a wider region of OH∗ with the increase of ambient temperature and O2 concentration. The soot cloud is oxidized more quickly for Jet-A than diesel at the end of combustion, evident by comparing the area of NL, especially under high O2 concentration. The quasi-steady state results suggest that soot is oxidized effectively under high O2 concentration conditions by the

Experimental and numerical study of the accuracy of flame-speed measurements for methane/air combustion in a slot burner

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Selle, L.; Ferret, B. [Universite de Toulouse, INPT, UPS, IMFT, Institut de Mecanique des Fluides de Toulouse (France); CNRS, IMFT, Toulouse (France); Poinsot, T. [Universite de Toulouse, INPT, UPS, IMFT, Institut de Mecanique des Fluides de Toulouse (France); CNRS, IMFT, Toulouse (France); CERFACS, Toulouse (France)

2011-01-15

Measuring the velocities of premixed laminar flames with precision remains a controversial issue in the combustion community. This paper studies the accuracy of such measurements in two-dimensional slot burners and shows that while methane/air flame speeds can be measured with reasonable accuracy, the method may lack precision for other mixtures such as hydrogen/air. Curvature at the flame tip, strain on the flame sides and local quenching at the flame base can modify local flame speeds and require corrections which are studied using two-dimensional DNS. Numerical simulations also provide stretch, displacement and consumption flame speeds along the flame front. For methane/air flames, DNS show that the local stretch remains small so that the local consumption speed is very close to the unstretched premixed flame speed. The only correction needed to correctly predict flame speeds in this case is due to the finite aspect ratio of the slot used to inject the premixed gases which induces a flow acceleration in the measurement region (this correction can be evaluated from velocity measurement in the slot section or from an analytical solution). The method is applied to methane/air flames with and without water addition and results are compared to experimental data found in the literature. The paper then discusses the limitations of the slot-burner method to measure flame speeds for other mixtures and shows that it is not well adapted to mixtures with a Lewis number far from unity, such as hydrogen/air flames. (author)

Effects of fire behavior on prescribed fire smoke characteristics: A case study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Einfeld, W.; Ward, D.E.; Hardy, C.

1991-01-01

In this chapter the authors report results from a study that was designed to derive an estimate of the total release of important pollutant species from a well-characterized fire. Ground and aircraft measurements were coordinated to yield a relatively complete picture of fire behavior and accompanying smoke production. Results from these measurements are then integrated over the lifetime of the fire and compared to less rigorous methods of estimating pollutant yield. Results suggest that knowledge of fuel consumption by phase of combustion (flaming vs. smoldering) is important in making accurate estimates of the characteristics of smoke emissions from individual fires. Contributing factors such as fuel type, fuel loading, and meteorological history vary significantly by region and should be taken into account when compiling estimates of fuel consumption rates during both flaming and smoldering fire conditions

Ensemble Diffraction Measurements of Spray Combustion in a Novel Vitiated Coflow Turbulent Jet Flame Burner

Science.gov (United States)

Cabra, R.; Hamano, Y.; Chen, J. Y.; Dibble, R. W.; Acosta, F.; Holve, D.

2000-01-01

An experimental investigation is presented of a novel vitiated coflow spray flame burner. The vitiated coflow emulates the recirculation region of most combustors, such as gas turbines or furnaces; additionally, since the vitiated gases are coflowing, the burner allows exploration of the chemistry of recirculation without the corresponding fluid mechanics of recirculation. As such, this burner allows for chemical kinetic model development without obscurations caused by fluid mechanics. The burner consists of a central fuel jet (droplet or gaseous) surrounded by the oxygen rich combustion products of a lean premixed flame that is stabilized on a perforated, brass plate. The design presented allows for the reacting coflow to span a large range of temperatures and oxygen concentrations. Several experiments measuring the relationships between mixture stoichiometry and flame temperature are used to map out the operating ranges of the coflow burner. These include temperatures as low 300 C to stoichiometric and oxygen concentrations from 18 percent to zero. This is achieved by stabilizing hydrogen-air premixed flames on a perforated plate. Furthermore, all of the CO2 generated is from the jet combustion. Thus, a probe sample of NO(sub X) and CO2 yields uniquely an emission index, as is commonly done in gas turbine engine exhaust research. The ability to adjust the oxygen content of the coflow allows us to steadily increase the coflow temperature surrounding the jet. At some temperature, the jet ignites far downstream from the injector tube. Further increases in the coflow temperature results in autoignition occurring closer to the nozzle. Examples are given of methane jetting into a coflow that is lean, stoichiometric, and even rich. Furthermore, an air jet with a rich coflow produced a normal looking flame that is actually 'inverted' (air on the inside, surrounded by fuel). In the special case of spray injection, we demonstrate the efficacy of this novel burner with a

Combustion chemistry and flame structure of furan group biofuels using molecular-beam mass spectrometry and gas chromatography – Part I: Furan

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Dong; Togbé, Casimir; Tran, Luc-Sy; Felsmann, Daniel; Oßwald, Patrick; Nau, Patrick; Koppmann, Julia; Lackner, Alexander; Glaude, Pierre-Alexandre; Sirjean, Baptiste; Fournet, René; Battin-Leclerc, Frédérique; Kohse-Höinghaus, Katharina

2013-01-01

Fuels of the furan family, i.e. furan itself, 2-methylfuran (MF), and 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF) are being proposed as alternatives to hydrocarbon fuels and are potentially accessible from cellulosic biomass. While some experiments and modeling results are becoming available for each of these fuels, a comprehensive experimental and modeling analysis of the three fuels under the same conditions, simulated using the same chemical reaction model, has – to the best of our knowledge – not been attempted before. The present series of three papers, detailing the results obtained in flat flames for each of the three fuels separately, reports experimental data and explores their combustion chemistry using kinetic modeling. The first part of this series focuses on the chemistry of low-pressure furan flames. Two laminar premixed low-pressure (20 and 40 mbar) flat argon-diluted (50%) flames of furan were studied at two equivalence ratios (φ=1.0 and 1.7) using an analytical combination of high-resolution electron-ionization molecular-beam mass spectrometry (EI-MBMS) in Bielefeld and gas chromatography (GC) in Nancy. The time-of-flight MBMS with its high mass resolution enables the detection of both stable and reactive species, while the gas chromatograph permits the separation of isomers. Mole fractions of reactants, products, and stable and radical intermediates were measured as a function of the distance to the burner. A single kinetic model was used to predict the flame structure of the three fuels: furan (in this paper), 2-methylfuran (in Part II), and 2,5-dimethylfuran (in Part III). A refined sub-mechanism for furan combustion, based on the work of Tian et al. [Combustion and Flame 158 (2011) 756-773] was developed which was then compared to the present experimental results. Overall, the agreement is encouraging. The main reaction pathways involved in furan combustion were delineated computing the rates of formation and consumption of all species. It is seen that the

Effect of H2 addition on combustion characteristics of dimethyl ether jet diffusion flame

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kang, Yinhu; Lu, Xiaofeng; Wang, Quanhai; Gan, Lu; Ji, Xuanyu; Wang, Hu; Guo, Qiang; Song, Decai; Ji, Pengyu

2015-01-01

Highlights: • DME- and H 2 -dominated combustion regimes were quantitatively characterized. • The flame structure changed significantly when H 2 addition was above 60 vol.%. • An empirical correlation for normalized flame entrainment rate was developed. • The optimal H 2 addition to DME was 60 vol.% in the practical engineering. - Abstract: In this paper, experiments and numerical calculations were conducted to investigate the effect of H 2 addition on dimethyl ether (DME) jet diffusion flame behaviors, in terms of thermal and chemical structures, reaction zone size, flame entrainment, and NOx and CO emission indices. A wide range of H 2 additions from pure DME to pure H 2 were involved herein, while maintaining the volumetric flow rate of fuel mixture constant. The results indicate that when H 2 mole fraction in the fuel mixture exceeded 60%, the blended fuel was converted to H 2 -dominated. Besides, the flames behaved rather distinctly at the DME- and H 2 -dominated regimes. With the increment in H 2 addition, flame temperature, H 2 , H, O, and OH concentrations increased gradually, but concentrations of the intermediate hydrocarbons (such as CO, CH 2 O, CH 2 , and CH 3 ) decreased on the contrary. Additionally, after the flame became H 2 -dominated, the species concentrations varied increasingly quickly with H 2 addition. The reaction zone length and width decreased nearly linearly with H 2 addition at the DME- and H 2 -dominated regimes. But the decreasing speed of reaction zone length became faster after the flame was converted to H 2 -dominated. At the DME-dominated regime, the dependence of flame entrainment coefficient (C e ) on H 2 addition was rather small. While at the H 2 -dominated regime, C e increased increasingly quickly with H 2 addition. Moreover, with the increment in H 2 addition, NOx emission index increased and CO emission index decreased gradually. In addition, at the DME-dominated regime, NOx emission index increased fairly slowly

Flame structure and NO generation in oxy-fuel combustion at high pressures

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Seepana, Sivaji; Jayanti, Sreenivas [Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Madras, Chennai 600 036 (India)

2009-04-15

A numerical study of oxy-fuel combustion has been carried out in the pressure range of 0.1-3 MPa with methane as the fuel and carbondioxide-diluted oxygen with trace amount of nitrogen (termed here as c{sub a}ir) as the oxidant. The flame structure and NO generation rate have been calculated using the flamelet model with the detailed GRI 3.0 mechanism for two oxygen concentrations of 23.3% and 20% by weight in the oxidant at a strain rate of 40 s{sup -1} (corresponding to a scalar dissipation rate of 1 s{sup -1}). It is observed that, for the reference case of 23.3 wt.% of oxygen, as the pressure increases, the peak temperature of the flame increases rapidly up to a pressure of 0.5 MPa, and more gradually at higher pressures. The concentrations of important intermediate radicals such as CH{sub 3}, H and OH decrease considerably with increasing pressure while NO concentration follows the same trend as the temperature. Reducing the oxygen concentration to 20% by weight leads to an order of magnitude reduction in NO concentration. Also, for pressures greater than 0.3 MPa, the NO concentration decreases with increasing pressure in spite of the increasing peak flame temperatures. This can be attributed to the increasing domination of recombination reactions leading to less availability of the intermediate radicals H and OH which are necessary for the formation of NO by the thermal route. It is concluded that a stable, low NO{sub x} oxy-fuel flame can be obtained at high pressures at slightly increased dilution of oxygen. (author)

Tulip flames: changes in shape of premixed flames propagating in closed tubes

Science.gov (United States)

Dunn-Rankin, D.; Sawyer, R. F.

The experimental results that are the subject of this communication provide high-speed schlieren images of the closed-tube flame shape that has come to be known as the tulip flame. The schlieren images, along with in-chamber pressure records, help demonstrate the effects of chamber length, equivalence ratio, and igniter geometry on formation of the tulip flame. The pressure/time records show distinct features which correlate with flame shape changes during the transition to tulip. The measurements indicate that the basic tulip flame formation is a robust phenomenon that depends on little except the overall geometry of the combustion vessel.

Automatic, non-intrusive, flame detection in pipelines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Morgan, M.D.; Mehta, S.A.; Moore, R.G. [Calgary Univ., AB (Canada). Dept. of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering; Al-Himyary, T.J. [Al-Himyary Consulting Inc., Calgary, AB (Canada)

2004-07-01

Flames have been known to occur within small diameter pipes operating under conditions of high turbulent flow. Although there are several methods of flame detection, few offer remote, non-line-of-site detection. In particular, combustion cannot be detected in cases where flammable mixtures are carried in flare lines, storage tank vents, air drilling or improperly designed purging operations. Combustion noise is being examined as a means to address this problem. A study was conducted in which flames within a small diameter tube were automatically detected using high speed pressure measurements and a newly developed algorithm. Commercially available, high-pressure, dynamic-pressure transducers were used for the measurements. The results of an experimental study showed that combustion noise can be distinguished from other sources of noise by its inverse power law relationship with frequency. This paper presented a newly developed algorithm which provides early detection of flames when combined with high-speed pressure measurements. The algorithm can also separate combustion noise automatically from other sources of noise when combined with other filters. In this study, the noise generated by a fluttering check valve was attenuated using a stop band filter. This detection method was found to be very reliable under the conditions tests, as long as there was no flow restriction between the sensor and the flame. A flow restriction would have resulted in the detection of only the strongest flame noise. It was shown that acoustic flame detection can be applied successfully in flare stacks, industrial burners and turbine combustors. It can be 15 times more sensitive than optical or electrical methods in diagnosing combustion problems with lean burning combustors. It may also be the only method available in applications that require remote, non-line-of-sight detection. 11 refs., 3 tabs., 15 figs.

One-dimensional flame instability and control of burning in fire-chamber

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Victor E. Volkov

2015-03-01

Full Text Available The flame stability with regard to one-dimensional exponential perturbations both for the combustion in the fire-chamber and the flame propagating in closed tubes or chambers is investigated. It is proved that both stability and instability are possible for the combustion process. At the same time the one-dimensional flame instability is guaranteed near the front wall of the fire-chamber where the fuel supply is realized. Therefore the control of combustion in the fire-chamber leads to support of the flame at the maximum possible distance from the front wall of the fire-chamber to prevent the vibratory combustion or to diminish intensity of pulsations if these pulsations are inevitable.

LES of a laboratory-scale turbulent premixed bunsen flame using FSD, PCM-FPI and thickened flame models

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hernandez Perez, F.E.; Yuen, F.T.C.; Groth, C.P.T.; Gülder, O.L.

2011-01-01

Large-eddy simulations (LES) of a turbulent premixed Bunsen flame were carried out with three subfilter-scale (SFS) modelling approaches for turbulent premixed combustion. One approach is based on the artificially thickened flame and power-law flame wrinkling models, the second approach is based on

Spray combustion of Jet-A and diesel fuels in a constant volume combustion chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jing, Wei; Roberts, William L.; Fang, Tiegang

2015-01-01

This work investigates the spray combustion of Jet-A fuel in an optical constant-volume combustion chamber under different ambient initial conditions. Ambient temperature was varied at 800 K, 1000 K, and 1200 K and five different ambient O 2 concentrations were used, spanning 10–21%. These ambient conditions can be used to mimic practical diesel engine working conditions under different fuel injection timings and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) levels. Both transient and quasi-steady state analyses were conducted. The transient analysis focused on the flame development from the beginning to the end of the combustion process, illustrating how the flame structure evolves with time. The quasi-steady state analysis concentrated on the stable flame structure and compared the flame emissions in terms of spatially integrated intensity, flame effective area, and intensity per pixel. The transient analysis was based on measurements using high-speed imaging of both OH ∗ chemiluminescence and broadband natural luminosity (NL). For the quasi-steady state analysis, three flame narrow-band emissions (OH ∗ at 310 nm, Band A at 430 nm and Band B at 470 nm) were captured using an ICCD camera. Based on the current Jet-A data and diesel data obtained from previous experiments, a comparison between Jet-A and diesel was made in terms of flame development during the transient state and spatially integrated intensity, flame effective area, and intensity per pixel during the quasi-steady state. For the transient results, Jet-A shares a similar flame development trend to diesel, but featuring a narrower region of NL and a wider region of OH ∗ with the increase of ambient temperature and O 2 concentration. The soot cloud is oxidized more quickly for Jet-A than diesel at the end of combustion, evident by comparing the area of NL, especially under high O 2 concentration. The quasi-steady state results suggest that soot is oxidized effectively under high O 2 concentration conditions by

Pollutant Formation during the Occurrence of Flame Instabilities under Very-Lean Combustion Conditions in a Liquid-Fuel Burner

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Grazia De Giorgi

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Recent advances in gas turbine combustor design are aimed at achieving low exhaust emissions, hence modern aircraft jet engines are designed with lean-burn combustion systems. In the present work, we report an experimental study on lean combustion in a liquid fuel burner, operated under a non-premixed (single point injection regime that mimics the combustion in a modern aircraft engine. The flame behavior was investigated in proximity of the blow-out limit by an intensified high rate Charge-Coupled Device (CCD camera equipped with different optical filters to selectively record single species chemiluminescence emissions (e.g., OH*, CH*. Analogous filters were also used in combination with photomultiplier (PMT tubes. Furthermore this work investigates well-mixed lean low NOx combustion where mixing is good and generation of solid carbon particulate emissions should be very low. An analysis of pollutants such as fine particles and gaseous emissions was also performed. Particle number concentrations and size distributions were measured at the exhaust of the combustion chamber by two different particle size measuring instruments: a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS and an Electrical Low Pressure Impactor (ELPI. NOx concentration measurements were performed by using a cross-flow modulation chemiluminescence detection system; CO concentration emissions were acquired with a Cross-flow modulation Non-dispersive infrared (NDIR absorption method. All the measurements were completed by diagnostics of the fundamental combustor parameters. The results herein presented show that at very-lean conditions the emissions of both particulate matter and CO was found to increase most likely due to the occurrence of flame instabilities while the NOx were observed to reduce.

Combustion Research Facility | A Department of Energy Office of Science

Science.gov (United States)

Collaborative Research Facility Back to Sandia National Laboratory Homepage Combustion Research Search the CRF Combustion Chemistry Flame Chemistry Research.Combustion_Chemistry.Flame_Chemistry Theory and Modeling Theory and Modeling Combustion Kinetics High Pressure Chemistry Chemistry of Autoignition

FLAME MONITORING IN POWER STATION BOILERS USING IMAGE PROCESSING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. Sujatha

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Combustion quality in power station boilers plays an important role in minimizing the flue gas emissions. In the present work various intelligent schemes to infer the flue gas emissions by monitoring the flame colour at the furnace of the boiler are proposed here. Flame image monitoring involves capturing the flame video over a period of time with the measurement of various parameters like Carbon dioxide (CO2, excess oxygen (O2, Nitrogen dioxide (NOx, Sulphur dioxide (SOx and Carbon monoxide (CO emissions plus the flame temperature at the core of the fire ball, air/fuel ratio and the combustion quality. Higher the quality of combustion less will be the flue gases at the exhaust. The flame video was captured using an infrared camera. The flame video is then split up into the frames for further analysis. The video splitter is used for progressive extraction of the flame images from the video. The images of the flame are then pre-processed to reduce noise. The conventional classification and clustering techniques include the Euclidean distance classifier (L2 norm classifier. The intelligent classifier includes the Radial Basis Function Network (RBF, Back Propagation Algorithm (BPA and parallel architecture with RBF and BPA (PRBFBPA. The results of the validation are supported with the above mentioned performance measures whose values are in the optimal range. The values of the temperatures, combustion quality, SOx, NOx, CO, CO2 concentrations, air and fuel supplied corresponding to the images were obtained thereby indicating the necessary control action taken to increase or decrease the air supply so as to ensure complete combustion. In this work, by continuously monitoring the flame images, combustion quality was inferred (complete/partial/incomplete combustion and the air/fuel ratio can be automatically varied. Moreover in the existing set-up, measurements like NOx, CO and CO2 are inferred from the samples that are collected periodically or by

Investigations into the Impact of the Equivalence Ratio on Turbulent Premixed Combustion Using Particle Image Velocimetry and Large Eddy Simulation Techniques: “V” and “M” Flame Configurations in a Swirl Combustor

KAUST Repository

Kewlani, Gaurav

2016-03-24

Turbulent premixed combustion is studied using experiments and numerical simulations in an acoustically uncoupled cylindrical sudden-expansion swirl combustor, and the impact of the equivalence ratio on the flame–flow characteristics is analyzed. In order to numerically capture the inherent unsteadiness exhibited in the flow, the large eddy simulation (LES) technique based on the artificial flame thickening combustion model is employed. The experimental data are obtained using particle image velocimetry. It is observed that changes in heat loading, in the presence of wall confinement, significantly influence the flow field in the wake region, the stabilization location of the flame, and the flame intensity. Specifically, increasing the equivalence ratio drastically reduces the average inner recirculation zone size and causes transition of the flame macrostructure from the “V” configuration to the “M” configuration. In other words, while the flame stabilizes along the inner shear layer for the V flame, a persistent diffuse reaction zone is also manifested along the outer shear layer for the M flame. The average chemiluminescence intensity increases in the case of the M flame macrostructure, while the axial span of the reaction zone within the combustion chamber decreases. The predictions of the numerical approach resemble the experimental observations, suggesting that the LES framework can be an effective tool for examining the effect of heat loading on flame–flow interactions and the mechanism of transition of the flame macrostructure with a corresponding change in the equivalence ratio.

Dependence of flame length on cross sections of burners

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hackeschmidt, M.

1983-06-01

This article analyzes the relation between the shape of burner muzzle and the resulting flame jet in a combustion chamber. Geometrical shapes of burner muzzles, either square, circular or triangular are compared as well as proportions of flame dimensions. A formula for calculating flame lengths is derived, for which the mathematical value 'contact profile radius' for burner muzzle shape is introduced. The formula for calculating flame lengths allows a partial replacement of the empirical flame mixing factor according to N.Q. Toai, 1981. The geometrical analysis does not include thermodynamic and reaction kinetic studies, which may be necessary for evaluating heterogenous (coal dust) combustion flames with longer burning time. (12 refs.)

Effects of Buoyancy on Laminar and Turbulent Premixed V-Flame

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, Robert K.; Bedat, Benoit

1997-01-01

Turbulent combustion occurs naturally in almost all combustion systems and involves complex dynamic coupling of chemical and fluid mechanical processes. It is considered as one of the most challenging combustion research problems today. Though buoyancy has little effect on power generating systems operating under high pressures (e.g., IC engines and turbines), flames in atmospheric burners and the operation of small to medium furnaces and boilers are profoundly affected by buoyancy. Changes in burner orientation impacts on their blow-off, flash-back and extinction limits, and their range of operation, burning rate, heat transfer, and emissions. Theoretically, buoyancy is often neglected in turbulent combustion models. Yet the modeling results are routinely compared with experiments of open laboratory flames that are obviously affected by buoyancy. This inconsistency is an obstacle to reconciling experiments and theories. Consequently, a fundamental understanding of the coupling between turbulent flames and buoyancy is significant to both turbulent combustion science and applications. The overall effect of buoyancy relates to the dynamic interaction between the flame and its surrounding, i.e., the so-called elliptical problem. The overall flame shape, its flowfield, stability, and mean and local burning rates are dictated by both upstream and downstream boundary conditions. In steady propagating premixed flames, buoyancy affects the products region downstream of the flame zone. These effects are manifested upstream through the mean and fluctuating pressure fields to influence flame stretch and flame wrinkling. Intuitively, the effects buoyancy should diminish with increasing flow momentum. This is the justification for excluding buoyancy in turbulent combustion models that treats high Reynolds number flows. The objectives of our experimental research program is to elucidate flame-buoyancy coupling processes in laminar and turbulent premixed flames, and to

Manifold methods for methane combustion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yang, B.; Pope, S.B. [Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)

1995-10-01

Great progresses have been made in combustion research, especially, the computation of laminar flames and the probability density function (PDF) method in turbulent combustion. For one-dimensional laminar flames, by considering the transport mechanism, the detailed chemical kinetic mechanism and the interactions between these two basic processes, today it is a routine matter to calculate flame velocities, extinction, ignition, temperature, and species distributions from the governing equations. Results are in good agreement with those obtained for experiments. However, for turbulent combustion, because of the complexities of turbulent flow, chemical reactions, and the interaction between them, in the foreseeable future, it is impossible to calculate the combustion flow field by directly integrating the basic governing equations. So averaging and modeling are necessary in turbulent combustion studies. Averaging, on one hand, simplifies turbulent combustion calculations, on the other hand, it introduces the infamous closure problems, especially the closure problem with chemical reaction terms. Since in PDF calculations of turbulent combustion, the averages of the chemical reaction terms can be calculated, PDF methods overcome the closure problem with the reaction terms. It has been shown that the PDF method is a most promising method to calculate turbulent combustion. PDF methods have been successfully employed to calculate laboratory turbulent flames: they can predict phenomena such as super equilibrium radical levels, and local extinction. Because of these advantages, PDF methods are becoming used increasingly in industry combustor codes.

Effect of low-density polyethylene on smoke emissions from burning of simulated debris piles.

Science.gov (United States)

Hosseini, Seyedehsan; Shrivastava, Manish; Qi, Li; Weise, David R; Cocker, David R; Miller, John W; Jung, Heejung S

2014-06-01

Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) plastic is used to keep piled debris from silvicultural activities--activities associated with development and care of forests--dry to enable efficient disposal by burning. The effects of inclusion of LDPE in this manner on smoke emissions are not well known. In a combustion laboratory experiment, 2-kg mixtures of LDPE and manzanita (Arctostaphylos sp.) wood containing 0, 0.25, and 2.5% LDPE by mass were burned. Gaseous and particulate emissions were sampled in real time during the entire flaming, mixed combustion phase--when the flaming and smoldering phases are present at the same time--and during a portion of the smoldering phase. Analysis of variance was used to test significance of modified combustion efficiency (MCE)--the ratio of concentrations of fire-integrated excess CO2 to CO2 plus CO--and LDPE content on measured individual compounds. MCE ranged between 0.983 and 0.993, indicating that combustion was primarily flaming; MCE was seldom significant as a covariate. Of the 195 compounds identified in the smoke emissions, only the emission factor (EF) of 3M-octane showed an increase with increasing LDPE content. Inclusion of LDPE had an effect on EFs of pyrene and fluoranthene, but no statistical evidence of a linear trend was found. Particulate emission factors showed a marginally significant linear relationship with MCE (0.05 burned. In general, combustion of wet piles results in lower MCEs and consequently higher levels of emissions. Current air quality regulations permit the use of burning to dispose of silvicultural piles; however, inclusion of low-density polyethyelene (LDPE) plastic in silvicultural piles can result in a designation of the pile as waste. Waste burning is not permitted in many areas, and there is also concern that inclusion of LDPE leads to toxic air emissions.

CFD analysis of premixed hydrogen/air combustion in an upright, rectangular shaped combustion chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gera, B.; Singh, R.K.; Vaze, K.K.

2014-01-01

Premixed hydrogen/air combustion in an upright, rectangular shaped combustion chamber has been performed numerically using commercial CFD code CFD-ACE+. The combustion chamber had dimensions 1 m X 0.024 m X 1 m. Simulations were carried out for 10% (v/v) hydrogen concentration for which experimental results were available. Effect of different boundary condition and ignition position on flame propagation was studied. Time dependent flame propagation in the chamber was predicted by CFD code. The computed transient flame propagation in the chamber was in good agreement with experimental results. The present work demonstrated that the available commercial CFD codes are capable of modeling hydrogen deflagration in a realistic manner. (author)

Gas concentration and temperature in acoustically excited Delft turbulent jet flames

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ana Maura A. Rocha; Joao A. Carvalho Jr.; Pedro T. Lacava [Sao Paulo State University, Guaratingueta (Brazil)

2008-11-15

This paper shows the experimental results for changes in the flame structure when acoustic fields are applied in natural gas Delft turbulent diffusion flames. The acoustic field (pulsating combustion) generates zones of intense mixture of reactants in the flame region, promoting a more complete combustion and, consequently, lower pollutant emissions, increase in convective heat transfer rates, and lower fuel consumption. The results show that the presence of the acoustic field changes drastically the flame structure, mainly in the burner natural frequencies. However, for higher acoustic amplitudes, or acoustic pressures, a hydrogen pilot flame is necessary in order to keep the main flame anchored. In the flame regions where the acoustic field is more intense, premixed flame characteristics were observed. Besides, the pulsating regime modifies the axial and radial combustion structure, which could be verified by the radial distribution of concentrations of O{sub 2}, CO, CO{sub 2}, and NOx, and by the temperature profile. The experiments also presented the reduction of flame length with the increase of acoustic amplitude. 30 refs., 15 figs., 3 tabs.

Combustion chemistry and flame structure of furan group biofuels using molecular-beam mass spectrometry and gas chromatography - Part II: 2-Methylfuran.

Science.gov (United States)

Tran, Luc-Sy; Togbé, Casimir; Liu, Dong; Felsmann, Daniel; Oßwald, Patrick; Glaude, Pierre-Alexandre; Fournet, René; Sirjean, Baptiste; Battin-Leclerc, Frédérique; Kohse-Höinghaus, Katharina

2014-03-01

This is Part II of a series of three papers which jointly address the combustion chemistry of furan and its alkylated derivatives 2-methylfuran (MF) and 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF) under premixed low-pressure flame conditions. Some of them are considered to be promising biofuels. With furan as a common basis studied in Part I of this series, the present paper addresses two laminar premixed low-pressure (20 and 40 mbar) flat argon-diluted (50%) flames of MF which were studied with electron-ionization molecular-beam mass spectrometry (EI-MBMS) and gas chromatography (GC) for equivalence ratios φ=1.0 and 1.7, identical conditions to those for the previously reported furan flames. Mole fractions of reactants, products as well as stable and reactive intermediates were measured as a function of the distance above the burner. Kinetic modeling was performed using a comprehensive reaction mechanism for all three fuels given in Part I and described in the three parts of this series. A comparison of the experimental results and the simulation shows reasonable agreement, as also seen for the furan flames in Part I before. This set of experiments is thus considered to be a valuable additional basis for the validation of the model. The main reaction pathways of MF consumption have been derived from reaction flow analyses, and differences to furan combustion chemistry under the same conditions are discussed.

Measurements of Positively Charged Ions in Premixed Methane-Oxygen Atmospheric Flames

KAUST Repository

Alquaity, Awad

2016-08-22

Cations and anions are formed as a result of chemi-ionization processes in combustion systems. Electric fields can be applied to reduce emissions and improve combustion efficiency by active control of the combustion process. Detailed flame ion chemistry models are needed to understand and predict the effect of external electric fields on combustion plasmas. In this work, a molecular beam mass spectrometer (MBMS) is utilized to measure ion concentration profiles in premixed methane–oxygen argon burner-stabilized atmospheric flames. Lean and stoichiometric flames are considered to assess the dependence of ion chemistry on flame stoichiometry. Relative ion concentration profiles are compared with numerical simulations using various temperature profiles, and good qualitative agreement was observed for the stoichiometric flame. However, for the lean flame, numerical simulations misrepresent the spatial distribution of selected ions greatly. Three modifications are suggested to enhance the ion mechanism and improve the agreement between experiments and simulations. The first two modifications comprise the addition of anion detachment reactions to increase anion recombination at low temperatures. The third modification involves restoring a detachment reaction to its original irreversible form. To our knowledge, this work presents the first detailed measurements of cations and flame temperature in canonical methane–oxygen-argon atmospheric flat flames. The positive ion profiles reported here may be useful to validate and improve ion chemistry models for methane-oxygen flames.

Stretch rate effects and flame surface densities in premixed turbulent combustion up to 1.25 MPa

KAUST Repository

Bagdanavicius, Audrius

2015-11-01

reaction progress variable to be expressed by the number of laminar flame thicknesses, and the flame volume to be found. © 2015 The Combustion Institute.

Stretch rate effects and flame surface densities in premixed turbulent combustion up to 1.25 MPa

KAUST Repository

Bagdanavicius, Audrius; Bowen, Phil J.; Bradley, Derek; Lawes, Malcolm; Mansour, Morkous S.

2015-01-01

reaction progress variable to be expressed by the number of laminar flame thicknesses, and the flame volume to be found. © 2015 The Combustion Institute.

Fire propagation over combustible exterior facades exposed to intensified flame in Japan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nishio Yuhei

2016-01-01

Full Text Available With regard to fire safety for exterior walls of a building, fire-resistance performance is considered, according to the current Building Standard Law of Japan. And it was revealed that the fire safety is not specifically regulated from the viewpoint of reaction-to-fire performance, such as fire propagation caused by combustible materials or products installed on the exterior side of fire-resistant load-bearing walls. Actual fire incidents in the world have shown that massive façade fire could occur at the exterior side of building wall even when the wall itself is fire resistant. In previous studies of the authors, a test method of façade fire was proposed for evaluating the vertical fire propagation over an external wall within the same building [1,2]. Based on these studies, new domestic standard test method was established in Japan as JIS A 1310: 2015, “Test method for fire propagation over building façades” at the end of January 2015 [3]. But there was the argument that heat output of burner inside the combustion chamber was not sufficiently high in the previous study. In this paper, results of fire tests on combustible façades are discussed from the viewpoints of different strength of flame exposing facade. In this research, it was clearly found that JIS A 1310 with heat output of 900kW could be applicable for evaluating fire propagation behaviour over various types of combustible exterior façades.

DIAGNOSIS OF FAILURE OF COMBUSTION IN THE COMBUSTION CHAMBER WITH A THERMOVISION EQUIPMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. V. Vorobiev

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The use of thermovision technology to diagnose failure of the combustion flame test tube of the main combustion chamber gas turbine engine is deal with in the article. Join the thermal radiation of the jet of combustion products and the internal elements was carried out using short-wave thermovision system AGA-782 with spectral spectral filters in several ranges from 3.2 to 5.6 microns. Thermovision is mounted on the axis of the flame tube. The output signal was recorded and processed on a computer in real time, allowing monitor the combustion process and the thermal state of the object during the experiment.

Effect of W/O Emulsion Fuel Properties on Spray Combustion

Science.gov (United States)

Ida, Tamio; Fuchihata, Manabu; Takeda, Shuuco

This study proposes a realizable technology for an emulsion combustion method that can reduce environmental loading. This paper discusses the effect on spray combustion for W/O emulsion fuel properties with an added agent, and the ratio between water and emulsifier added to a liquid fuel. The addition of water or emulsifier to a liquid fuel affected the spray combustion by causing micro-explosions in the flame due to geometric changes in the sprayed flame and changes to the temperature distribution. Experimental results revealed that the flame length shortened by almost 40% upon the addition of the water. Furthermore, it was found that water was effective in enhancing combustion due to its promoting micro-explosions. Results also showed that when the emulsifier was added to the spray flame, the additive burned in the flame's wake, producing a bright red flame. The flame length was observed to be long as a result. The micro-explosion phenomenon, caused by emulsifier dosage differences, was observed using time-dependent images at a generated frequency and an explosion scale with a high-speed photography method. Results indicated that the micro-explosion phenomenon in the W/O emulsion combustion method effectively promoted the combustion reaction and suppressed soot formation.

Extinction of laminar partially premixed flames

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Aggarwal, Suresh K. [Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, 842 W. Taylor Street, Room 2039, MC-251, Chicago, IL 60607-7022 (United States)

2009-12-15

Flame extinction represents one of the classical phenomena in combustion science. It is important to a variety of combustion systems in transportation and power generation applications. Flame extinguishment studies are also motivated from the consideration of fire safety and suppression. Such studies have generally considered non-premixed and premixed flames, although fires can often originate in a partially premixed mode, i.e., fuel and oxidizer are partially premixed as they are transported to the reaction zone. Several recent investigations have considered this scenario and focused on the extinction of partially premixed flames (PPFs). Such flames have been described as hybrid flames possessing characteristics of both premixed and non-premixed flames. This paper provides a review of studies dealing with the extinction of PPFs, which represent a broad family of flames, including double, triple (tribrachial), and edge flames. Theoretical, numerical and experimental studies dealing with the extinction of such flames in coflow and counterflow configurations are discussed. Since these flames contain both premixed and non-premixed burning zones, a brief review of the dilution-induced extinction of premixed and non-premixed flames is also provided. For the coflow configuration, processes associated with flame liftoff and blowout are described. Since lifted non-premixed jet flames often contain a partially premixed or an edge-flame structure prior to blowout, the review also considers such flames. While the perspective of this review is broad focusing on the fundamental aspects of flame extinction and blowout, results mostly consider flame extinction caused by the addition of a flame suppressant, with relevance to fire suppression on earth and in space environment. With respect to the latter, the effect of gravity on the extinction of PPFs is discussed. Future research needs are identified. (author)

Structure of diffusion flames from a vertical burner

Science.gov (United States)

Mark A. Finney; Dan Jimenez; Jack D. Cohen; Isaac C. Grenfell; Cyle Wold

2010-01-01

Non-steady and turbulent flames are commonly observed to produce flame contacts with adjacent fuels during fire spread in a wide range of fuel bed depths. A stationary gas-fired burner (flame wall) was developed to begin study of flame edge variability along an analagous vertical fuel source. This flame wall is surrogate for a combustion interface at the edge of a deep...

On the Experimental and Theoretical Investigations of Lean Partially Premixed Combustion, Burning Speed, Flame Instability and Plasma Formation of Alternative Fuels at High Temperatures and Pressures

Science.gov (United States)

Askari, Omid

This dissertation investigates the combustion and injection fundamental characteristics of different alternative fuels both experimentally and theoretically. The subjects such as lean partially premixed combustion of methane/hydrogen/air/diluent, methane high pressure direct-injection, thermal plasma formation, thermodynamic properties of hydrocarbon/air mixtures at high temperatures, laminar flames and flame morphology of synthetic gas (syngas) and Gas-to-Liquid (GTL) fuels were extensively studied in this work. These subjects will be summarized in three following paragraphs. The fundamentals of spray and partially premixed combustion characteristics of directly injected methane in a constant volume combustion chamber have been experimentally studied. The injected fuel jet generates turbulence in the vessel and forms a turbulent heterogeneous fuel-air mixture in the vessel, similar to that in a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Direct-Injection (DI) engines. The effect of different characteristics parameters such as spark delay time, stratification ratio, turbulence intensity, fuel injection pressure, chamber pressure, chamber temperature, Exhaust Gas recirculation (EGR) addition, hydrogen addition and equivalence ratio on flame propagation and emission concentrations were analyzed. As a part of this work and for the purpose of control and calibration of high pressure injector, spray development and characteristics including spray tip penetration, spray cone angle and overall equivalence ratio were evaluated under a wide range of fuel injection pressures of 30 to 90 atm and different chamber pressures of 1 to 5 atm. Thermodynamic properties of hydrocarbon/air plasma mixtures at ultra-high temperatures must be precisely calculated due to important influence on the flame kernel formation and propagation in combusting flows and spark discharge applications. A new algorithm based on the statistical thermodynamics was developed to calculate the ultra-high temperature plasma

Soot Formation in Freely-Propagating Laminar Premixed Flames

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, K.-C.; Hassan, M. I.; Faeth, G. M.

1997-01-01

Soot formation within hydrocarbon-fueled flames is an important unresolved problem of combustion science. Thus, the present study is considering soot formation in freely-propagating laminar premixed flames, exploiting the microgravity environment to simplify measurements at the high-pressure conditions of interest for many practical applications. The findings of the investigation are relevant to reducing emissions of soot and continuum radiation from combustion processes, to improving terrestrial and spacecraft fire safety, and to developing methods of computational combustion, among others. Laminar premixed flames are attractive for studying soot formation because they are simple one-dimensional flows that are computationally tractable for detailed numerical simulations. Nevertheless, studying soot-containing burner-stabilized laminar premixed flames is problematical: spatial resolution and residence times are limited at the pressures of interest for practical applications, flame structure is sensitive to minor burner construction details so that experimental reproducibility is not very good, consistent burner behavior over the lengthy test programs needed to measure soot formation properties is hard to achieve, and burners have poor durability. Fortunately, many of these problems are mitigated for soot-containing, freely-propagating laminar premixed flames. The present investigation seeks to extend work in this laboratory for various soot processes in flames by observing soot formation in freely-propagating laminar premixed flames. Measurements are being made at both Normal Gravity (NG) and MicroGravity (MG), using a short-drop free-fall facility to provide MG conditions.

Investigation of flame structure in plasma-assisted turbulent premixed methane-air flame

Science.gov (United States)

Hualei, ZHANG; Liming, HE; Jinlu, YU; Wentao, QI; Gaocheng, CHEN

2018-02-01

The mechanism of plasma-assisted combustion at increasing discharge voltage is investigated in detail at two distinctive system schemes (pretreatment of reactants and direct in situ discharge). OH-planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) technique is used to diagnose the turbulent structure methane-air flame, and the experimental apparatus consists of dump burner, plasma-generating system, gas supply system and OH-PLIF system. Results have shown that the effect of pretreatment of reactants on flame can be categorized into three regimes: regime I for voltage lower than 6.6 kV; regime II for voltage between 6.6 and 11.1 kV; and regime III for voltage between 11.1 and 12.5 kV. In regime I, aerodynamic effect and slower oxidation of higher hydrocarbons generated around the inner electrode tip plays a dominate role, while in regime III, the temperature rising effect will probably superimpose on the chemical effect and amplify it. For wire-cylinder dielectric barrier discharge reactor with spatially uneven electric field, the amount of radicals and hydrocarbons are decreased monotonically in radial direction which affects the flame shape. With regard to in situ plasma discharge in flames, the discharge pattern changes from streamer type to glow type. Compared with the case of reactants pretreatment, the flame propagates further in the upstream direction. In the discharge region, the OH intensity is highest for in situ plasma assisted combustion, indicating that the plasma energy is coupled into flame reaction zone.

Aerosol characterization in smoke plumes from a wetlands fire

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Woods, D.C.; Cofer, W.R. III; Levine, J.S.; Chuan, R.L.

1991-01-01

In this chapter, the authors present results from airborne measurements of aerosol mass loading, size distribution, and elemental composition obtained in a smoke plume from the burning of vegetation at a Florida wildlife refuge. These are important parameters in assessing the impact of biomass burning on the atmosphere. The results show that there was a high concentration of carbon-containing aerosols and salt crystals in the 0.1 μm to 0.2 μm size range, giving rise to a relatively strong fine particle size mode, during the hot flaming phase of the burning, compared to that during the smoldering phase, when a higher concentration of coarse particles were produced. They also found that the composition and morphology of the aerosols differed with size. They used the aerosol mass concentration along with CO 2 concentrations to calculate ratios or aerosol and CO 2 , which we found to be higher for the smoldering phase than for the flaming phase of combustion

Simultaneous reconstruction of 3D refractive index, temperature, and intensity distribution of combustion flame by double computed tomography technologies based on spatial phase-shifting method

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Zhenyan; Song, Yang; Yuan, Qun; Wulan, Tuya; Chen, Lei

2017-06-01

In this paper, a transient multi-parameter three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction method is proposed to diagnose and visualize a combustion flow field. Emission and transmission tomography based on spatial phase-shifted technology are combined to reconstruct, simultaneously, the various physical parameter distributions of a propane flame. Two cameras triggered by the internal trigger mode capture the projection information of the emission and moiré tomography, respectively. A two-step spatial phase-shifting method is applied to extract the phase distribution in the moiré fringes. By using the filtered back-projection algorithm, we reconstruct the 3D refractive-index distribution of the combustion flow field. Finally, the 3D temperature distribution of the flame is obtained from the refractive index distribution using the Gladstone-Dale equation. Meanwhile, the 3D intensity distribution is reconstructed based on the radiation projections from the emission tomography. Therefore, the structure and edge information of the propane flame are well visualized.

Thermo-acoustic instabilities in lean premixed swirl-stabilized combustion and their link to acoustically coupled and decoupled flame macrostructures

KAUST Repository

Taamallah, Soufien

2015-01-01

© 2014 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. We investigate the onset of thermo-acoustic instabilities and their link to the mean flame configurations - or macrostructures - under acoustically coupled and decoupled conditions. Methane-hydrogen mixtures are used to explore the role of the fuel in changing the flame macrostructure, as determined by chemilumi-nescence, as the equivalence ratio (φ) varies. We observe four different configurations: a columnar flame (I); a bubble-columnar flame (II); a single conical flame (III); and a double conical flame (IV). We also observe different thermo-acoustic modes in the lean regime investigated, φ ∈ [0.5-0.75], that correspond to different flame configurations. By changing the combustor length without affecting the underlying flow, the resonant modes of the combustor are shifted to higher frequencies allowing for the decoupling of heat release fluctuations and the acoustic field over a range of equivalence ratio. We find that the same flame macrostructures observed in the long, acoustically coupled combustor arise in the short, acoustically decoupled combustor and transition at similar equivalence ratios in both combustors. The onset of the first fully unstable mode in the long combustor occurs at similar equivalence ratio as the flame transition from configuration III to IV. In the acoustically decoupled case, this transition occurs gradually starting with the intermittent appearance of a flame in the outer recirculation zone (ORZ). Spectral analysis of this phenomenon, referred to as "ORZ flame flickering" shows the existence of an unsteady event occurring over a narrow frequency band centered around 28 Hz along with a weaker broadband region at lower frequency in the range [1-10] Hz. The tone at 28 Hz is shown to be associated with the azimuthal advection of the flame by the outer recirculation zone flow. Changes in the fuel composition, by adding hydrogen (up to 20%), do not

The Effect of Hydrogen Addition on the Combustion Characteristics of RP-3 Kerosene/Air Premixed Flames

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wen Zeng

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Experimental studies have been performed to investigate the effects of hydrogen addition on the combustion characteristics of Chinese No.3 jet fuel (RP-3 kerosene/air premixed flames. Experiments were carried out in a constant volume chamber and the influences of the initial temperatures of 390 and 420 K, initial pressures of 0.1 and 0.3 MPa, equivalence ratios of 0.6–1.6 and hydrogen additions of 0.0–0.5 on the laminar burning velocities, and Markstein numbers of Hydrogen (H2/RP-3/air mixtures were investigated. The results show that the flame front surfaces of RP-3/air mixtures remain smooth throughout the entire flame propagation process at a temperature of 390 K, pressure of 0.3 MPa, equivalence ratio of 1.3 and without hydrogen addition, but when the hydrogen addition increases from 0.0 to 0.5 under the same conditions, flaws and protuberances occur at the flame surfaces. It was also found that with the increase of the equivalence ratio from 0.9 to 1.5, the laminar burning velocities of the mixtures increase at first and then decrease, and the highest laminar burning velocity was measured at an equivalence ratio of 1.2. Meanwhile, with the increase of hydrogen addition, laminar burning velocities of H2/RP-3/air mixtures increase. However, the Markstein numbers of H2/RP-3/air mixtures decrease with the increase of hydrogen addition, which means that the flames of H2/RP-3/air mixtures become unstable with the increase of hydrogen addition.

Structural aspects of coaxial oxy-fuel flames

Science.gov (United States)

Ditaranto, M.; Sautet, J. C.; Samaniego, J. M.

Oxy-fuel combustion has been proven to increase thermal efficiency and to have a potential for NOx emission reduction. The study of 25-kW turbulent diffusion flames of natural gas with pure oxygen is undertaken on a coaxial burner with quarl. The structural properties are analysed by imaging the instantaneous reaction zone by OH* chemiluminescence and measuring scalar and velocity profiles. The interaction between the flame front and the shear layers present in the coaxial jets depends on the momentum ratio which dictates the turbulent structure development. Flame length and NOx emission sensitivity to air leaks in the combustion chamber are also investigated.

Synthesis of Nano-Particles in Flames

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Johannessen, Tue

flame burner and a premixed burner with a precursor jet. The experimental setups and results are shown and discussed in detail. Alumina powder with specific surface area between 45 m2/g and 190 m2/g was obtained.Temperature and flow fields of the flame processes are analysed by numerical simulations...... energy expression.Furthermore, the model is validated by comparison with experimental data of the flame synthesis of titania by combustion of TiCl4 previously presented by Pratsinis et al. (1996).The combination of particle dynamics and CFD simulations has proved to be an efficient method......The scope of this work is to investigate the synthesis of aluminum oxide particles in flames from the combustion of an aluminum alkoxide precursor.A general introduction to particles formation in the gas phase is presented with emphasis on the mechanisms that control the particle morphology after...

Combustion in microgravity: The French contribution

Science.gov (United States)

Prud'homme, Roger; Legros, Guillaume; Torero, José L.

2017-01-01

Microgravity (drop towers, parabolic flights, sounding rockets and space stations) are particularly relevant to combustion problems given that they show high-density gradients and in many cases weak forced convection. For some configurations where buoyancy forces result in complex flow fields, microgravity leads to ideal conditions that correspond closely to canonical problems, e.g., combustion of a spherical droplet in a far-field still atmosphere, Emmons' problem for flame spreading over a solid flat plate, deflagration waves, etc. A comprehensive chronological review on the many combustion studies in microgravity was written first by Law and Faeth (1994) and then by F.A. Williams (1995). Later on, new recommendations for research directions have been delivered. In France, research has been managed and supported by CNES and CNRS since the creation of the microgravity research group in 1992. At this time, microgravity research and future activities contemplated the following: Droplets: the "D2 law" has been well verified and high-pressure behavior of droplet combustion has been assessed. The studies must be extended in two main directions: vaporization in mixtures near the critical line and collective effects in dense sprays. Flame spread: experiments observed blue flames governed by diffusion that are in accordance with Emmons' theory. Convection-dominated flames showed significant departures from the theory. Some theoretical assumptions appeared controversial and it was noted that radiation effects must be considered, especially when regarding the role of soot production in quenching. Heterogeneous flames: two studies are in progress, one in Poitiers and the other in Marseilles, about flame/suspension interactions. Premixed and triple flames: the knowledge still needs to be complemented. Triple flames must continue to be studied and understanding of "flame balls" still needs to be addressed.

Flame acceleration in the early stages of burning in tubes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bychkov, Vitaly; Fru, Gordon; Petchenko, Arkady [Institute of Physics, Umeaa University, S-901 87 Umeaa (Sweden); Akkerman, V' yacheslav [Institute of Physics, Umeaa University, S-901 87 Umeaa (Sweden); Nuclear Safety Institute (IBRAE) of Russian Academy of Sciences, B. Tulskaya 52, 115191 Moscow (Russian Federation); Eriksson, Lars-Erik [Department of Applied Mechanics, Chalmers University of Technology, 412 96 Goeteborg (Sweden)

2007-09-15

Acceleration of premixed laminar flames in the early stages of burning in long tubes is considered. The acceleration mechanism was suggested earlier by Clanet and Searby [Combust. Flame 105 (1996) 225]. Acceleration happens due to the initial ignition geometry at the tube axis when a flame develops to a finger-shaped front, with surface area growing exponentially in time. Flame surface area grows quite fast but only for a short time. The analytical theory of flame acceleration is developed, which determines the growth rate, the total acceleration time, and the maximal increase of the flame surface area. Direct numerical simulations of the process are performed for the complete set of combustion equations. The simulations results and the theory are in good agreement with the previous experiments. The numerical simulations also demonstrate flame deceleration, which follows acceleration, and the so-called ''tulip flames''. (author)

Understanding Combustion Processes Through Microgravity Research

Science.gov (United States)

Ronney, Paul D.

1998-01-01

A review of research on the effects of gravity on combustion processes is presented, with an emphasis on a discussion of the ways in which reduced-gravity experiments and modeling has led to new understanding. Comparison of time scales shows that the removal of buoyancy-induced convection leads to manifestations of other transport mechanisms, notably radiative heat transfer and diffusional processes such as Lewis number effects. Examples from premixed-gas combustion, non-premixed gas-jet flames, droplet combustion, flame spread over solid and liquid fuels, and other fields are presented. Promising directions for new research are outlined, the most important of which is suggested to be radiative reabsorption effects in weakly burning flames.

Combustion and Ignition Studies of Nanocomposite Energetic Materials

Science.gov (United States)

2010-12-14

Characterization of a gas burner to simulate a propellant flame and evaluate aluminum particle combustion,” M. Jackson, M. L. Pantoya and W. Gill, Combustion...of a gas burner to simulate a propellant flame and evaluate aluminum particle combustion,” M. Jackson, M. L. Pantoya and W. Gill, Combustion and...changes in parameters such as particle size. The LFA measures these properties for bulk powders, consolidated pellets or even liquid mediums and is

Acoustic Signature from Flames as a Combustion Diagnostic Tool

Science.gov (United States)

1983-11-01

empirical visual flame length had to be input to the computer for the inversion method to give good results. That is, if the experiment cnd inversion...method were asked to yield the flame length , poor results were obtained. Since this wa3 part of the information sought for practical application of the...to small experimental uncertainty. The method gave reasonably good results for the open flame but substantial input (the flame length ) had to be

Laminar flame properties and flame acceleration prediction of hydrogen-methane mixtures

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Coudoro, K. [Inst. de Combustion, Aerothermique, Reactivite et Environnement CNRS Orleans (France); Inst. de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire, DSR/SAGR, Fontenay-aux-Roses (France); Chaumeix, N. [Inst. de Combustion, Aerothermique, Reactivite et Environnement CNRS Orleans (France); Bentaib, A. [Inst. de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire, DSR/SAGR, Fontenay-aux-Roses (France); Paillard, C-E. [Inst. de Combustion, Aerothermique, Reactivite et Environnement CNRS Orleans (France)

2011-07-01

The combustion of a binary mixture of methane and hydrogen has been studied using 2 different experimental setups: the spherical bomb to investigate the fundamental flame properties of this mixture with air, initially at 100 kPa, at different initial temperatures (300 - 363 K) and for a wide range of equivalence ratios (0.8 - 1.4); ENACCEF to investigate the flame acceleration phenomena in smooth tube for mixtures initially at ambient conditions and for equivalence ratios ranging between 0.57 and 0.84. A detailed kinetic mechanism has been used to derive the activation energies needed for the flame acceleration analysis. (author)

Time varying voltage combustion control and diagnostics sensor

Science.gov (United States)

Chorpening, Benjamin T [Morgantown, WV; Thornton, Jimmy D [Morgantown, WV; Huckaby, E David [Morgantown, WV; Fincham, William [Fairmont, WV

2011-04-19

A time-varying voltage is applied to an electrode, or a pair of electrodes, of a sensor installed in a fuel nozzle disposed adjacent the combustion zone of a continuous combustion system, such as of the gas turbine engine type. The time-varying voltage induces a time-varying current in the flame which is measured and used to determine flame capacitance using AC electrical circuit analysis. Flame capacitance is used to accurately determine the position of the flame from the sensor and the fuel/air ratio. The fuel and/or air flow rate (s) is/are then adjusted to provide reduced flame instability problems such as flashback, combustion dynamics and lean blowout, as well as reduced emissions. The time-varying voltage may be an alternating voltage and the time-varying current may be an alternating current.

Shale oil combustion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Al-dabbas, M.A.

1992-05-01

A 'coutant' carbon steel combustion chamber cooled by water jacket was conslructed to burn diesel fuel and mixlure of shale oil and diesel fuels. During experimental work nir fuel ratio was determined, temperaturces were measured using Chromel/ Almel thermocouple, finally the gasous combustion product analysis was carricd out using gas chromatograph technique. The constructed combustion chamber was operating salisfactory for several hours of continous work. According to the measurements it was found that: the flame temperature of a mixture of diesel and shale oil fuels was greater than the flame temperature of diesel fuel. and the sulfer emissious of a mixture of diesel and shale oil fuels was higher than that of diesel fuel. Calculation indicated that the dry gas energy loss was very high and the incomplete combustion energy loss very small. (author). 23 refs., 35 figs

Shale oil combustion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Al-dabbas, M A

1992-05-01

A `coutant` carbon steel combustion chamber cooled by water jacket was conslructed to burn diesel fuel and mixlure of shale oil and diesel fuels. During experimental work nir fuel ratio was determined, temperaturces were measured using Chromel/ Almel thermocouple, finally the gasous combustion product analysis was carricd out using gas chromatograph technique. The constructed combustion chamber was operating salisfactory for several hours of continous work. According to the measurements it was found that: the flame temperature of a mixture of diesel and shale oil fuels was greater than the flame temperature of diesel fuel. and the sulfer emissious of a mixture of diesel and shale oil fuels was higher than that of diesel fuel. Calculation indicated that the dry gas energy loss was very high and the incomplete combustion energy loss very small. (author). 23 refs., 35 figs.

A comparison of chemical structures of soot precursor nanoparticles from liquid fuel combustion in flames and engine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Paul, Bireswar; Datta, Amitava; Datta, Aparna; Saha, Abhijit

2013-01-01

A comparative study of the chemical structures of soot precursor nanoparticles from the liquid fuel flame and engine exhaust has been performed in this work to establish an association between the particles from both the sources. Different ex-situ measurement techniques have been used to characterize the nanoparticles in samples collected from the laboratory petrol/air and iso-octane/air flames, as well as from a gasoline engine. The TEM images of the sampled material along with the EDS spectra corroborate the existence of carbonaceous nanoparticles. The nature of the UV absorption and fluorescence spectra of the samples from the iso-octane flame environment further confirms the sampled materials to be soot precursor nanoparticles. The DLS size distribution of the particles shows them to be below 10 nm size. FTIR spectrum of the precursor nanoparticles collected form the non-sooting zone of the flame and that of fully grown soot particles show few similarities and dissimilarities among them. The soot particles are found to be much more aromatized as compared to its precursor nanoparticles. The presence of carbonyl functional group (C=O) at around 1,720 cm −1 has been observed in soot precursor nanoparticles, while such oxygenated functional groups are not prominent in soot structure. The absorption (UV and IR) and fluorescence spectra of the carbonaceous material collected from the gasoline engine exhaust show many resemblances with those of soot precursor nanoparticles from flames. These spectroscopic resemblances of the soot precursor nanoparticles from the flame environment and engine exhaust gives the evidence that the in-cylinder combustion is the source of these particles in the engine exhaust.

Combustion chemistry and flame structure of furan group biofuels using molecular-beam mass spectrometry and gas chromatography – Part II: 2-Methylfuran

Science.gov (United States)

Tran, Luc-Sy; Togbé, Casimir; Liu, Dong; Felsmann, Daniel; Oßwald, Patrick; Glaude, Pierre-Alexandre; Fournet, René; Sirjean, Baptiste; Battin-Leclerc, Frédérique; Kohse-Höinghaus, Katharina

2013-01-01

This is Part II of a series of three papers which jointly address the combustion chemistry of furan and its alkylated derivatives 2-methylfuran (MF) and 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF) under premixed low-pressure flame conditions. Some of them are considered to be promising biofuels. With furan as a common basis studied in Part I of this series, the present paper addresses two laminar premixed low-pressure (20 and 40 mbar) flat argon-diluted (50%) flames of MF which were studied with electron-ionization molecular-beam mass spectrometry (EI-MBMS) and gas chromatography (GC) for equivalence ratios φ=1.0 and 1.7, identical conditions to those for the previously reported furan flames. Mole fractions of reactants, products as well as stable and reactive intermediates were measured as a function of the distance above the burner. Kinetic modeling was performed using a comprehensive reaction mechanism for all three fuels given in Part I and described in the three parts of this series. A comparison of the experimental results and the simulation shows reasonable agreement, as also seen for the furan flames in Part I before. This set of experiments is thus considered to be a valuable additional basis for the validation of the model. The main reaction pathways of MF consumption have been derived from reaction flow analyses, and differences to furan combustion chemistry under the same conditions are discussed. PMID:24518895

Ducted combustion chamber for direct injection engines and method

Science.gov (United States)

Mueller, Charles

2015-03-03

An internal combustion engine includes an engine block having a cylinder bore and a cylinder head having a flame deck surface disposed at one end of the cylinder bore. A piston connected to a rotatable crankshaft and configured to reciprocate within the cylinder bore has a piston crown portion facing the flame deck surface such that a combustion chamber is defined within the cylinder bore and between the piston crown and the flame deck surface. A fuel injector having a nozzle tip disposed in fluid communication with the combustion chamber has at least one nozzle opening configured to inject a fuel jet into the combustion chamber along a fuel jet centerline. At least one duct defined in the combustion chamber between the piston crown and the flame deck surface has a generally rectangular cross section and extends in a radial direction relative to the cylinder bore substantially along the fuel jet centerline.

Flame dynamics in a micro-channeled combustor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hussain, Taaha; Balachandran, Ramanarayanan; Markides, Christos N.

2015-01-01

The increasing use of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) has generated a significant interest in combustion-based power generation technologies, as a replacement of traditional electrochemical batteries which are plagued by low energy densities, short operational lives and low power-to-size and power-to-weight ratios. Moreover, the versatility of integrated combustion-based systems provides added scope for combined heat and power generation. This paper describes a study into the dynamics of premixed flames in a micro-channeled combustor. The details of the design and the geometry of the combustor are presented in the work by Kariuki and Balachandran [1]. This work showed that there were different modes of operation (periodic, a-periodic and stable), and that in the periodic mode the flame accelerated towards the injection manifold after entering the channels. The current study investigates these flames further. We will show that the flame enters the channel and propagates towards the injection manifold as a planar flame for a short distance, after which the flame shape and propagation is found to be chaotic in the middle section of the channel. Finally, the flame quenches when it reaches the injector slots. The glow plug position in the exhaust side ignites another flame, and the process repeats. It is found that an increase in air flow rate results in a considerable increase in the length (and associated time) over which the planar flame travels once it has entered a micro-channel, and a significant decrease in the time between its conversion into a chaotic flame and its extinction. It is well known from the literature that inside small channels the flame propagation is strongly influenced by the flow conditions and thermal management. An increase of the combustor block temperature at high flow rates has little effect on the flame lengths and times, whereas at low flow rates the time over which the planar flame front can be observed decreases and the time of

Flame dynamics in a micro-channeled combustor

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hussain, Taaha; Balachandran, Ramanarayanan, E-mail: r.balachandran@ucl.ac.uk [Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College London, London (United Kingdom); Markides, Christos N. [Clean Energy Processes Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, London (United Kingdom)

2015-01-22

The increasing use of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) has generated a significant interest in combustion-based power generation technologies, as a replacement of traditional electrochemical batteries which are plagued by low energy densities, short operational lives and low power-to-size and power-to-weight ratios. Moreover, the versatility of integrated combustion-based systems provides added scope for combined heat and power generation. This paper describes a study into the dynamics of premixed flames in a micro-channeled combustor. The details of the design and the geometry of the combustor are presented in the work by Kariuki and Balachandran [1]. This work showed that there were different modes of operation (periodic, a-periodic and stable), and that in the periodic mode the flame accelerated towards the injection manifold after entering the channels. The current study investigates these flames further. We will show that the flame enters the channel and propagates towards the injection manifold as a planar flame for a short distance, after which the flame shape and propagation is found to be chaotic in the middle section of the channel. Finally, the flame quenches when it reaches the injector slots. The glow plug position in the exhaust side ignites another flame, and the process repeats. It is found that an increase in air flow rate results in a considerable increase in the length (and associated time) over which the planar flame travels once it has entered a micro-channel, and a significant decrease in the time between its conversion into a chaotic flame and its extinction. It is well known from the literature that inside small channels the flame propagation is strongly influenced by the flow conditions and thermal management. An increase of the combustor block temperature at high flow rates has little effect on the flame lengths and times, whereas at low flow rates the time over which the planar flame front can be observed decreases and the time of

Analysis of flame shapes in turbulent hydrogen jet flames with coaxial air

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moon, Hee Jang

2009-01-01

This paper addresses the characteristics of flame shapes and flame length in three types of coaxial air flames realizable by varying coaxial air and/or fuel velocity. Forcing coaxial air into turbulent jet flames induces substantial changes in flame shapes and NOx emissions through the complex flow interferences that exist within the mixing region. Mixing enhancement driven by coaxial air results in flame volume decrease, and such a diminished flame volume finally reduces NOx emissions significantly by decreasing NOx formation zone where a fuel/air mixture burns. It is found that mixing in the vicinity of high temperature zone mainly results from the increase of diffusive flux than the convective flux, and that the increase of mass diffusion is amplified as coaxial air is increased. Besides, it is reaffirmed that nonequilibrium chemistry including HO 2 /H 2 O 2 should be taken into account for NOx prediction and scaling analysis by comparing turbulent combustion models. In addition, it is found that coaxial air can break down the self-similarity law of flames by changing mixing mechanism, and that EINOx scaling parameters based on the self-similarity law of simple jet flames may not be eligible in coaxial air flames

Flow Field Measurements of Methane-Oxygen Turbulent Nonpremixed Flames at High Pressure

Science.gov (United States)

Iino, Kimio; Kikkawa, Hoshitaka; Akamatsu, Fumiteru; Katsuki, Masashi

We carried out the flow field measurement of methane-oxygen turbulent nonpremixed flame in non-combusting and combusting situations at high pressures using LDV. The main objectives are to study the influences of combustion on the turbulence structure at high pressures and to provide detailed data on which numerical predictions on such flows can rely. Direct observation and CH* chemiluminescence detection are conducted at high pressures up to 1.0MPa. It was found that the flame length at elevated pressures became constant. From flow field measurements, the following features of flames at elevated pressure were found: (1) the existence of flame suppressed turbulence in the upstream region of the jet and enhanced it in the downstream region with increasing pressure; (2) Turbulence in the flame was more anisotropic than in the corresponding cold jet in all regions of the flow with increasing pressure; (3) Reynolds shear stresses did not change at elevated pressure; (4) Combustion processes had a marked influence on the turbulence macroscale under high pressures, however, the turbulence macroscale was not changed even with the increase in pressure.

A laminar flame investigation of 2-butanone, and the combustion-related intermediates formed through its oxidation

KAUST Repository

Hemken, Christian

2016-06-28

2-Butanone (methyl ethyl ketone) is a high-octane next-generation biofuel candidate synthesized through microbiological pathways from biomass. The flame structure and species formed in 2-butanone combustion are of interest when further considering this compound for use as a fuel. Thus species profiles within a fuel-rich laminar premixed flat flame of 2-butanone were measured. Two experiments which used different facilities and measurement techniques were combined i.e. the first using electron ionization molecular-beam mass spectrometry (MBMS) and the second relied on synchrotron-generated vacuum UV photoionization MBMS. Very good agreement between both measurements was obtained. The experiments identified the formation of a number of toxic oxygenated intermediates such as methyl vinyl ketone (MVK) acetaldehyde and formaldehyde. 2- Butanone showed the lowest overall concentrations for species that could contribute to potentially hazardous volatile emissions underlining its attraction as a fuel also from this perspective.

A laminar flame investigation of 2-butanone, and the combustion-related intermediates formed through its oxidation

KAUST Repository

Hemken, Christian; Burke, Ultan; Graf, Isabelle; Ruwe, Lena; Park, Sungwoo; Sarathy, Mani; Heufer, K. Alexander; Kohse-Hö inghaus, Katharina

2016-01-01

2-Butanone (methyl ethyl ketone) is a high-octane next-generation biofuel candidate synthesized through microbiological pathways from biomass. The flame structure and species formed in 2-butanone combustion are of interest when further considering this compound for use as a fuel. Thus species profiles within a fuel-rich laminar premixed flat flame of 2-butanone were measured. Two experiments which used different facilities and measurement techniques were combined i.e. the first using electron ionization molecular-beam mass spectrometry (MBMS) and the second relied on synchrotron-generated vacuum UV photoionization MBMS. Very good agreement between both measurements was obtained. The experiments identified the formation of a number of toxic oxygenated intermediates such as methyl vinyl ketone (MVK) acetaldehyde and formaldehyde. 2- Butanone showed the lowest overall concentrations for species that could contribute to potentially hazardous volatile emissions underlining its attraction as a fuel also from this perspective.

Gravitational Influences on Flame Propagation through Non-Uniform, Premixed Gas Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Fletcher J.; Easton, John; Ross, Howard D.; Marchese, Anthony; Perry, David; Kulis, Michael

2001-01-01

Flame propagation through non-uniformly premixed (or layered) gases has importance both in useful combustion systems and in unintentional fires. As summarized previously, non-uniform premixed gas combustion receives scant attention compared to the more usual limiting cases of diffusion or uniformly premixed flames, especially regarding the role gravity plays. This paper summarizes our progress on furthering the knowledge of layered combustion, in which a fuel concentration gradient exists normal to the direction of flame spread. We present experimental and numerical results for flame spread through propanol-air layers formed near the flash point temperature (25 C) or near the stoichiometric temperature (33 C). Both the model and experimental results show that the removal of gravity results in a faster spreading flame, by as much as 80% depending on conditions. This is exactly the opposite effect as that predicted by an earlier model reported. We also found that having a gallery lid results in faster flame spread, an effect more pronounced at normal gravity, demonstrating the importance of enclosure geometry. Also reported here is the beginning of our spectroscopic measurements of fuel vapor.

Dynamics of bluff-body-stabilized premixed hydrogen/air flames in a narrow channel

KAUST Repository

Lee, Bok Jik

2015-06-01

Two-dimensional direct numerical simulations were conducted for bluff-body stabilized flames of a lean hydrogen/air mixture at near-blowoff conditions in a meso-scale channel. Parametric simulations were conducted by incrementally varying the inflow velocity in the vicinity of the blowoff limit, and the corresponding flame response was monitored. The present study is a showcase of combustion DNS with embedded boundary representation, and full demonstration of the detailed visualization of the near-blowoff flame characteristics. As the inflow velocity approaches blowoff limit, the flame dynamics exhibit a complex sequence of events, such as periodic local extinction and recovery, and regrowth of the bulk flame by the flame segments attached behind the bluff-body. The total extinction is observed as the attached flames shrink down and are no longer able to regrow the bulk flames. Despite the disparity in the physical scale under study, the observed sequence of the extinction pathway shows a strong similarity with experimental observations at larger scale combustion systems. © 2015 The Combustion Institute.

Experimental investigation of combustion instabilities in lean swirl-stabilized partially-premixed flames in single- and multiple-burner setup

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christian Kraus

2016-03-01

Full Text Available In the present work, combustion instabilities of a modular combustor are investigated. The combustor operates with partially premixed, swirl-stabilized flames and can be operated in single- and different multiple-burner setups. The design parameters of the combustor prevent large-scale flame–flame interactions in the multiple-burner arrangements. The objective is to investigate how the interaction of the swirl jets affects the thermoacoustic stability of the combustor. Results of measurements of pressure oscillations and high-speed OH*-chemiluminescence imaging for the single-burner setup and two multiple-burner setups are discussed. Additionally, results of investigations with different flame characteristics are presented. These are achieved by varying the ratio of the mass flow rates through the swirlers of the double-concentric swirl nozzle. Several unstable modes with high pressure amplitudes are observed in the single-burner setup as well as in the multiple-burner setups. Numerical studies of the acoustic behavior of the combustor setups were performed that indicate that the different geometries show similar acoustic behaviors. The results lead to the conclusion that the interaction of the swirl jets in the multiple-burner setups affects the thermoacoustic response spectrum of the flame even in the absence of large-scale flame–flame interactions. Based on the findings in earlier studies, it is concluded that the differences in the flame response characteristics are induced by the reduction of the swirl intensity in the multiple-burner arrangements, which is caused by the exchange of momentum between the adjacent swirl jets.

Hydrogen jet combustion in a scramjet combustor with the rearwall-expansion cavity

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Yan-Xiang; Wang, Zhen-Guo; Sun, Ming-Bo; Yang, Yi-Xin; Wang, Hong-Bo

2018-03-01

This study is carried out to experimentally investigate the combustion characteristics of the hydrogen jet flame stabilized by the rearwall-expansion cavity in a model scramjet combustor. The flame distributions are characterized by the OH* spontaneous emission images, and the dynamic features of the flames are studied through the high speed framing of the flame luminosity. The combustion modes are further analyzed based on the visual flame structure and wall pressure distributions. Under the present conditions, the combustion based on the rearwall-expansion cavity appears in two distinguished modes - the typical cavity shear-layer stabilized combustion mode and the lifted-shear-layer stabilized combustion mode. In contrast with the shear-layer stabilized mode, the latter holds stronger flame. The transition from shear-layer stabilized combustion mode to lifted-shear-layer stabilized mode usually occurs when the equivalence ratio is high enough. While the increases of the offset ratio and upstream injection distance both lead to weaker jet-cavity interactions, cause longer ignition delay, and thus delay the mode transition. The results reveal that the rearwall-expansion cavity with an appropriate offset ratio should be helpful in delaying mode transition and preventing thermal choke, and meanwhile just brings minor negative impact on the combustion stability and efficiency.

Plasma igniter for internal-combustion engines

Science.gov (United States)

Breshears, R. R.; Fitzgerald, D. J.

1978-01-01

Hot ionized gas (plasma) ignites air/fuel mixture in internal combustion engines more effectively than spark. Electromagnetic forces propel plasma into combustion zone. Combustion rate is not limited by flame-front speed.

Propagation of a premixed flame in a divided-chamber combustor

Science.gov (United States)

Cattolica, R. J.; Barr, P. K.; Mansour, N. N.

1989-01-01

Experimental observations on the propagation of lean premixed ethylene-air flames in a divided-chamber combustion vessel have been compared with the results of numerical simulations based on a flame sheet-vortex dynamics model in axisymmetric coordinates. Flame speeds were found to increase from 10-24 cm/s as the equivalence ratio was varied from 0.5-0.65 in the experiments. Using the associated increase in gas velocity with equivalence ratio, the estimated Reynolds number in the experiment was changed from 1870 to 8090. Good agreement between experimental and theoretical results was obtained for the prechamber flame propagation rates and for the spatial and temporal development of the flame in the main combustion chamber at the lowest Reynolds number.

Flame kernel generation and propagation in turbulent partially premixed hydrocarbon jet

KAUST Repository

Mansour, Mohy S.; Elbaz, Ayman M.; Zayed, M. F.

2014-01-01

Flame development, propagation, stability, combustion efficiency, pollution formation, and overall system efficiency are affected by the early stage of flame generation defined as flame kernel. Studying the effects of turbulence and chemistry

Transported PDF Modeling of Ethanol Spray in Hot-Diluted Coflow Flame

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ma, L.; Naud, B.; Roekaerts, D.J.E.M.

2015-01-01

This paper presents a numerical modeling study of one ethanol spray flame from the Delft Spray-in-Hot-Coflow (DSHC) database, which has been used to study Moderate or Intense Low-oxygen Dilution (MILD) combustion of liquid fuels (Correia Rodrigues et al. Combust. Flame 162(3), 759–773, 2015). A

Analysis of industrial flame characteristics and constancy study using image processing technique

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bibhuti Bhusan Samantaray

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The study of characterizing and featuring different kinds of flames has become more important than ever in order to increase combustion efficiency and decrease particulate emissions, especially since the study of industrial flames requires more attention. In the present work, different kinds of combustion flames have been characterized by means of digital image processing (DIP in a 500 kW PF pilot swirl burner. A natural gas flame and a set of pulverized fuel flames of coal and biomass have been comparatively analyzed under co-firing conditions. Through DIP, statistical and spectral features of the flame have been extracted and graphically represented as two-dimensional distributions covering the root flame area. Their study and comparison leads to different conclusions about the flame behavior and the effect of co-firing coal and biomass in pulverized fuel flames. Higher oscillation levels in co-firing flames versus coal flames and variations in radiation regimen were noticed when different biomasses are blended with coal and brought under attention.

Experimental study of biogas combustion using a gas turbine configuration

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lafay, Y.; Taupin, B.; Martins, G.; Cabot, G.; Renou, B.; Boukhalfa, A. [CNRS UMR 6614, Universite et INSA de ROUEN, Site universitaire du Madrillet, Saint Etienne du Rouvray (France)

2007-08-15

The aim of the present work is to compare stability combustion domains, flame structures and dynamics between CH{sub 4}/air flames and a biogas/air flames (issued from waste methanisation) in a lean gas turbine premixed combustion conditions. Velocity profiles are obtained by Laser Doppler Anemometry measurements. CH* chemiluminescence measurements and temporal acquisition of chamber pressure are performed in order to describe flame structure and instabilities. Changes in flame structure and dynamics when fuel composition is varying are found to strongly depend on laminar flame speed. No clear correlation between the unstable flame and the reaction zone penetration in the corner recirculation can be found. (orig.)

Gravity Effects Observed In Partially Premixed Flames

Science.gov (United States)

Puri, Ishwar K.; Aggarwal, Suresh K.; Lock, Andrew J.; Gauguly, Ranjan; Hegde, Uday

2003-01-01

Partially premixed flames (PPFs) contain a rich premixed fuel air mixture in a pocket or stream, and, for complete combustion to occur, they require the transport of oxidizer from an appropriately oxidizer-rich (or fuel-lean) mixture that is present in another pocket or stream. Partial oxidation reactions occur in fuel-rich portions of the mixture and any remaining unburned fuel and/or intermediate species are consumed in the oxidizer-rich portions. Partial premixing, therefore, represents that condition when the equivalence ratio (phi) in one portion of the flowfield is greater than unity, and in another section its value is less than unity. In general, for combustion to occur efficiently, the global equivalence ratio is in the range fuel-lean to stoichiometric. These flames can be established by design by placing a fuel-rich mixture in contact with a fuel-lean mixture, but they also occur otherwise in many practical systems, which include nonpremixed lifted flames, turbulent nonpremixed combustion, spray flames, and unwanted fires. Other practical applications of PPFs are reported elsewhere. Although extensive experimental studies have been conducted on premixed and nonpremixed flames under microgravity, there is a absence of previous experimental work on burner stabilized PPFs in this regard. Previous numerical studies by our group employing a detailed numerical model showed gravity effects to be significant on the PPF structure. We report on the results of microgravity experiments conducted on two-dimensional (established on a Wolfhard-Parker slot burner) and axisymmetric flames (on a coannular burner) that were investigated in a self-contained multipurpose rig. Thermocouple and radiometer data were also used to characterize the thermal transport in the flame.

Porosity effects in flame length of the porous burners

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fatemeh Bahadori

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Furnaces are the devices for providing heat to the industrial systems like boilers, gas turbines and etc. The main challenge of furnaces is emission of huge air pollutants. However, porous burners produce less contaminant compared to others. The quality of the combustion process in the porous burners depends on the length of flame in the porous medium. In this paper, the computational fluid dynamic (CFD is used to investigate the porosity effects on the flame length of the combustion process in porous burner. The simulation results demonstrate that increasing the porosity increases the flame length and the combustion zone extends forward. So, combustion quality increases and production of carbon monoxide decrease. It is possible to conclude that temperature distribution in low porosity burner is lower and more uniform than high porosity one. Therefore, by increasing the porosity of the burner, the production of nitrogen oxides increases. So, using an intermediate porosity in the burner appears to be reasonable.

Supplementary Material for: Measurements of Positively Charged Ions in Premixed Methane-Oxygen Atmospheric Flames

KAUST Repository

Alquaity, Awad B. S.

2017-01-01

Cations and anions are formed as a result of chemi-ionization processes in combustion systems. Electric fields can be applied to reduce emissions and improve combustion efficiency by active control of the combustion process. Detailed flame ion chemistry models are needed to understand and predict the effect of external electric fields on combustion plasmas. In this work, a molecular beam mass spectrometer (MBMS) is utilized to measure ion concentration profiles in premixed methane–oxygen argon burner-stabilized atmospheric flames. Lean and stoichiometric flames are considered to assess the dependence of ion chemistry on flame stoichiometry. Relative ion concentration profiles are compared with numerical simulations using various temperature profiles, and good qualitative agreement was observed for the stoichiometric flame. However, for the lean flame, numerical simulations misrepresent the spatial distribution of selected ions greatly. Three modifications are suggested to enhance the ion mechanism and improve the agreement between experiments and simulations. The first two modifications comprise the addition of anion detachment reactions to increase anion recombination at low temperatures. The third modification involves restoring a detachment reaction to its original irreversible form. To our knowledge, this work presents the first detailed measurements of cations and flame temperature in canonical methane–oxygen-argon atmospheric flat flames. The positive ion profiles reported here may be useful to validate and improve ion chemistry models for methane-oxygen flames.

Hydrodynamic model of hydrogen-flame propagation in reactor vessels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baer, M.R.; Ratzel, A.C.

1982-01-01

A hydrodynamic model for hydrogen flame propagation in reactor geometries is presented. This model is consistent with the theory of slow combustion in which the gasdynamic field equations are treated in the limit of small Mach numbers. To the lowest order, pressure is spatially uniform. The flame is treated as a density and entropy discontinuity which propagates at prescribed burning velocities, corresponding to laminar or turbulent flames. Radiation cooling of the burned combustion gases and possible preheating of the unburned gases during propagation of the flame is included using a molecular gas-band thermal radiation model. Application of this model has been developed for 1-D variable area flame propagation. Multidimensional effects induced by hydrodynamics and buoyancy are introduced as a correction to the burn velocity (which reflects a modification of planar flame surface to a distorted surface) using experimentally measured pressure-rise time data for hydrogen/air deflagrations in cylindrical vessels

Pole solutions for flame front propagation

CERN Document Server

Kupervasser, Oleg

2015-01-01

This book deals with solving mathematically the unsteady flame propagation equations. New original mathematical methods for solving complex non-linear equations and investigating their properties are presented. Pole solutions for flame front propagation are developed. Premixed flames and filtration combustion have remarkable properties: the complex nonlinear integro-differential equations for these problems have exact analytical solutions described by the motion of poles in a complex plane. Instead of complex equations, a finite set of ordinary differential equations is applied. These solutions help to investigate analytically and numerically properties of the flame front propagation equations.

Influence of the technique for injection of flue gas and the configuration of the swirl burner throat on combustion of gaseous fuel and formation of nitrogen oxides in the flame

Science.gov (United States)

Dvoinishnikov, V. A.; Khokhlov, D. A.; Knyaz'kov, V. P.; Ershov, A. Yu.

2017-05-01

How the points at which the flue gas was injected into the swirl burner and the design of the burner outlet influence the formation and development of the flame in the submerged space, as well as the formation of nitrogen oxides in the combustion products, have been studied. The object under numerical investigation is the flame of the GMVI combined (oil/gas) burner swirl burner fitted with a convergent, biconical, cylindrical, or divergent throat at the burner outlet with individual supply of the air and injection of the gaseous fuel through tubing. The burners of two designs were investigated; they differ by the absence or presence of an inlet for individual injection of the flue gas. A technique for numerical simulation of the flame based on the CFD methods widely used in research of this kind underlies the study. Based on the summarized results of the numerical simulation of the processes that occur in jet flows, the specific features of the aerodynamic pattern of the flame have been established. It is shown that the flame can be conventionally divided into several sections over its length in all investigations. The lengths of each of the sections, as well as the form of the fields of axial velocity, temperatures, concentrations of the fuel, oxygen, and carbon and nitrogen oxides, are different and determined by the design features of the burner, the flow rates of the agent, and the compositions of the latter in the burner ducts as well as the configuration of the burner throat and the temperature of the environment. To what degree the burner throat configuration and the techniques for injection of the flue gas at different ambient temperatures influence the formation of nitrogen oxides has been established. It is shown that the supply of the recirculation of flue gas into the fuel injection zone enables a considerable reduction in the formation of nitrogen oxides in the flame combustion products. It has been established that the locations of the zones of

Experimental Investigation of Turbulent Flames in Hypersonic Flows

Science.gov (United States)

2015-09-01

the flow direction and (b) typical flame length scales seen in the OH-PLIF image with Mach 4.5 freestream (high turbulence) at P0 = 0.65 bar, T0...flame structures (3 mm) are observed at the upstream location of area 1 where the combustion localization first appears. The typical flame length scale

Experimental, theoretical, and numerical studies of small scale combustion

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Bo

Recently, the demand increased for the development of microdevices such as microsatellites, microaerial vehicles, micro reactors, and micro power generators. To meet those demands the biggest challenge is obtaining stable and complete combustion at relatively small scale. To gain a fundamental understanding of small scale combustion in this thesis, thermal and kinetic coupling between the gas phase and the structure at meso and micro scales were theoretically, experimentally, and numerically studied; new stabilization and instability phenomena were identified; and new theories for the dynamic mechanisms of small scale combustion were developed. The reduction of thermal inertia at small scale significantly reduces the response time of the wall and leads to a strong flame-wall coupling and extension of burning limits. Mesoscale flame propagation and extinction in small quartz tubes were theoretically, experimentally and numerically studied. It was found that wall-flame interaction in mesoscale combustion led to two different flame regimes, a heat-loss dominant fast flame regime and a wall-flame coupling slow flame regime. The nonlinear transition between the two flame regimes was strongly dependent on the channel width and flow velocity. It is concluded that the existence of multiple flame regimes is an inherent phenomenon in mesoscale combustion. In addition, all practical combustors have variable channel width in the direction of flame propagation. Quasi-steady and unsteady propagations of methane and propane-air premixed flames in a mesoscale divergent channel were investigated experimentally and theoretically. The emphasis was the impact of variable cross-section area and the flame-wall coupling on the flame transition between different regimes and the onset of flame instability. For the first time, spinning flames were experimentally observed for both lean and rich methane and propane-air mixtures in a broad range of equivalence ratios. An effective Lewis number

Effects of streamwise vortex breakdown on supersonic combustion.

Science.gov (United States)

Hiejima, Toshihiko

2016-04-01

This paper presents a numerical simulation study of the combustion structure of streamwise vortex breakdown at Mach number 2.48. Hydrogen fuel is injected into a combustor at sonic speed from the rear of a hypermixer strut that can generate streamwise vortices. The results show that the burning behavior is enhanced at the points of the shock waves that are incident on the vortex and therefore the vortex breakdown in the subsonic region occurs due to combustion. The breakdown domain in the mainstream is found to form a flame-holding region suited to combustion and to lead to a stable combustion field with detached flames. In this way, streamwise vortex breakdown has an essential role in combustion enhancement and the formation of flames that hold under supersonic inflow conditions. Finally, the combustion property defined here is shown to coincide with the produced-water mass flow. This property shows that the amount of combustion is saturated at equivalence ratios over 0.4, although there is a slight increase beyond 1.

Trace gas emissions from burning Florida wetlands

Science.gov (United States)

Cofer, Wesley R.; Levine, Joel S.; Winstead, Edward L.; Lebel, Peter J.; Koller, Albert M.; Hinkle, C. Ross

1990-02-01

Measurements of biomass burn-produced trace gases are presented that were obtained using a helicopter at low altitudes above burning Florida wetlands on November 9, 1987, and from both helicopter and light-aircraft samplings on November 7, 1988. Carbon dioxide (CO2) normalized emission ratios (ΔX/ΔCO2; V/V; where X is trace gas) for carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2), methane (CH4), total nonmethane hydrocarbons (TNMHC), and nitrous oxide (N2O) were obtained over burning graminoid wetlands consisting primarily of Spartina bakeri and Juncus roemerianus. Some interspersed scrub oak (Quercus spp) and saw palmetto (Screnoa repens) were also burned. No significant differences were observed in the emission ratios determined for these gases from samples collected over flaming, mixed, and smoldering phases of combustion during the 1987 fire. Combustion-categorized differences in emission ratios were small for the 1988 fire. Combustion efficiency was relatively good (low emission ratios for reduced gases) for both fires. We believe that the consistently low emission ratios were a unique result of graminoid wetlands fires, in which the grasses and rushes (both small-size fuels) burned rapidly down to standing water and were quickly extinguished. Consequently, the efficiency of the combustion was good and the amount and duration of smoldering combustion was greatly diminished.

Large-eddy simulation of swirling pulverized-coal combustion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hu, L.Y.; Luo, Y.H. [Shanghai Jiaotong Univ. (China). School of Mechanical Engineering; Zhou, L.X.; Xu, C.S. [Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China). Dept. of Engineering Mechanics

2013-07-01

A Eulerian-Lagrangian large-eddy simulation (LES) with a Smagorinsky-Lilly sub-grid scale stress model, presumed-PDF fast chemistry and EBU gas combustion models, particle devolatilization and particle combustion models are used to study the turbulence and flame structures of swirling pulverized-coal combustion. The LES statistical results are validated by the measurement results. The instantaneous LES results show that the coherent structures for pulverized coal combustion is stronger than that for swirling gas combustion. The particles are concentrated in the periphery of the coherent structures. The flame is located at the high vorticity and high particle concentration zone.

Flame structure of methane inverse diffusion flame

KAUST Repository

Elbaz, Ayman M.

2014-07-01

This paper presents high speed images of OH-PLIF at 10. kHz simultaneously with 2D PIV (particle image velocimetry) measurements collected along the entire length of an inverse diffusion flame with circumferentially arranged methane fuel jets. For a fixed fuel flow rate, the central air jet Re was varied, leading to four air to fuel velocity ratios, namely Vr = 20.7, 29, 37.4 and 49.8. A double flame structure could be observed composed of a lower fuel entrainment region and an upper mixing and intense combustion region. The entrainment region was enveloped by an early OH layer, and then merged through a very thin OH neck to an annular OH layer located at the shear layer of the air jet. The two branches of this annular OH layer broaden as they moved downstream and eventfully merged together. Three types of events were observed common to all flames: breaks, closures and growing kernels. In upstream regions of the flames, the breaks were counterbalanced by flame closures. These breaks in OH signal were found to occur at locations where locally high velocity flows were impinging on the flame. As the Vr increased to 37.4, the OH layers became discontinuous over the downstream region of the flame, and these regions of low or no OH moved upstream. With further increases in Vr, these OH pockets act as flame kernels, growing as they moved downstream, and became the main mechanism for flame re-ignition. Along the flame length, the direction of the two dimensional principle compressive strain rate axis exhibited a preferred orientation of approximately 45° with respect to the flow direction. Moreover, the OH zones were associated with elongated regions of high vorticity. © 2013 Elsevier Inc.

Richtmyer-Meshkov instability in shock-flame interactions

Science.gov (United States)

Massa, Luca; Pallav Jha Collaboration

2011-11-01

Shock-flame interactions occur in supersonic mixing and detonation formation. Therefore, their analysis is important to explosion safety, internal combustion engine performance, and supersonic combustor design. The fundamental process at the basis of the interaction is the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability supported by the density difference between burnt and fresh mixtures. In the present study we analyze the effect of reactivity on the Richtmyer- Meshkov instability with particular emphasis on combustion lengths that typify the scaling between perturbation growth and induction. The results of the present linear analysis study show that reactivity changes the perturbation growth rate by developing a non-zero pressure gradient at the flame surface. The baroclinic torque based on the density gradient across the flame acts to slow down the instability growth for high wave numbers. A non-hydrodynamic flame representation leads to the definition of an additional scaling Peclet number, the effects of which are investigated. It is found that an increased flame-contact separation destabilizes the contact discontinuity by augmenting the tangential shear.

Combustion of a high-velocity hydrogen microjet effluxing in air

Science.gov (United States)

Kozlov, V. V.; Grek, G. R.; Korobeinichev, O. P.; Litvinenko, Yu. A.; Shmakov, A. G.

2016-09-01

This study is devoted to experimental investigation of hydrogen-combustion modes and the structure of a diffusion flame formed at a high-velocity efflux of hydrogen in air through round apertures of various diameters. The efflux-velocity range of the hydrogen jet and the diameters of nozzle apertures at which the flame is divided in two zones with laminar and turbulent flow are found. The zone with the laminar flow is a stabilizer of combustion of the flame as a whole, and in the zone with the turbulent flow the intense mixing of fuel with an oxidizer takes place. Combustion in these two zones can occur independently from each other, but the steadiest mode is observed only at the existence of the flame in the laminar-flow zone. The knowledge obtained makes it possible to understand more deeply the features of modes of microjet combustion of hydrogen promising for various combustion devices.

Development of rapid mixing fuel nozzle for premixed combustion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Katsuki, Masashi; Chung, Jin Do; Kim, Jang Woo; Hwang, Seung Min; Kim, Seung Mo; Ahn, Chul Ju

2009-01-01

Combustion in high-preheat and low oxygen concentration atmosphere is one of the attractive measures to reduce nitric oxide emission as well as greenhouse gases from combustion devices, and it is expected to be a key technology for the industrial applications in heating devices and furnaces. Before proceeding to the practical applications, we need to elucidate combustion characteristics of non-premixed and premixed flames in high-preheat and low oxygen concentration conditions from scientific point of view. For the purpose, we have developed a special mixing nozzle to create a homogeneous mixture of fuel and air by rapid mixing, and applied this rapidmixing nozzle to a Bunsen-type burner to observe combustion characteristics of the rapid-mixture. As a result, the combustion of rapid-mixture exhibited the same flame structure and combustion characteristics as the perfectly prepared premixed flame, even though the mixing time of the rapid-mixing nozzle was extremely short as a few milliseconds. Therefore, the rapid-mixing nozzle in this paper can be used to create preheated premixed flames as far as the mixing time is shorter than the ignition delay time of the fuel

Analysis of flame shapes in turbulent hydrogen jet flames with coaxial air

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Moon, Hee Jang [Korea Aerospace University, Goyang (Korea, Republic of)

2009-06-15

This paper addresses the characteristics of flame shapes and flame length in three types of coaxial air flames realizable by varying coaxial air and/or fuel velocity. Forcing coaxial air into turbulent jet flames induces substantial changes in flame shapes and NOx emissions through the complex flow interferences that exist within the mixing region. Mixing enhancement driven by coaxial air results in flame volume decrease, and such a diminished flame volume finally reduces NOx emissions significantly by decreasing NOx formation zone where a fuel/air mixture burns. It is found that mixing in the vicinity of high temperature zone mainly results from the increase of diffusive flux than the convective flux, and that the increase of mass diffusion is amplified as coaxial air is increased. Besides, it is reaffirmed that nonequilibrium chemistry including HO{sub 2}/H{sub 2}O{sub 2} should be taken into account for NOx prediction and scaling analysis by comparing turbulent combustion models. In addition, it is found that coaxial air can break down the self-similarity law of flames by changing mixing mechanism, and that EINOx scaling parameters based on the self-similarity law of simple jet flames may not be eligible in coaxial air flames

Tubular combustion

CERN Document Server

Ishizuka, Satoru

2014-01-01

Tubular combustors are cylindrical tubes where flame ignition and propagation occur in a spatially confined, highly controlled environment, in a nearly flat, elongated geometry. This allows for some unique advantages where extremely even heat dispersion is required over a large surface while still maintaining fuel efficiency. Tubular combustors also allow for easy flexibility in type of fuel source, allowing for quick changeover to meet various needs and changing fuel pricing. This new addition to the MP sustainable energy series will provide the most up-to-date research on tubular combustion--some of it only now coming out of private proprietary protection. Plentiful examples of current applications along with a good explanation of background theory will offer readers an invaluable guide on this promising energy technology. Highlights include: * An introduction to the theory of tubular flames * The "how to" of maintaining stability of tubular flames through continuous combustion * Examples of both small-scal...

Stratified turbulent Bunsen flames: flame surface analysis and flame surface density modelling

Science.gov (United States)

Ramaekers, W. J. S.; van Oijen, J. A.; de Goey, L. P. H.

2012-12-01

In this paper it is investigated whether the Flame Surface Density (FSD) model, developed for turbulent premixed combustion, is also applicable to stratified flames. Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) of turbulent stratified Bunsen flames have been carried out, using the Flamelet Generated Manifold (FGM) reduction method for reaction kinetics. Before examining the suitability of the FSD model, flame surfaces are characterized in terms of thickness, curvature and stratification. All flames are in the Thin Reaction Zones regime, and the maximum equivalence ratio range covers 0.1⩽φ⩽1.3. For all flames, local flame thicknesses correspond very well to those observed in stretchless, steady premixed flamelets. Extracted curvature radii and mixing length scales are significantly larger than the flame thickness, implying that the stratified flames all burn in a premixed mode. The remaining challenge is accounting for the large variation in (subfilter) mass burning rate. In this contribution, the FSD model is proven to be applicable for Large Eddy Simulations (LES) of stratified flames for the equivalence ratio range 0.1⩽φ⩽1.3. Subfilter mass burning rate variations are taken into account by a subfilter Probability Density Function (PDF) for the mixture fraction, on which the mass burning rate directly depends. A priori analysis point out that for small stratifications (0.4⩽φ⩽1.0), the replacement of the subfilter PDF (obtained from DNS data) by the corresponding Dirac function is appropriate. Integration of the Dirac function with the mass burning rate m=m(φ), can then adequately model the filtered mass burning rate obtained from filtered DNS data. For a larger stratification (0.1⩽φ⩽1.3), and filter widths up to ten flame thicknesses, a β-function for the subfilter PDF yields substantially better predictions than a Dirac function. Finally, inclusion of a simple algebraic model for the FSD resulted only in small additional deviations from DNS data

Low NOx combustion technologies for high-temperature natural gas combustion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Flamme, Michael

1999-01-01

Because of the high process temperature which is required for some processes like glass melting and the high temperature to which the combustion air is preheated, NOx emission are extremely high. Even at these high temperatures, NOx emissions could be reduced drastically by using advanced combustion techniques such as staged combustion or flame-less oxidation, as experimental work has shown. In the case of oxy-fuel combustion, the NOx emission are also very high if conventional burners are used. The new combustion techniques achieve similar NOx reductions. (author)

Oxy-Combustion Burner and Integrated Pollutant Removal Research and Development Test Facility

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mark Schoenfield; Manny Menendez; Thomas Ochs; Rigel Woodside; Danylo Oryshchyn

2012-09-30

A high flame temperature oxy-combustion test facility consisting of a 5 MWe equivalent test boiler facility and 20 KWe equivalent IPR® was constructed at the Hammond, Indiana manufacturing site. The test facility was operated natural gas and coal fuels and parametric studies were performed to determine the optimal performance conditions and generated the necessary technical data required to demonstrate the technologies are viable for technical and economic scale-up. Flame temperatures between 4930-6120F were achieved with high flame temperature oxy-natural gas combustion depending on whether additional recirculated flue gases are added to balance the heat transfer. For high flame temperature oxy-coal combustion, flame temperatures in excess of 4500F were achieved and demonstrated to be consistent with computational fluid dynamic modeling of the burner system. The project demonstrated feasibility and effectiveness of the Jupiter Oxygen high flame temperature oxy-combustion process with Integrated Pollutant Removal process for CCS and CCUS. With these technologies total parasitic power requirements for both oxygen production and carbon capture currently are in the range of 20% of the gross power output. The Jupiter Oxygen high flame temperature oxy-combustion process has been demonstrated at a Technology Readiness Level of 6 and is ready for commencement of a demonstration project.

Direct Numerical Simulations of Statistically Stationary Turbulent Premixed Flames

KAUST Repository

Im, Hong G.

2016-07-15

Direct numerical simulations (DNS) of turbulent combustion have evolved tremendously in the past decades, thanks to the rapid advances in high performance computing technology. Today’s DNS is capable of incorporating detailed reaction mechanisms and transport properties of hydrocarbon fuels, with physical parameter ranges approaching laboratory scale flames, thereby allowing direct comparison and cross-validation against laser diagnostic measurements. While these developments have led to significantly improved understanding of fundamental turbulent flame characteristics, there are increasing demands to explore combustion regimes at higher levels of turbulent Reynolds (Re) and Karlovitz (Ka) numbers, with a practical interest in new combustion engines driving towards higher efficiencies and lower emissions. The article attempts to provide a brief overview of the state-of-the-art DNS of turbulent premixed flames at high Re/Ka conditions, with an emphasis on homogeneous and isotropic turbulent flow configurations. Some important qualitative findings from numerical studies are summarized, new analytical approaches to investigate intensely turbulent premixed flame dynamics are discussed, and topics for future research are suggested. © 2016 Taylor & Francis.

Oxy-fuel combustion of solid fuels

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Toftegaard, Maja Bøg; Brix, Jacob; Jensen, Peter Arendt

2010-01-01

Oxy-fuel combustion is suggested as one of the possible, promising technologies for capturing CO2 from power plants. The concept of oxy-fuel combustion is removal of nitrogen from the oxidizer to carry out the combustion process in oxygen and, in most concepts, recycled flue gas to lower the flame...... provide additional options for improvement of process economics are however likewise investigated. Of particular interest is the change of the combustion process induced by the exchange of carbon dioxide and water vapor for nitrogen as diluent. This paper reviews the published knowledge on the oxy......-fuel process and focuses particularly on the combustion fundamentals, i.e. flame temperatures and heat transfer, ignition and burnout, emissions, and fly ash characteristics. Knowledge is currently available regarding both an entire oxy-fuel power plant and the combustion fundamentals. However, several...

Chemical processes in the HNF flame

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ermolin, N.E.; Zarko, V.E.; Keizers, H.L.J.

2006-01-01

Results of modeling the HNF flame structure are presented. From an analysis of literature data on the thermal decomposition and combustion of HNF, it is concluded that the dissociative vaporization of HNF proceeds via the route HNFliq → (N2H4)g + (HC(NO 2)3)g. The flame structure is modeled using a

Experimental validation for combustion analysis of GOTHIC code in 2-dimensional combustion chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, J. W.; Yang, S. Y.; Park, K. C.; Jung, S. H.

2002-01-01

In this study, the prediction capability of GOTHIC code for hydrogen combustion phenomena was validated with the results of two-dimensional premixed hydrogen combustion experiment executed by Seoul National University. The experimental chamber has about 24 liter free volume (1x0.024x1 m 3 ) and 2-dimensional rectangular shape. The test were preformed with 10% hydrogen/air gas mixture and conducted with combination of two igniter positions (top center, top corner) and two boundary conditions (bottom full open, bottom right half open). Using the lumped parameter and mechanistic combustion model in GOTHIC code, the SNU experiments were simulated under the same conditions. The GOTHIC code prediction of the hydrogen combustion phenomena did not compare well with the experimental results. In case of lumped parameter simulation, the combustion time was predicted appropriately. But any other local information related combustion phenomena could not be obtained. In case of mechanistic combustion analysis, the physical combustion phenomena of gas mixture were not matched experimental ones. In boundary open cases, the GOTHIC predicted very long combustion time and the flame front propagation could not simulate appropriately. Though GOTHIC showed flame propagation phenomenon in adiabatic calculation, the induction time of combustion was still very long compare with experimental results. Also, it was found that the combustion model of GOTHIC code had some weak points in low concentration of hydrogen combustion simulation

Instability and electrical response of small laminar coflow diffusion flames under AC electric fields: Toroidal vortex formation and oscillating and spinning flames

KAUST Repository

Xiong, Yuan; Chung, Suk-Ho; Cha, Min

2016-01-01

Dynamical and electrical responses of a small coflow diffusion flame were investigated by applying a high-voltage alternating current (AC), to a fuel jet nozzle. High-speed imaging and electrical diagnostics were adopted to capture flame dynamics and electrical signals, such as voltage (V ), frequency (f ) and current (I ). In the V -f domain of 0-5kV and 0-5kHz, AC-driven instabilities, resulting in various flame modes such as an oscillation, pinch-off and spinning of flames were identified. Characteristic frequency of each mode was determined and a visualization of near-nozzle flow structures suggested a close causality of initial counter-rotating vortices (inner and outer toroidal vortices - ITV and OTV), to the other observed flame. An axisymmetric ITV shedding was identified within oscillating and pinch-off modes, while asymmetric ITV shedding was identified with the spinning mode. Integrated electric power over several AC periods correlated well with variation in the flame surface area for these instabilities, demonstrating that measured electric power is a potential indicator of combustion instabilities in electric-field-assisted combustion.

Instability and electrical response of small laminar coflow diffusion flames under AC electric fields: Toroidal vortex formation and oscillating and spinning flames

KAUST Repository

Xiong, Yuan

2016-06-24

Dynamical and electrical responses of a small coflow diffusion flame were investigated by applying a high-voltage alternating current (AC), to a fuel jet nozzle. High-speed imaging and electrical diagnostics were adopted to capture flame dynamics and electrical signals, such as voltage (V ), frequency (f ) and current (I ). In the V -f domain of 0-5kV and 0-5kHz, AC-driven instabilities, resulting in various flame modes such as an oscillation, pinch-off and spinning of flames were identified. Characteristic frequency of each mode was determined and a visualization of near-nozzle flow structures suggested a close causality of initial counter-rotating vortices (inner and outer toroidal vortices - ITV and OTV), to the other observed flame. An axisymmetric ITV shedding was identified within oscillating and pinch-off modes, while asymmetric ITV shedding was identified with the spinning mode. Integrated electric power over several AC periods correlated well with variation in the flame surface area for these instabilities, demonstrating that measured electric power is a potential indicator of combustion instabilities in electric-field-assisted combustion.

Nonequilibrium theory of flame propagation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Merzhanov, A.G.

1995-01-01

The nonequilibrium theory of flame propagation is considered as applied to the following three processes of wave propagation: the combustion waves of the second kind, the combustion waves with broad reaction zones, and the combustion waves with chemical stages. Kinetic and combustion wave parameters are presented for different in composition mixtures of boron and transition metals, such as Zr, Hf, Ti, Nb, Ta, Mo, as well as for the Ta-N, Zr-C-H, Nb-B-O systems to illustrate specific features of the above-mentioned processes [ru

Spray combustion of biomass-based renewable diesel fuel using multiple injection strategy in a constant volume combustion chamber

KAUST Repository

Jing, Wei

2016-05-26

Effect of a two-injection strategy associated with a pilot injection on the spray combustion process was investigated under conventional diesel combustion conditions (1000 K and 21% O2 concentration) for a biomass-based renewable diesel fuel, i.e., biomass to liquid (BTL), and a regular No. 2 diesel in a constant volume combustion chamber using multiband flame measurement and two-color pyrometry. The spray combustion flame structure was visualized by using multiband flame measurement to show features of soot formation, high temperature and low temperature reactions, which can be characterized by the narrow-band emissions of radicals or intermediate species such as OH, HCHO, and CH. The objective of this study was to identify the details of multiple injection combustion, including a pilot and a main injection, and to provide further insights on how the two injections interact. For comparison, three injection strategies were considered for both fuels including a two-injection strategy (Case TI), single injection strategy A (Case SA), and single injection strategy B (Case SB). Multiband flame results show a strong interaction, indicated by OH emissions between the pilot injection and the main injection for Case TI while very weak connection is found for the narrow-band emissions acquired through filters with centerlines of 430 nm and 470 nm. A faster flame development is found for the main injection of Case TI compared to Cases SA and SB, which could be due to the high temperature environment and large air entrainment from the pilot injection. A lower soot level is observed for the BTL flame compared to the diesel flame for all three injection types. Case TI has a lower soot level compared to Cases SA and SB for the BTL fuel, while the diesel fuel maintains a similar soot level among all three injection strategies. Soot temperature of Case TI is lower for both fuels, especially for diesel. Based on these results, it is expected that the two-injection strategy could be

Modelling the average velocity of propagation of the flame front in a gasoline engine with hydrogen additives

Science.gov (United States)

Smolenskaya, N. M.; Smolenskii, V. V.

2018-01-01

The paper presents models for calculating the average velocity of propagation of the flame front, obtained from the results of experimental studies. Experimental studies were carried out on a single-cylinder gasoline engine UIT-85 with hydrogen additives up to 6% of the mass of fuel. The article shows the influence of hydrogen addition on the average velocity propagation of the flame front in the main combustion phase. The dependences of the turbulent propagation velocity of the flame front in the second combustion phase on the composition of the mixture and operating modes. The article shows the influence of the normal combustion rate on the average flame propagation velocity in the third combustion phase.

the use of castor oil as a flame retardant in polyurethane foam

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Dr Abdusalam

Flame retardant help to suppress the combustion process depending on the polymer and the fire safety test. (Desch, 1973) . Flame retarding agent either cooled, the burning material below its ignition point or exclude air by forming a blanket of inert gas. It also interferes with one or several stages of the combustion process.

Internal and Surface Phenomena in Heterogenous Metal Combustion

Science.gov (United States)

Dreizin, Edward L.

1997-01-01

The phenomenon of gas dissolution in burning metals was observed in recent metal combustion studies, but it could not be adequately explained by the traditional metal combustion models. The research reported here addresses heterogeneous metal combustion with emphasis on the processes of oxygen penetration inside burning metal and its influence on the metal combustion rate, temperature history, and disruptive burning. The unique feature of this work is the combination of the microgravity environment with a novel micro-arc generator of monodispersed metal droplets, ensuring repeatable formation and ignition of uniform metal droplets with a controllable initial temperature and velocity. Burning droplet temperature is measured in real time with a three wavelength pyrometer. In addition, particles are rapidly quenched at different combustion times, cross-sectioned, and examined using SEM-based techniques to retrieve the internal composition history of burning metal particles. When the initial velocity of a spherical particle is nearly zero, the microgravity environment makes it possible to study the flame structure, the development of flame nonsymmetry, and correlation of the flame shape with the heterogeneous combustion processes.

Simulation of lean premixed turbulent combustion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bell, J; Day, M; Almgren, A; Lijewski, M; Rendleman, C; Cheng, R; Shepherd, I

2006-01-01

There is considerable technological interest in developing new fuel-flexible combustion systems that can burn fuels such as hydrogen or syngas. Lean premixed systems have the potential to burn these types of fuels with high efficiency and low NOx emissions due to reduced burnt gas temperatures. Although traditional Scientific approaches based on theory and laboratory experiment have played essential roles in developing our current understanding of premixed combustion, they are unable to meet the challenges of designing fuel-flexible lean premixed combustion devices. Computation, with its ability to deal with complexity and its unlimited access to data, has the potential for addressing these challenges. Realizing this potential requires the ability to perform high fidelity simulations of turbulent lean premixed flames under realistic conditions. In this paper, we examine the specialized mathematical structure of these combustion problems and discuss simulation approaches that exploit this structure. Using these ideas we can dramatically reduce computational cost, making it possible to perform high-fidelity simulations of realistic flames. We illustrate this methodology by considering ultra-lean hydrogen flames and discuss how this type of simulation is changing the way researchers study combustion

Acute activation, desensitization and smoldering activation of human acetylcholine receptors.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Barbara G Campling

Full Text Available The behavioral effects of nicotine and other nicotinic agonists are mediated by AChRs in the brain. The relative contribution of acute activation versus chronic desensitization of AChRs is unknown. Sustained "smoldering activation" occurs over a range of agonist concentrations at which activated and desensitized AChRs are present in equilibrium. We used a fluorescent dye sensitive to changes in membrane potential to examine the effects of acute activation and chronic desensitization by nicotinic AChR agonists on cell lines expressing human α4β2, α3β4 and α7 AChRs. We examined the effects of acute and prolonged application of nicotine and the partial agonists varenicline, cytisine and sazetidine-A on these AChRs. The range of concentrations over which nicotine causes smoldering activation of α4β2 AChRs was centered at 0.13 µM, a level found in smokers. However, nicotine produced smoldering activation of α3β4 and α7 AChRs at concentrations well above levels found in smokers. The α4β2 expressing cell line contains a mixture of two stoichiometries, namely (α4β22β2 and (α4β22α4. The (α4β22β2 stoichiometry is more sensitive to activation by nicotine. Sazetidine-A activates and desensitizes only this stoichiometry. Varenicline, cytisine and sazetidine-A were partial agonists on this mixture of α4β2 AChRs, but full agonists on α3β4 and α7 AChRs. It has been reported that cytisine and varenicline are most efficacious on the (α4β22α4 stoichiometry. In this study, we distinguish the dual effects of activation and desensitization of AChRs by these nicotinic agonists and define the range of concentrations over which smoldering activation can be sustained.

Effect of Electric Field on Outwardly Propagating Spherical Flame

KAUST Repository

Mannaa, Ossama

2012-06-01

The thesis comprises effects of electric fields on a fundamental study of spheri­cal premixed flame propagation.Outwardly-propagating spherical laminar premixed flames have been investigated in a constant volume combustion vessel by applying au uni-directional electric potential.Direct photography and schlieren techniques have been adopted and captured images were analyzed through image processing. Unstretched laminar burning velocities under the influence of electric fields and their associated Markstein length scales have been determined from outwardly prop­agating spherical flame at a constant pressure. Methane and propane fuels have been tested to assess the effect of electric fields on the differential diffusion of the two fuels.The effects of varying equivalence ratios and applied voltages have been in­vestigated, while the frequency of AC was fixed at 1 KHz. Directional propagating characteristics were analyzed to identify the electric filed effect. The flame morphology varied appreciably under the influence of electric fields which in turn affected the burning rate of mixtures.The flame front was found to propagate much faster toward to the electrode at which the electric fields were supplied while the flame speeds in the other direction were minimally influenced. When the voltage was above 7 KV the combustion is markedly enhanced in the downward direction since intense turbulence is generated and as a result the mixing process or rather the heat and mass transfer within the flame front will be enhanced.The com­bustion pressure for the cases with electric fields increased rapidly during the initial stage of combustion and was relatively higher since the flame front was lengthened in the downward direction.

Role of additives in combustion waves and effect on stable combustion limit of double-base propellants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kubota, N [Japan Defence Agency, Tachikawa. 3. Research Center

1978-12-01

The effect of additives on the flame structures and the burning rates of double-base propellants have been examined by means of photographic observations and temperature profile measurements. The additives used for this study are lead salicylate (PbSa, 2%), nickel (Ni, 1%), ammonium perchlorate (AP, 30%), and cyclotetramethylene tetranitramine (HMX, 30%). The addition of PbSa increases the burning rate, but does not improve the flame temperature characteristics. The addition of Ni increases the flame temperature significantly at pressures below 30 atm. The Ni acts as a catalyst to promote the flame reaction while it does not act as a burning rate modifier. The additions of AP and HMX increase the thermal performance of the propellant system, however, the HMX does not improve the stable combustion limit of the rocket motor at low pressures. The addition of Ni or AP is found to increase the flame temperature at pressures below 30 atm, and the stable combustion limits is lowered to below 3 atm.

Comparison of Combustion properties of simulated biogas and methane

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Diaz Gonzalez, Carlos; Arrieta, Andres Amell; Suarez, Jose Luis

2009-01-01

The utilization of new renewable energy sources has been of special interest during the past years, seeking to decrease our dependence on fossil fuels and the corresponding environmental impact derived from their use. The combustion properties of a simulated gas composed of 60% methane and 40% carbon dioxide in volume are determined in this paper by means of calculation algorithms developed by the GASURE team, comparing them to pure methane properties. Furthermore, the effect of these properties on premixed flame characteristic phenomena is demonstrated. These properties were determined by theoretical estimations. The characteristic phenomena (laminar deflagration velocity, flame structure, radiation pattern) are determined experimentally. Results show a high effect of carbon dioxide in the combustion properties and characteristic parameters of a biogas premixed flame such as laminar deflagration velocity, flame structure and gas-methane exchangeability problems. The difference regarding flame structure and combustion properties lead to a difference in radiation pattern of the gases studied.

Comparison of combustion properties of simulated biogas and methane

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Diaz G, Carlos; Amell, Andres; Suarez, Jose

2010-01-01

The utilization of new renewable energy sources has been of special interest during the past years, seeking to decrease our dependence on fossil fuels and the corresponding environmental impact derived from their use. The combustion properties of a simulated gas composed of 60% methane and 40% carbon dioxide in volume are determined in this paper by means of calculation algorithms developed by the GASURE team, comparing them to pure methane properties. Furthermore, the effect of these properties on premixed flame characteristic phenomena is demonstrated. These properties were determined by theoretical estimations. The characteristic phenomena (laminar deflagration velocity, flame structure, radiation pattern) are determined experimentally. Results show a high effect of carbon dioxide in the combustion properties and characteristic parameters of a biogas premixed flame such as laminar deflagration velocity, flame structure and gas-methane exchangeability problems. The difference regarding flame structure and combustion properties lead to a difference in radiation pattern of the gases studied.

Flame Dynamics and Chemistry in LRE Combustion Instability

Science.gov (United States)

2016-12-22

negative temperature coefficient phenomenon and engine knock. In this work, the coupling of cool flame chemistry and convective– diffusive transport...note, practical engine conditions are highly turbulent, and the autoignition phenomenon depends on both chemistry and turbulent mixing. For example...negative temperature coefficient (NTC) phenomenon and engine knock. In this work, the coupling of cool flame chemistry and convective–diffusive

Role of soot in the transport of chlorine in hydrocarbon-air diffusion flames

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Venkatesh, S.; Saito, K.; Stencel, J.M.; Majidi, V.; Owens, M.

1991-01-01

Soot is an inevitable product of incomplete combustion in many practical combustion systems such as automobiles, incinerators and furnaces. Recent studies on chlorinated hydrocarbon combustion have shown that soot and other praticulates (eg. fly ash) play an important role in secondary reactions leading to the formation of chlorine substituted polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In order to attain very high destruction efficiencies the fundamental chemical and physical processes that are associated with combustion, and post-combustion cleanup must be well understood. In order to understand the effect of chlorine on the soot formed in a combustion system, fundamental studies using a coflow laminar hydrocarbon-air diffusion flame have been carried out. Phenomenological studies have revealed the effect of chlorine on the visible structure of the flame. Soot inception activation energies were estimated for methane, ethane and ethylene diffusion flames for the case of with and without chlorine addition. No significant difference in the activation energy was estimated for either case. The effect of chlorine on the soot escape rate of an acetylene diffusion flame was estimated. The soot formed in these diffusion flames was analyzed for chlorine using scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM/EDS) and by laser induced plasma spectroscopy (LIPS). REsults from these techniques indicate the presence of chlorine in the soot formed. In this paper a chemical scheme to explain the chlorine found in the soot is proposed based on known theories of soot formation

Thermo-acoustic instabilities of high-frequency combustion in rocket engines; Instabilites thermo-acoustiques de combustion haute-frequence dans les moteurs fusees

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cheuret, F

2005-10-15

Rocket motors are confined environments where combustion occurs in extreme conditions. Combustion instabilities can occur at high frequencies; they are tied to the acoustic modes of the combustion chamber. A common research chamber, CRC, allows us to study the response of a turbulent two-phase flame to acoustic oscillations of low or high amplitudes. The chamber is characterised under cold conditions to obtain, in particular, the relative damping coefficient of acoustic oscillations. The structure and frequency of the modes are determined in the case where the chamber is coupled to a lateral cavity. We have used a powder gun to study the response to a forced acoustic excitation at high amplitude. The results guide us towards shorter flames. The injectors were then modified to study the combustion noise level as a function of injection conditions. The speed of the gas determines whether the flames are attached or lifted. The noise level of lifted flames is higher. That of attached flames is proportional to the Weber number. The shorter flames whose length is less than the radius of the CRC, necessary condition to obtain an effective coupling, are the most sensitive to acoustic perturbations. The use of a toothed wheel at different positions in the chamber allowed us to obtain informations on the origin of the thermo-acoustic coupling, main objective of this thesis. The flame is sensitive to pressure acoustic oscillations, with a quasi-zero response time. These observations suggest that under the conditions of the CRC, we observe essentially the response of chemical kinetics to pressure oscillations. (author)

A New Perspective on the Flame Describing Function of a Matrix Flame

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Heckl

2015-06-01

Full Text Available This paper considers a fundamental thermoacoustic test rig developed by Noiray (“Linear and nonlinear analysis of combustion instabilities, application to multipoint injection systems and control strategies”, PhD thesis, École Centrale Paris, 2007 and models it with an entirely analytical approach. The test rig is treated as a system of two coupled elements: an acoustic resonator and a flame with oscillating rate of heat release. We describe the acoustics of the combustion rig in terms of modes, and derive a governing equation for one such mode. This turns out to be the equation for a damped harmonic oscillator, forced by the heat release rate from the flame. In order to model the heat release rate, and in particular its nonlinear aspects, we develop a generalised nτ-law with amplitude-dependent coefficients and multiple time-lag. The coefficients are determined from Noiray's measured flame describing function. Stability predictions are made by evaluating the sign of the damping coefficient in the governing equation. These predictions are in excellent qualitative agreement with the measured stability behaviour. Finally, the physical mechanisms of the amplitude-dependence are explored.

Study on the Enhancement Effect of Dielectric Barrier Discharge on the Premixed Methane/Oxygen/Helium Flame Velocity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mu Haibao; Yu Lin; Li Ping; Zhang Guanjun; Tang Chenglong; Wang Jinhua

2015-01-01

Recently, plasma-assisted combustion has become a potentially applicable technology in many combustion scenarios. In this paper, a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma generator is designed to explore the effect of plasma on the CH4 oxidation process, and several properties of combustion are considered. First, in the presence or absence of plasma discharge, physical appearance of the flame is examined and analyzed. Second, the flame propagation velocity is calculated by the flame front extracted from the imaging data with the Bunsen burner method. Finally, the main molecular components and their intensity variation in the flame and the plasma zones are identified with an emission spectrograph to analyze the effect of active species on the combustion process. We also discuss the possible kinetic regime of plasma-assisted combustion. Experimental results imply that plasma discharge applied to the premixed CH4/O2/He mixture significantly raises the flame speed with equivalence ratios ranging from 0.85 to 1.10, with the flame speed improved by 17% to 35%. It can be seen that plasma can improve methane oxidation efficiency in the premixed fuel/oxidizer, especially at a low equivalence ratio. (paper)

Combustion physics

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, A. R.

1985-11-01

Over 90% of our energy comes from combustion. By the year 2000 the figure will still be 80%, even allowing for nuclear and alternative energy sources. There are many familiar examples of combustion use, both domestic and industrial. These range from the Bunsen burner to large flares, from small combustion chambers, such as those in car engines, to industrial furnaces for steel manufacture or the generation of megawatts of electricity. There are also fires and explosions. The bountiful energy release from combustion, however, brings its problems, prominent among which are diminishing fuel resources and pollution. Combustion science is directed towards finding ways of improving efficiency and reducing pollution. One may ask, since combustion is a chemical reaction, why physics is involved: the answer is in three parts. First, chemicals cannot react unless they come together. In most flames the fuel and air are initially separate. The chemical reaction in the gas phase is very fast compared with the rate of mixing. Thus, once the fuel and air are mixed the reaction can be considered to occur instantaneously and fluid mechanics limits the rate of burning. Secondly, thermodynamics and heat transfer determine the thermal properties of the combustion products. Heat transfer also plays a role by preheating the reactants and is essential to extracting useful work. Fluid mechanics is relevant if work is to be performed directly, as in a turbine. Finally, physical methods, including electric probes, acoustics, optics, spectroscopy and pyrometry, are used to examine flames. The article is concerned mainly with how physics is used to improve the efficiency of combustion.

Quantitative Measurement of Oxygen in Microgravity Combustion

Science.gov (United States)

Silver, Joel A.

1997-01-01

A low-gravity environment, in space or in ground-based facilities such as drop towers, provides a unique setting for studying combustion mechanisms. Understanding the physical phenomena controlling the ignition and spread of flames in microgravity has importance for space safety as well as for better characterization of dynamical and chemical combustion processes which are normally masked by buoyancy and other gravity-related effects. Due to restrictions associated with performing measurements in reduced gravity, diagnostic methods which have been applied to microgravity combustion studies have generally been limited to capture of flame emissions on film or video, laser Schlieren imaging and (intrusive) temperature measurements using thermocouples. Given the development of detailed theoretical models, more sophisticated diagnostic methods are needed to provide the kind of quantitative data necessary to characterize the properties of microgravity combustion processes as well as provide accurate feedback to improve the predictive capabilities of the models. When the demands of space flight are considered, the need for improved diagnostic systems which are rugged, compact, reliable, and operate at low power becomes apparent. The objective of this research is twofold. First, we want to develop a better understanding of the relative roles of diffusion and reaction of oxygen in microgravity combustion. As the primary oxidizer species, oxygen plays a major role in controlling the observed properties of flames, including flame front speed (in solid or liquid flames), extinguishment characteristics, flame size and flame temperature. The second objective is to develop better diagnostics based on diode laser absorption which can be of real value in both microgravity combustion research and as a sensor on-board Spacelab as either an air quality monitor or as part of a fire detection system. In our prior microgravity work, an eight line-of-sight fiber optic system measured

Chemical kinetics and combustion modeling

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Miller, J.A. [Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA (United States)

1993-12-01

The goal of this program is to gain qualitative insight into how pollutants are formed in combustion systems and to develop quantitative mathematical models to predict their formation rates. The approach is an integrated one, combining low-pressure flame experiments, chemical kinetics modeling, theory, and kinetics experiments to gain as clear a picture as possible of the process in question. These efforts are focused on problems involved with the nitrogen chemistry of combustion systems and on the formation of soot and PAH in flames.

Characterization of diamond thin films deposited by a CO{sub 2} laser-assisted combustion-flame method

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McKindra, Travis, E-mail: mckindra@mst.edu [Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO 65409 (United States); O' Keefe, Matthew J. [Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO 65409 (United States); Xie Zhiqiang; Lu Yongfeng [Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588 (United States)

2010-06-15

Diamond thin films were deposited by a CO{sub 2} laser-assisted O{sub 2}/C{sub 2}H{sub 2}/C{sub 2}H{sub 4} combustion-flame process. The effect of the deposition parameters, in particular the laser wavelength and power, on the film surface morphology, microstructure and phases present was the primary focus of the work. The laser power was set at 100, 400 and 800 W while the wavelength was varied and set at 10.591 {mu}m in the untuned condition and set at 10.532 {mu}m to resonantly match the CH{sub 2}-wagging vibrational mode of the C{sub 2}H{sub 4} molecule when in the tuned condition. When the laser was coupled to the combustion flame during deposition the diamond film growth was enhanced as the lateral grain size increased from 1 {mu}m to greater than 5 {mu}m. The greatest increase in grain size occurred when the wavelength was in the tuned condition. Scanning transmission electron microscopy images from focused-ion beam cross-sectioned samples revealed a sub-layer of smaller grains less than 1 {mu}m in size near the substrate surface at the lower laser powers and untuned wavelength. X-ray diffraction results showed a more intense Diamond (111) peak as the laser power increased from 100 to 800 W for the films deposited with the tuned laser wavelength. Micro-Raman spectra showed a diamond peak nearly twice as intense from the films with the tuned laser wavelength.

Large-eddy simulation of a bluff-body stabilised turbulent premixed flame using the transported flame surface density approach

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Chin Yik; Cant, Stewart

2017-07-01

A premixed propane-air flame stabilised on a triangular bluff body in a model jet-engine afterburner configuration is investigated using large-eddy simulation (LES). The reaction rate source term for turbulent premixed combustion is closed using the transported flame surface density (TFSD) model. In this approach, there is no need to assume local equilibrium between the generation and destruction of subgrid FSD, as commonly done in simple algebraic closure models. Instead, the key processes that create and destroy FSD are accounted for explicitly. This allows the model to capture large-scale unsteady flame propagation in the presence of combustion instabilities, or in situations where the flame encounters progressive wrinkling with time. In this study, comprehensive validation of the numerical method is carried out. For the non-reacting flow, good agreement for both the time-averaged and root-mean-square velocity fields are obtained, and the Karman type vortex shedding behaviour seen in the experiment is well represented. For the reacting flow, two mesh configurations are used to investigate the sensitivity of the LES results to the numerical resolution. Profiles for the velocity and temperature fields exhibit good agreement with the experimental data for both the coarse and dense mesh. This demonstrates the capability of LES coupled with the TFSD approach in representing the highly unsteady premixed combustion observed in this configuration. The instantaneous flow pattern and turbulent flame behaviour are discussed, and the differences between the non-reacting and reacting flow are described through visualisation of vortical structures and their interaction with the flame. Lastly, the generation and destruction of FSD are evaluated by examining the individual terms in the FSD transport equation. Localised regions where straining, curvature and propagation are each dominant are observed, highlighting the importance of non-equilibrium effects of FSD generation and

Internal Heterogeneous Processes in Aluminum Combustion

Science.gov (United States)

Dreizin, E. L.

1999-01-01

This paper discusses the aluminum particle combustion mechanism which has been expanded by inclusion of gas dissolution processes and ensuing internal phase transformations. This mechanism is proposed based on recent normal and microgravity experiments with particles formed and ignited in a pulsed micro-arc. Recent experimental findings on the three stages observed in Al particle combustion in air and shows the burning particle radiation, trajectory (streak), smoke cloud shapes, and quenched particle interiors are summarized. During stage I, the radiation trace is smooth and the particle flame is spherically symmetric. The temperature measured using a three-color pyrometer is close to 3000 K. Because it exceeds the aluminum boiling point (2730 K), this temperature most likely characterizes the vapor phase flame zone rather than the aluminum surface. The dissolved oxygen content within particles quenched during stage I was below the detection sensitivity (about 1 atomic %) for Wavelength Dispersive Spectroscopy (WDS). After an increase in the radiation intensity (and simultaneous decrease in the measured color temperature from about 3000 to 2800 K) indicative of the transition to stage II combustion, the internal compositions of the quenched particles change. Both oxygen-rich (approx. 10 atomic %) and oxygen-lean (combustion behavior and the evolution of its internal composition, the change from the spherically symmetric to asymmetric flame shape occurring upon the transition from stage I to stage II combustion could not be understood based only on the fact that dissolved oxygen is detected in the particles. The connection between the two phenomena appeared even less significant because in earlier aluminum combustion studies carried in O2/Ar mixtures, flame asymmetry was not observed as opposed to experiments in air or O2/CO mixtures. It has been proposed that the presence of other gases, i.e., hydrogen, or nitrogen causes the change in the combustion regime.

Early structure of LPG partially premixed conically stabilized flames

KAUST Repository

Elbaz, Ayman M.

2013-01-01

This paper presents experimental investigation of LPG partially premixed turbulent flames stabilized within a conical nozzle burner under constant degree of partial premixing. The stability limits and mean flame structure are presented based on the mean gas temperature and the concentration of CO, O 2, NO, and HC at the flame early region of reaction. The investigation covered the influence of the nozzle cone angle, the jet exit velocity and the jet equivalence ratio. The stability results show that the flames with cone are more stable than those without cone. For conical stabilized flames, the stability results exhibit three different sensitivity regions between the jet velocity and equivalence ratio. The inflame measurements prove that the flame stability could be attributed to the triple flame structure at the flame leading edge. The data show that the triple flame structure is influenced by cone angle, the jet velocity and the equivalence ratio. The flame is believed to be controlled by the recirculation flow inside the cone. Increasing the cone angle induced higher air entrainment to the reaction zone as depicted by a higher O 2 concentration within the flame leading edge. Increasing the jet velocity to a certain limit enhances the intensity of combustion at the flame leading edge, while excessive increase in jet velocity reduces this intensity. At a fixed jet velocity the higher the equivalence ratio, the higher the amount of fuel diffused and engulfed to the reaction zone, the more delay of the combustion completion and the higher the emission concentrations of the flame. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.

Premixed combustion of coconut oil in a hele-shaw cell

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hadi Saroso

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Coconut oil combustion characteristic is observed experimentally by evaporating oil in the boiler then mix it with air before being burned at various equivalence ratios in the Hele-shaw cell. The result shows that, coconut oil tends to break into glycerol and fatty acid due to hydrolysis reaction producing the flame propagation, where the fatty acid flame propagates first then glycerol flame. Micro-explosion occurs when moisture from fatty acid combustion is absorbed by glycerol and higher heating due to higher flame speed produces more micro-explosion.

Acoustic excitation of diffusion flames with coherent structure in a plane shear layer. ; Application of active combustion control to two-dimensional phase-locked arranging measurements. Soshiki kozo wo tomonau heimen sendai kakusan kaen no onkyo reiki. ; Nijigen iso heikin bunpu sokutei eno active nensho seigyo no oyo

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ishino, Y.; Kojima, T.; Oiwa, N.; Yamaguchi, S. (Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya (Japan))

1993-11-25

The acoustic excitation of a plane diffusion flame enhances the periodicity of organized eddy controlled combustion. In this study, to clarify an effectiveness of application of active combustion control, phase characteristics of the excited eddy flames with high periodicity have been examined. A computer-aided phase-locked averaging method was employed to obtain graphical two-dimensional contour maps of the instantaneous profiles of temperature and CH emission. Both maps consisting of eight consecutive phases indicated clearly not only the periodic behavior of the organized eddy flame, but also the gas dynamic properties peculiar to those flames with coherent structure. In addition, the profiles of local contribution of the sound field to the combustion process were examined by calculating the two-dimensional distribution of the local Rayleigh index. Calculation results of the two-dimensional distribution of the local Rayleigh index indicated that the organized eddy flames have high sensitivity to sound, and play an important role in an interaction of sound and flame. 6 refs., 9 figs.

The anchoring mechanism of a bluff-body stabilized laminar premixed flame

KAUST Repository

Kedia, Kushal S.

2014-09-01

The objective of this work is to investigate the mechanism of the laminar premixed flame anchoring near a heat-conducting bluff-body. We use unsteady, fully resolved, two-dimensional simulations with detailed chemical kinetics and species transport for methane-air combustion. No artificial flame anchoring boundary conditions were imposed. Simulations show a shear-layer stabilized flame just downstream of the bluff-body, with a recirculation zone formed by the products of combustion. A steel bluff-body resulted in a slightly larger recirculation zone than a ceramic bluff-body; the size of which grew as the equivalence ratio was decreased. A significant departure from the conventional two-zone flame-structure is shown in the anchoring region. In this region, the reaction zone is associated with a large negative energy convection (directed from products to reactants) resulting in a negative flame-displacement speed. It is shown that the premixed flame anchors at an immediate downstream location near the bluff-body where favorable ignition conditions are established; a region associated with (1) a sufficiently high temperature impacted by the conjugate heat exchange between the heat-conducting bluff-body and the hot reacting flow and (2) a locally maximum stoichiometry characterized by the preferential diffusion effects. © 2014 The Combustion Institute.

Brominated flame retardants and the formation of dioxins and furans in fires and combustion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhang, Mengmei [State key laboratory of clean energy utilisation, Institute for Thermal Power Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou (China); Buekens, Alfons [State key laboratory of clean energy utilisation, Institute for Thermal Power Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou (China); Formerly with Chemical Engineering department, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels (Belgium); Li, Xiaodong, E-mail: lixd@zju.edu.cn [State key laboratory of clean energy utilisation, Institute for Thermal Power Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou (China)

2016-03-05

Highlights: • BFRs (PBDEs, HBCD and TBBP-A) are the main sources of PBDD/Fs in combustion process. • Precursor formation is the most relevant pathway for PBDD/Fs formation. • Adding bromine into combustion system can enhance the formation of PCDD/Fs. • Primitive recycling of e-waste produces the largest amounts of PBDD/Fs. - Abstract: The widespread use and increasing inventory of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) have caused considerable concern, as a result of BFRs emissions to the environment and of the formation of both polybrominated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PBDD/Fs) and mixed polybromochloro-dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PBCDD/Fs or PXDD/Fs). Structural similarities between PBDD/Fs and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) suggest the existence of comparable formation pathways of both PBDD/Fs and PCDD/Fs, yet BFRs also act as specific precursors to form additional PBDD/Fs. Moreover, elementary bromine (Br{sub 2}) seems to facilitate chlorination by bromination of organics, followed by Br/Cl-exchange based on displacement through the more reactive halogen. Overall, PBDD/Fs form through three possible pathways: precursor formation, de novo formation, and dispersion of parts containing BFRs as impurities and surviving a fire or other events. The present review summarises the formation mechanisms of both brominated (PBDD/Fs) and mixed dioxins (PXDD/Fs with X = Br or Cl) from BFRs, recaps available emissions data of PBDD/Fs and mixed PXDD/Fs from controlled waste incineration, uncontrolled combustion sources and accidental fires, and identifies and analyses the effects of several local factors of influence, affecting the formation of PBDD/Fs and mixed PXDD/Fs during BFRs combustion.

Evaluation of partially premixed turbulent flame stability from mixture fraction statistics in a slot burner

KAUST Repository

Kruse, Stephan

2018-04-11

Partially premixed combustion is characterized by mixture fraction inhomogeneity upstream of the reaction zone and occurs in many applied combustion systems. The temporal and spatial fluctuations of the mixture fraction have tremendous impact on the combustion characteristics, emission formation, and flame stability. In this study, turbulent partially premixed flames are experimentally studied in a slot burner configuration. The local temperature and gas composition is determined by means of one-dimensional, simultaneous detection of Rayleigh and Raman scattering. The statistics of the mixture fraction are utilized to characterize the impact of the Reynolds number, the global equivalence ratio, the progress of mixing within the flame, as well as the mixing length on the mixing field. Furthermore, these effects are evaluated by means of a regime diagram for partially premixed flames. In this study, it is shown that the increase of the mixing length results in a significantly more stable flame. The impact of the Reynolds number on flame stability is found to be minor.

Evaluation of partially premixed turbulent flame stability from mixture fraction statistics in a slot burner

KAUST Repository

Kruse, Stephan; Mansour, Mohy S.; Elbaz, Ayman M.; Varea, Emilien; Grü nefeld, Gerd; Beeckmann, Joachim; Pitsch, Heinz

2018-01-01

Partially premixed combustion is characterized by mixture fraction inhomogeneity upstream of the reaction zone and occurs in many applied combustion systems. The temporal and spatial fluctuations of the mixture fraction have tremendous impact on the combustion characteristics, emission formation, and flame stability. In this study, turbulent partially premixed flames are experimentally studied in a slot burner configuration. The local temperature and gas composition is determined by means of one-dimensional, simultaneous detection of Rayleigh and Raman scattering. The statistics of the mixture fraction are utilized to characterize the impact of the Reynolds number, the global equivalence ratio, the progress of mixing within the flame, as well as the mixing length on the mixing field. Furthermore, these effects are evaluated by means of a regime diagram for partially premixed flames. In this study, it is shown that the increase of the mixing length results in a significantly more stable flame. The impact of the Reynolds number on flame stability is found to be minor.

Prediction method of unburnt carbon for coal fired utility boiler using image processing technique of combustion flame

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shimoda, M.; Sugano, A.; Kimura, T.; Watanabe, Y.; Ishiyama, K.

1990-01-01

This paper reports on a method predicting unburnt carbon in a coal fired utility boiler developed using an image processing technique. The method consists of an image processing unit and a furnace model unit. temperature distribution of combustion flames can be obtained through the former unit. The later calculates dynamics of the carbon reduction from the burner stages to the furnace outlet using coal feed rate, air flow rate, chemical and ash content of coal. An experimental study shows that the prediction error of the unburnt carbon can be reduced to 10%

Development of low-smoke, flame-retarding cables

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kato, H.; Kanemitsuya, K.; Furukawa, K.; Mio, K.

1983-01-01

A great deal of attention has been given to the potential fire hazard of combustion gases from organic materials. Although cable industries have developed flame-retarding organic materials for the insulation and jacketing of wires and cables, there was insufficient prevention of toxic gas formation during combustion. To cope with these problems associated with conventional PVC cables, the authors have directed to develop low-smoke, flame-retarding plasticized PVC formulations retaining the original mechanical, electrical and aging properties. A series of basic investigations on smoke suppression followed by an evaluation on practical cables could indicate some effective means to end these problems. This paper describes the results and discussion on smoke suppressing study of plasticized PVC as well as behavior and characteristics of the low-smoke, flame-retarding PVC wires and cables using these materials. (author)

The blow-off mechanism of a bluff-body stabilized laminar premixed flame

KAUST Repository

Kedia, Kushal S.

2015-04-01

© 2014 The Combustion Institute. The objective of this work is to investigate the dynamics leading to blow-off of a laminar premixed flame stabilized on a confined bluff-body using high fidelity numerical simulations. We used unsteady, fully resolved, two-dimensional simulations with detailed chemical kinetics and species transport for methane-air combustion. The flame-wall interaction between the hot reactants and the heat conducting bluff-body was accurately captured by incorporating the conjugate heat exchange between them. Simulations showed a shear-layer stabilized flame just downstream of the bluff-body, with a recirculation zone formed by the products of combustion. The flame was negatively stretched along its entire length, primarily dominated by the normal component of the strain. Blow-off was approached by decreasing the mixture equivalence ratio, at a fixed Reynolds number, of the incoming flow. A flame is stable (does not undergo blow-off) when (1) flame displacement speed is equal to the flow speed and (2) the gradient of the flame displacement speed normal to its surface is higher than the gradient of the flow speed along the same direction. As the equivalence ratio is reduced, the difference between the former and the latter shrinks until the dynamic stability condition (2) is violated, leading to blow-off. Blow-off initiates at a location where this is first violated along the flame. Our results showed that this location was far downstream from the flame anchoring zone, near the end of the recirculation zone. Blow-off started by flame pinching separating the flame into an upstream moving (carried within the recirculation zone) and a downstream convecting (detached from the recirculation zone) flame piece. Within the range of operating conditions investigated, the conjugate heat exchange with the bluff-body had no impact on the flame blow-off.

Growth of high-density ZnO nanorods on wood with enhanced photostability, flame retardancy and water repellency

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kong, Lizhuo; Tu, Kunkun; Guan, Hao [Research Institute of Wood Industry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091 (China); Wang, Xiaoqing, E-mail: wangxq@caf.ac.cn [Research Institute of Forestry New Technology, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091 (China); Research Institute of Wood Industry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091 (China)

2017-06-15

Highlights: • ZnO nanorod arrays were deposited on the wood surface via a hydrothermal process. • The assembled ZnO nanorod arrays greatly enhanced the photostability of wood. • The treated wood can sustain direct exposure to flame with only minor smoldering. • The ZnO-coated wood modified with stearic acid showed a superhydrophobic surface. - Abstract: Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorod arrays were successfully assembled on the wood surface in situ via a two-step process consisting of formation of ZnO seeds and subsequent crystal growth under hydrothermal conditions at a low temperature. The morphology and crystalline structure of the formed ZnO nanorods were studied by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Highly dense and uniform arrays of ZnO nanorods with well-defined hexagonal facets were generated on the wood surface by tuning the concentration of the ZnO growth solution during the hydrothermal treatment. Accelerated weathering tests indicated that the assembled ZnO nanorod arrays were highly protective against UV radiation and greatly enhanced the photostability of the coated wood. Meanwhile, the ZnO nanorod-coated wood can withstand continuous exposure to flame with only minor smoldering in contrast with the pristine wood catching fire easily and burning rapidly. Moreover, when further modified with low-surface-energy stearic acid, the ZnO nanorod decorated wood surface can be transformed into a superhydrophobic surface, with a water contact angle (CA) of ∼154°. Such ZnO nanorod-modified woods with enhanced photostability, flame retardancy and water repellency offer an interesting alternative to conventional wood preservation strategies, highlighting their potential applications in some novel wood products.

Growth of high-density ZnO nanorods on wood with enhanced photostability, flame retardancy and water repellency

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kong, Lizhuo; Tu, Kunkun; Guan, Hao; Wang, Xiaoqing

2017-01-01

Highlights: • ZnO nanorod arrays were deposited on the wood surface via a hydrothermal process. • The assembled ZnO nanorod arrays greatly enhanced the photostability of wood. • The treated wood can sustain direct exposure to flame with only minor smoldering. • The ZnO-coated wood modified with stearic acid showed a superhydrophobic surface. - Abstract: Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorod arrays were successfully assembled on the wood surface in situ via a two-step process consisting of formation of ZnO seeds and subsequent crystal growth under hydrothermal conditions at a low temperature. The morphology and crystalline structure of the formed ZnO nanorods were studied by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Highly dense and uniform arrays of ZnO nanorods with well-defined hexagonal facets were generated on the wood surface by tuning the concentration of the ZnO growth solution during the hydrothermal treatment. Accelerated weathering tests indicated that the assembled ZnO nanorod arrays were highly protective against UV radiation and greatly enhanced the photostability of the coated wood. Meanwhile, the ZnO nanorod-coated wood can withstand continuous exposure to flame with only minor smoldering in contrast with the pristine wood catching fire easily and burning rapidly. Moreover, when further modified with low-surface-energy stearic acid, the ZnO nanorod decorated wood surface can be transformed into a superhydrophobic surface, with a water contact angle (CA) of ∼154°. Such ZnO nanorod-modified woods with enhanced photostability, flame retardancy and water repellency offer an interesting alternative to conventional wood preservation strategies, highlighting their potential applications in some novel wood products.

Inertial particles in a turbulent premixed Bunsen flame

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Battista, F.; Picano, F.; Casciola, C.M.

2012-01-01

Many fields of engineering and physics are characterized by reacting flows seeded with particles of different inertia and dimensions, e.g. solid-propellant rockets, reciprocating engines where carbon particles form due to combustion, vulcano eruptions. Particles are also used as velocity transducers in Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) of turbulent flames. The effects of combustion on inertial particle dynamics is still poorly understood, despite its relevance for its effects on particle collisions and coalescence, phenomena which have a large influence in soot formation and growth. As a matter of fact, the flame front induces abrupt accelerations of the fluid in a very thin region which particles follow with different lags depending on their inertia. This phenomenon has a large impact on the particle spatial arrangement. The issuing clustering is here analyzed by a DNS of Bunsen turbulent flame coupled with particle Lagrangian tracking with the aim of evaluating the effect of inertia on particle spatial localization in combustion applications. The Eulerian algorith is based on Low-Mach number expansion of Navier-Stokes equations that allow arbitrary density variations neglecting acoustics waves. (orig.)

Inertial particles in a turbulent premixed Bunsen flame

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Battista, F.; Picano, F.; Casciola, C.M. [Sapienza Univ., Rome (Italy). Dipt. di Meccanica e Aeronautica; Troiani, G. [ENEA C.R. Casaccia, Rome (Italy)

2012-07-01

Many fields of engineering and physics are characterized by reacting flows seeded with particles of different inertia and dimensions, e.g. solid-propellant rockets, reciprocating engines where carbon particles form due to combustion, vulcano eruptions. Particles are also used as velocity transducers in Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) of turbulent flames. The effects of combustion on inertial particle dynamics is still poorly understood, despite its relevance for its effects on particle collisions and coalescence, phenomena which have a large influence in soot formation and growth. As a matter of fact, the flame front induces abrupt accelerations of the fluid in a very thin region which particles follow with different lags depending on their inertia. This phenomenon has a large impact on the particle spatial arrangement. The issuing clustering is here analyzed by a DNS of Bunsen turbulent flame coupled with particle Lagrangian tracking with the aim of evaluating the effect of inertia on particle spatial localization in combustion applications. The Eulerian algorith is based on Low-Mach number expansion of Navier-Stokes equations that allow arbitrary density variations neglecting acoustics waves. (orig.)

Simplified hydrodynamic model of hydrogen-flame propagation in reactor vessels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baer, M.R.; Ratzel, A.C.

1983-01-01

The model is consistent with the theory of slow combustion in which the gasdynamic field equations are treated in the limit of small Mach numbers. To the lowest order, pressure is spatially uniform. The flame is treated as a density and entropy discontinuity which propagates at prescribed burning velocities, corresponding to laminar or turbulent flames. Radiation cooling of the burned combustion gases and possible preheating of the unburned gases during propagation of the flame is included using a molecular gas-band thermal radiation model. Application of this model has been developed for 1-D variable-area flame propagation. Multidimensional effects induced by hydrodynamics and buoyancy are corrected for. This model of flame propagation reduces to differential equations which describes the temporal variations of vessel pressure, burned volume and gas entropy. The thermodynamic state of the burned gas immediately following the flame is determined using an isobaric Hugoniot relation. At other locations the burned-gas thermodynamic states are determined using a Lagrangian particle tracking method. Results of a computer code using the method are presented. 11 figures

Combustion, detonation, shock waves. Proceedings of the Zel'dovich memorial - International conference on combustion. Volume 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Merzhanov, A.G.; Frolov, S.M.

1995-01-01

This book contains lectures by the experts in various fields of modern research in combustion, detonation and shock waves, presented at the Zel'dovich memorial - International conference on combustion dedicated to the 80-th birthday of academician Ya.B. Zel'dovich. There are eight chapters discussing the state-of-the-art in combustion kinetics, ignition and steady-state flame propagation, diffusion and heterogeneous combustion, turbulent combustion, unsteady combustion, detonation, combustion and detonation analogies, intense shock waves and extreme states of matter [ru

Development and Experimental Validation of Large Eddy Simulation Techniques for the Prediction of Combustion-Dynamic Process in Syngas Combustion: Characterization of Autoignition, Flashback, and Flame-Liftoff at Gas-Turbine Relevant Operating Conditions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ihme, Matthias [Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States); Driscoll, James [Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)

2015-08-31

The objective of this closely coordinated experimental and computational research effort is the development of simulation techniques for the prediction of combustion processes, relevant to the oxidation of syngas and high hydrogen content (HHC) fuels at gas-turbine relevant operating conditions. Specifically, the research goals are (i) the characterization of the sensitivity of syngas ignition processes to hydrodynamic processes and perturbations in temperature and mixture composition in rapid compression machines and ow-reactors and (ii) to conduct comprehensive experimental investigations in a swirl-stabilized gas turbine (GT) combustor under realistic high-pressure operating conditions in order (iii) to obtain fundamental understanding about mechanisms controlling unstable flame regimes in HHC-combustion.

The Characteristics of Methane Combustion Suppression by Water Mist and Its Engineering Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rongkun Pan

2017-10-01

Full Text Available To safely mine coal, engineers must prevent gas combustion and explosions, as well as seek feasible and reasonable techniques to control for these types of incidents. This paper analyzes the causes and characteristics of methane combustion and explosions. Water mist is proposed to prevent and control methane combustion in an underground confined space. We constructed an experiment platform to investigate the suppression of methane combustion using water mist for different conditions. The experimental results showed that water mist is highly effective for methane flame inhibition. The flame was extinguished with water mist endothermic cooling. However, the annular regions of water vapor around the fire played a vital role in flame extinction. Water from the evaporating mist replaces the oxygen available to the fuel. Additionally, the time required for fuel ignition is prolonged. For these reasons, the water particle action to flame surface is reinforced and the fuel’s reaction with air is delayed. As a result, flame stretching and disturbances occur, which serve to extinguish the flame. Engineering application tests were carried out in the goaf, drill hole and upper-corner to investigate the prevention and control of methane gas combustion, with the results showing a good application effect.

Some aspects of numerical analysis of turbulent gaseous and spray combustion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takagi, T.

1991-01-01

In this paper numerical calculations and analysis on turbulent non-premixed gaseous and spray combustion are reviewed. Attentions were paid to the turbulent flow and combustion modeling applicable to predicting the flow, mixing and combustion of gaseous fuels and sprays. Some of the computed results of turbulent gaseous non-premixed (diffusion) flames with and without swirl and transient spray combustion were compared with experimental ones to understand the processes in the flame and to assure how the computations predict the experiments

Uncertainties in hydrogen combustion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stamps, D.W.; Wong, C.C.; Nelson, L.S.

1988-01-01

Three important areas of hydrogen combustion with uncertainties are identified: high-temperature combustion, flame acceleration and deflagration-to-detonation transition, and aerosol resuspension during hydrogen combustion. The uncertainties associated with high-temperature combustion may affect at least three different accident scenarios: the in-cavity oxidation of combustible gases produced by core-concrete interactions, the direct containment heating hydrogen problem, and the possibility of local detonations. How these uncertainties may affect the sequence of various accident scenarios is discussed and recommendations are made to reduce these uncertainties. 40 references

Impact of flame-wall interaction on premixed flame dynamics and transfer function characteristics

KAUST Repository

Kedia, K.S.

2011-01-01

In this paper, we numerically investigate the response of a perforated-plate stabilized laminar methane-air premixed flame to imposed inlet velocity perturbations. A flame model using detailed chemical kinetics mechanism is applied and heat exchange between the burner plate and the gas mixture is incorporated. Linear transfer functions, for low mean inlet velocity oscillations, are analyzed for different equivalence ratio, mean inlet velocity, plate thermal conductivity and distance between adjacent holes. The oscillations of the heat exchange rate at the top of the burner surface plays a critical role in driving the growth of the perturbations over a wide range of conditions, including resonance. The flame response to the perturbations at its base takes the form of consumption speed oscillations in this region. Flame stand-off distance increases/decreases when the flame-wall interaction strengthens/weakens, impacting the overall dynamics of the heat release. The convective lag between the perturbations and the flame base response govern the phase of heat release rate oscillations. There is an additional convective lag between the perturbations at the flame base and the flame tip which has a weaker impact on the heat release rate oscillations. At higher frequencies, the flame-wall interaction is weaker and the heat release oscillations are driven by the flame area oscillations. The response of the flame to higher amplitude oscillations are used to gain further insight into the mechanisms. © 2010 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of The Combustion Institute. All rights reserved.

Characteristics of non-premixed oxygen-enhanced combustion: II. Flame structure effects on soot precursor kinetics resulting in soot-free flames

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Skeen, S.A.; Axelbaum, R.L. [Department of Energy, Environmental, Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO (United States); Yablonsky, G. [Department of Energy, Environmental, Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO (United States); Parks College, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO (United States)

2010-09-15

A detailed computational study was performed to understand the effects of the flame structure on the formation and destruction of soot precursors during ethylene combustion. Using the USC Mech Version II mechanism the contributions of different pathways to the formation of benzene and phenyl were determined in a wide domain of Z{sub st} values via a reverse-pathway analysis. It was shown that for conventional ethylene-air flames two sequential reversible reactions play primary roles in the propargyl (C{sub 3}H{sub 3}) chemistry, namely (1) C{sub 2}H{sub 2}+CH{sub 3}= pC{sub 3} H{sub 4}+H, (2) pC{sub 3} H{sub 4}= C{sub 3} H{sub 3}+ H with the corresponding overall endothermic reaction of propargyl formation (3) C{sub 2} H{sub 2}+CH{sub 3}= C{sub 3} H{sub 3}+2H. The contributions of these reactions to propyne (pC{sub 3}H{sub 4}) and propargyl formation and propargyl self-combination leading to benzene and phenyl were studied as a function of physical position, temperature, Z{sub st}, and H concentration. In particular, the role of H radicals on soot precursor destruction was studied in detail. At low Z{sub st}, Reactions 1 and 2 contribute significantly to propyne and propargyl formation on the fuel side of the radical pool at temperatures greater than approx. 1600 K. At higher local temperatures near the radical pool where the concentration of H is significant, the reverse reactions begin to dominate resulting in soot precursor destruction. As Z{sub st} is increased, these regions merge and only net propargyl consumption is observed. Based on the equilibrium constant of Reaction 3, a Z{sub st} value was estimated above which the rate of propargyl formation as a soot precursor is greatly reduced (Z{sub st} = 0.3). This condition compares well with the experimental results for permanently blue counterflow flames in the literature. (author)

Computational Analysis of Spray Jet Flames

Science.gov (United States)

Jain, Utsav

There is a boost in the utilization of renewable sources of energy but because of high energy density applications, combustion will never be obsolete. Spray combustion is a type of multiphase combustion which has tremendous engineering applications in different fields, varying from energy conversion devices to rocket propulsion system. Developing accurate computational models for turbulent spray combustion is vital for improving the design of combustors and making them energy efficient. Flamelet models have been extensively used for gas phase combustion because of their relatively low computational cost to model the turbulence-chemistry interaction using a low dimensional manifold approach. This framework is designed for gas phase non-premixed combustion and its implementation is not very straight forward for multiphase and multi-regime combustion such as spray combustion. This is because of the use of a conserved scalar and various flamelet related assumptions. Mixture fraction has been popularly employed as a conserved scalar and hence used to parameterize the characteristics of gaseous flamelets. However, for spray combustion, the mixture fraction is not monotonic and does not give a unique mapping in order to parameterize the structure of spray flames. In order to develop a flamelet type model for spray flames, a new variable called the mixing variable is introduced which acts as an ideal conserved scalar and takes into account the convection and evaporation of fuel droplets. In addition to the conserved scalar, it has been observed that though gaseous flamelets can be characterized by the conserved scalar and its dissipation, this might not be true for spray flamelets. Droplet dynamics has a significant influence on the spray flamelet and because of effects such as flame penetration of droplets and oscillation of droplets across the stagnation plane, it becomes important to accommodate their influence in the flamelet formulation. In order to recognize the

FTIR Study of Comustion Species in Several Regions of a Candle Flame

Science.gov (United States)

White, Allen R.

2013-06-01

The complex chemical structure of the fuel in a candle flame, parafin, is broken down into smaller hydrocarbons in the dark region just above the candle wick during combustion. This creates fuel-rich, fuel-lean, hydrocarbon reaction, and combustion product regions in the flame during combustion that are spectroscopically rich, particularly in the infrared. IR emissions were measured for each reaction region via collection optics focused into an FTIR and used to identify IR active species present in that region and, when possible, temperature of the sampling region. The results of the measurements are useful for combustion reaction modeling as well as for future validation of mass spectroscopy sampling systems.

Steam-moderated oxy-fuel combustion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seepana, Sivaji; Jayanti, Sreenivas

2010-01-01

The objective of the present paper is to propose a new variant of the oxy-fuel combustion for carbondioxide (CO 2 ) sequestration in which steam is used to moderate the flame temperature. In this process, pure oxygen is mixed with steam and the resulting oxidant mixture is sent to the boiler for combustion with a fossil fuel. The advantage of this method is that flue gas recirculation is avoided and the volumetric flow rates through the boiler and auxiliary components is reduced by about 39% when compared to the conventional air-fired coal combustion power plant leading to a reduction in the size of the boiler. The flue gas, after condensation of steam, consists primarily of CO 2 and can be sent directly for compression and sequestration. Flame structure analysis has been carried out using a 325-step reaction mechanism of methane-oxidant combustion to determine the concentration of oxygen required to ensure a stable flame. Thermodynamic exergy analysis has also been carried out on SMOC-operated CO 2 sequestration power plant and air-fired power plant, which shows that though the gross efficiency increases the absolute power penalty of ∼8% for CO 2 sequestration when compared to air-fired power plant.

Steam-moderated oxy-fuel combustion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Seepana, Sivaji; Jayanti, Sreenivas [Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Madras, Adyar, Chennai 600 036 (India)

2010-10-15

The objective of the present paper is to propose a new variant of the oxy-fuel combustion for carbondioxide (CO{sub 2}) sequestration in which steam is used to moderate the flame temperature. In this process, pure oxygen is mixed with steam and the resulting oxidant mixture is sent to the boiler for combustion with a fossil fuel. The advantage of this method is that flue gas recirculation is avoided and the volumetric flow rates through the boiler and auxiliary components is reduced by about 39% when compared to the conventional air-fired coal combustion power plant leading to a reduction in the size of the boiler. The flue gas, after condensation of steam, consists primarily of CO{sub 2} and can be sent directly for compression and sequestration. Flame structure analysis has been carried out using a 325-step reaction mechanism of methane-oxidant combustion to determine the concentration of oxygen required to ensure a stable flame. Thermodynamic exergy analysis has also been carried out on SMOC-operated CO{sub 2} sequestration power plant and air-fired power plant, which shows that though the gross efficiency increases the absolute power penalty of {proportional_to}8% for CO{sub 2} sequestration when compared to air-fired power plant. (author)

Structure and combustion characteristics of turbulent, pre-mixed high-pressure flames; Projekt 'Struktur und Brenneigenschaften von turbulenten, vorgemischten Hochdruckflammen'

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Griebel, P.; Boschek, E.; Erne, D.; Siewert, P.

2005-12-15

This illustrated annual report for 2005 for the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) reports on the work done in 2005 at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) on the structure and combustion characteristics of turbulent, pre-mixed high-pressure flames. The aims of the project are described in detail, which include, among other things, the completion of previous work, the validation of simulations and the influence of turbulence on the flame front. Work done on the project in 2005 is described and commented on. Experimental installations are described and the results obtained are presented. Also, the influence of adding hydrogen to the methane fuel is commented on. National and international co-operation is reviewed and future work to be carried out is noted.

Development of a Premixed Combustion Capability for Scramjet Combustion Experiments

Science.gov (United States)

Rockwell, Robert D.; Goyne, Christopher P.; Rice, Brian E.; Chelliah, Harsha; McDaniel, James C.; Edwards, Jack R.; Cantu, Luca M. L.; Gallo, Emanuela C. A.; Cutler, Andrew D.; Danehy, Paul M.

2015-01-01

Hypersonic air-breathing engines rely on scramjet combustion processes, which involve high speed, compressible, and highly turbulent flows. The combustion environment and the turbulent flames at the heart of these engines are difficult to simulate and study in the laboratory under well controlled conditions. Typically, wind-tunnel testing is performed that more closely approximates engine testing rather than a careful investigation of the underlying physics that drives the combustion process. The experiments described in this paper, along with companion data sets being developed separately, aim to isolate the chemical kinetic effects from the fuel-air mixing process in a dual-mode scramjet combustion environment. A unique fuel injection approach is taken that produces a nearly uniform fuel-air mixture at the entrance to the combustor. This approach relies on the precombustion shock train upstream of the dual-mode scramjet combustor. A stable ethylene flame anchored on a cavity flameholder with a uniformly mixed combustor inflow has been achieved in these experiments allowing numerous companion studies involving coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS), particle image velocimetry (PIV), and planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) to be performed.

Quasi-dimensional modeling of a fast-burn combustion dual-plug spark-ignition engine with complex combustion chamber geometries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Altın, İsmail; Bilgin, Atilla

2015-01-01

This study builds on a previous parametric investigation using a thermodynamic-based quasi-dimensional (QD) cycle simulation of a spark-ignition (SI) engine with dual-spark plugs. The previous work examined the effects of plug-number and location on some performance parameters considering an engine with a simple cylindrical disc-shaped combustion chamber. In order to provide QD thermodynamic models applicable to complex combustion chamber geometries, a novel approach is considered here: flame-maps, which utilizes a computer aided design (CAD) software (SolidWorks). Flame maps are produced by the CAD software, which comprise all the possible flame radiuses with an increment of one-mm between them, according to the spark plug positions, spark timing, and piston position near the top dead center. The data are tabulated and stored as matrices. Then, these tabulated data are adapted to the previously reported cycle simulation. After testing for simple disc-shaped chamber geometries, the simulation is applied to a real production automobile (Honda-Fit) engine to perform the parametric study. - Highlights: • QD model was applied in dual plug engine with complex realistic combustion chamber. • This method successfully modeled the combustion in the dual-plug Honda-Fit engine. • The same combustion chamber is tested for various spark plug(s) locations. • The centrally located single spark-plug results in the fastest combustion

A Contribution to Turbulent Combustion: Premixed Flames and Material Surfaces Une contribution à la combustion turbulente : flammes prémélangées et surfaces des matériaux

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicolleau F.

2006-11-01

Full Text Available The behavior of premixed flames has been examined by many authors. In fact the problem of combustion which develops in a turbulent medium depends on two scalings. One makes reference to the scales of the flame the other one is related to the turbulent field. Comparisons between these two scalings allow us to identified what sort of regime is expected. In this paper we first study the development of a material surface which may be identify with a flame front under rather severe conditions. An analytical approach is first used. Hereafter a numerical simulation will be introduced. The role of a fine grained turbulence is more active on the extension of the surface than large structures. To a large extent big eddies convey the surface without distorting it. The risks of extinction are generally predicted by making comparisons between the scales of the flame and the scales of the turbulent field starting from a direct simulation. Poinçot et al show that the smallest structures are not responsible for the extinction : intermediate structures are more efficient than the smallest ones. In a previous paper the role of these structures was examined : the distorting mechanism are acting in a cumulative way. The life time of the smallest structures is too short to have them playing a decive role in the extinction process. Intermediate sized structures are less active but they strain the flame during a longer period. This idea requires a detailed description of the turbulent field. That is made possible by using the ß model which accounts for the location of turbulent structures whose ranks in the whole sequence is termed n . The cumulative role of the velocity gradients is given as a function of n . The influence of the intermediate structure on the extinction process is thereby emphasized. Finally the ß model is also used to describe the domain of distributed combustion zones. Flames propagate in limited regions of space. These regions are disconnected

Characteristics of combustion flame sprayed nickel aluminum using a Coanda Assisted Spray Manipulation collar for off-normal deposits

Science.gov (United States)

Archibald, Reid S.

A novel flame spray collar called the Coanda Assisted Spray Manipulation collar (CSM) has been tested for use on the Sulzer Metco 5P II combustion flame spray gun. A comparison study of the stock nozzle and the CSM has been performed by evaluating the porosity, surface roughness, microhardness, tensile strength and microscopy of normal and off-normal sprayed NiAl deposits. The use of the CSM collar resulted in the need to position the sprayed coupons closer to the gun, which in turn affected the particle impact energy and particle temperatures of the NiAl powder. For the CSM, porosities had a larger scatterband, surface roughness was comparably the same, microhardness was lower, and tensile strength was higher. The microscopy analysis revealed a greater presence of unmelted particles and steeper intersplat boundaries for the CSM. For both processes, the porosity and surface roughness increased and the microhardness decreased as the spray angle decreased.

Dynamics of premixed hydrogen/air flames in mesoscale channels

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pizza, Gianmarco [Paul Scherrer Institute, Combustion Research, CH-5232, Villigen PSI (Switzerland); Aerothermochemistry and Combustion Systems Laboratory, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, CH-8092, Zurich (Switzerland); Frouzakis, Christos E.; Boulouchos, Konstantinos [Aerothermochemistry and Combustion Systems Laboratory, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, CH-8092, Zurich (Switzerland); Mantzaras, John [Paul Scherrer Institute, Combustion Research, CH-5232, Villigen PSI (Switzerland); Tomboulides, Ananias G. [Department of Engineering and Management of Energy Resources, University of Western Macedonia, 50100 Kozani (Greece)

2008-10-15

Direct numerical simulation with detailed chemistry and transport is used to study the stabilization and dynamics of lean ({phi}=0.5) premixed hydrogen/air atmospheric pressure flames in mesoscale planar channels. Channel heights of h=2, 4, and 7 mm, and inflow velocities in the range 0.3{<=}U{sub IN}{<=}1100cm/ s are investigated. Six different burning modes are identified: mild combustion, ignition/extinction, closed steady symmetric flames, open steady symmetric flames, oscillating and, finally, asymmetric flames. Chaotic behavior of cellular flame structures is observed for certain values of U{sub IN}. Stability maps delineating the regions of the different flame types are finally constructed. (author)

The influence of fuel-air swirl intensity on flame structures of syngas swirl-stabilized diffusion flame

Science.gov (United States)

Shao, Weiwei; Xiong, Yan; Mu, Kejin; Zhang, Zhedian; Wang, Yue; Xiao, Yunhan

2010-06-01

Flame structures of a syngas swirl-stabilized diffusion flame in a model combustor were measured using the OH-PLIF method under different fuel and air swirl intensity. The flame operated under atmospheric pressure with air and a typical low heating-value syngas with a composition of 28.5% CO, 22.5% H2 and 49% N2 at a thermal power of 34 kW. Results indicate that increasing the air swirl intensity with the same fuel, swirl intensity flame structures showed little difference except a small reduction of flame length; but also, with the same air swirl intensity, fuel swirl intensity showed great influence on flame shape, length and reaction zone distribution. Therefore, compared with air swirl intensity, fuel swirl intensity appeared a key effect on the flame structure for the model combustor. Instantaneous OH-PLIF images showed that three distinct typical structures with an obvious difference of reaction zone distribution were found at low swirl intensity, while a much compacter flame structure with a single, stable and uniform reaction zone distribution was found at large fuel-air swirl intensity. It means that larger swirl intensity leads to efficient, stable combustion of the syngas diffusion flame.

Premixed Flames Under Microgravity and Normal Gravity Conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Krikunova, Anastasia I.; Son, Eduard E.

2018-03-01

Premixed conical CH4-air flames were studied experimentally and numerically under normal straight, reversed gravity conditions and microgravity. Low-gravity experiments were performed in Drop tower. Classical Bunsen-type burner was used to find out features of gravity influence on the combustion processes. Mixture equivalence ratio was varied from 0.8 to 1.3. Wide range of flow velocity allows to study both laminar and weakly turbulized flames. High-speed flame chemoluminescence video-recording was used as diagnostic. The investigations were performed at atmospheric pressure. As results normalized flame height, laminar flame speed were measured, also features of flame instabilities were shown. Low- and high-frequency flame-instabilities (oscillations) have a various nature as velocity fluctuations, preferential diffusion instability, hydrodynamic and Rayleigh-Taylor ones etc., that was explored and demonstrated.

Measurements and Experimental Database Review for Laminar Flame Speed Premixed Ch4/Air Flames

Science.gov (United States)

Zubrilin, I. A.; Matveev, S. S.; Matveev, S. G.; Idrisov, D. V.

2018-01-01

Laminar flame speed (SL ) of CH4 was determined at atmospheric pressure and initial gas temperatures in range from 298 to 358 K. The heat flux method was employed to measure the flame speed in non-stretched flames. The kinetic mechanism GRI 3.0 [1] were used to simulate SL . The measurements were compared with available literature results. The data determined with the heat flux method agree with some previous burner measurements and disagree with the data from some vessel closed method and counterflow method. The GRI 3.0 mechanism was able to reproduce the present experiments. Laminar flame speed was determined at pressures range from of 1 to 20 atmospheres through mechanism GRI 3.0. Based on experimental data and calculations was obtained SL dependence on pressure and temperature. The resulting of dependence recommended use during the numerical simulation of methane combustion.

Understanding premixed flame chemistry of gasoline fuels by comparing quantities of interest

KAUST Repository

Selim, Hatem

2016-07-23

Gasoline fuels are complex mixtures that vary in composition depending on crude oil feedstocks and refining processes. Gasoline combustion in high-speed spark ignition engines is governed by flame propagation, so understanding fuel composition effects on premixed flame chemistry is important. In this study, the combustion chemistry of low-pressure, burner-stabilized, premixed flames of two gasoline fuels was investigated under stoichiometric conditions. Flame speciation was conducted using vacuum-ultraviolet synchrotron photoionization time-of-flight molecular beam mass spectroscopy. Stable end-products, intermediate hydrocarbons, and free radicals were detected and quantified. In addition, several isomeric species in the reaction pool were distinguished and quantified with the help of the highly tunable synchrotron radiation. A comparison between the products of both flames is presented and the major differences are highlighted. Premixed flame numerical simulations were conducted using surrogate fuel kinetic models for each flame. Furthermore, a new approach was developed to elucidate the main discrepancies between experimental measurements and the numerical predictions by comparing quantities of interest. © 2016.

Direct numerical simulations of turbulent lean premixed combustion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sankaran, Ramanan; Hawkes, Evatt R; Chen, Jacqueline H; Lu Tianfeng; Law, Chung K

2006-01-01

In recent years, due to the advent of high-performance computers and advanced numerical algorithms, direct numerical simulation (DNS) of combustion has emerged as a valuable computational research tool, in concert with experimentation. The role of DNS in delivering new Scientific insight into turbulent combustion is illustrated using results from a recent 3D turbulent premixed flame simulation. To understand the influence of turbulence on the flame structure, a 3D fully-resolved DNS of a spatially-developing lean methane-air turbulent Bunsen flame was performed in the thin reaction zones regime. A reduced chemical model for methane-air chemistry consisting of 13 resolved species, 4 quasi-steady state species and 73 elementary reactions was developed specifically for the current simulation. The data is analyzed to study possible influences of turbulence on the flame thickness. The results show that the average flame thickness increases, in qualitative agreement with several experimental results

Hydrogen combustion modelling in large-scale geometries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Studer, E.; Beccantini, A.; Kudriakov, S.; Velikorodny, A.

2014-01-01

Hydrogen risk mitigation issues based on catalytic recombiners cannot exclude flammable clouds to be formed during the course of a severe accident in a Nuclear Power Plant. Consequences of combustion processes have to be assessed based on existing knowledge and state of the art in CFD combustion modelling. The Fukushima accidents have also revealed the need for taking into account the hydrogen explosion phenomena in risk management. Thus combustion modelling in a large-scale geometry is one of the remaining severe accident safety issues. At present day there doesn't exist a combustion model which can accurately describe a combustion process inside a geometrical configuration typical of the Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) environment. Therefore the major attention in model development has to be paid on the adoption of existing approaches or creation of the new ones capable of reliably predicting the possibility of the flame acceleration in the geometries of that type. A set of experiments performed previously in RUT facility and Heiss Dampf Reactor (HDR) facility is used as a validation database for development of three-dimensional gas dynamic model for the simulation of hydrogen-air-steam combustion in large-scale geometries. The combustion regimes include slow deflagration, fast deflagration, and detonation. Modelling is based on Reactive Discrete Equation Method (RDEM) where flame is represented as an interface separating reactants and combustion products. The transport of the progress variable is governed by different flame surface wrinkling factors. The results of numerical simulation are presented together with the comparisons, critical discussions and conclusions. (authors)

FY 1994 annual report. Advanced combustion science utilizing microgravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1994-10-01

Researches on combustion in microgravity were conducted to develop combustion devices for advanced combustion techniques, and thereby to cope with the requirements for diversification of energy sources and abatement of environmental pollution by exhaust gases. This project was implemented under the research cooperation agreement with US's NASA, and the Japanese experts visited NASA's test facilities. NASA's Lewis Research Center has drop test facilities, of which the 2.2-sec drop test facilities are useful for researches by Japan. The cooperative research themes for combustion in microgravity selected include interactions between fuel droplets, high-pressure combustion of binary fuel sprays, and ignition and subsequent flame propagation in microgravity. An ignition test equipment, density field measurement equipment and flame propagation test equipment were constructed in Japan to conduct the combustion tests in microgravity for, e.g., combustion and evaporation of fuel droplets, combustion characteristics of liquid fuels mixed with solid particles, combustion of coal/oil mixture droplets, and estimating flammability limits. (NEDO)

Linear analysis of the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability in shock-flame interactions

Science.gov (United States)

Massa, L.; Jha, P.

2012-05-01

Shock-flame interactions enhance supersonic mixing and detonation formation. Therefore, their analysis is important to explosion safety, internal combustion engine performance, and supersonic combustor design. The fundamental process at the basis of the interaction is the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability supported by the density difference between burnt and fresh mixtures. In the present study we analyze the effect of reactivity on the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability with particular emphasis on combustion lengths that typify the scaling between perturbation growth and induction. The results of the present linear analysis study show that reactivity changes the perturbation growth rate by developing a pressure gradient at the flame surface. The baroclinic torque based on the density gradient across the flame acts to slow down the instability growth of high wave-number perturbations. A gasdynamic flame representation leads to the definition of a Peclet number representing the scaling between perturbation and thermal diffusion lengths within the flame. Peclet number effects on perturbation growth are observed to be marginal. The gasdynamic model also considers a finite flame Mach number that supports a separation between flame and contact discontinuity. Such a separation destabilizes the interface growth by augmenting the tangential shear.

Autoignited laminar lifted flames of methane, ethylene, ethane, and n-butane jets in coflow air with elevated temperature

KAUST Repository

Choi, Byungchul

2010-12-01

The autoignition characteristics of laminar lifted flames of methane, ethylene, ethane, and n-butane fuels have been investigated experimentally in coflow air with elevated temperature over 800. K. The lifted flames were categorized into three regimes depending on the initial temperature and fuel mole fraction: (1) non-autoignited lifted flame, (2) autoignited lifted flame with tribrachial (or triple) edge, and (3) autoignited lifted flame with mild combustion. For the non-autoignited lifted flames at relatively low temperature, the existence of lifted flame depended on the Schmidt number of fuel, such that only the fuels with Sc > 1 exhibited stationary lifted flames. The balance mechanism between the propagation speed of tribrachial flame and local flow velocity stabilized the lifted flames. At relatively high initial temperatures, either autoignited lifted flames having tribrachial edge or autoignited lifted flames with mild combustion existed regardless of the Schmidt number of fuel. The adiabatic ignition delay time played a crucial role for the stabilization of autoignited flames. Especially, heat loss during the ignition process should be accounted for, such that the characteristic convection time, defined by the autoignition height divided by jet velocity was correlated well with the square of the adiabatic ignition delay time for the critical autoignition conditions. The liftoff height was also correlated well with the square of the adiabatic ignition delay time. © 2010 The Combustion Institute.

Flame visualization in power stations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hulshof, H J.M.; Thus, A W; Verhage, A J.L. [KEMA Fossil Generation, Arnhem (Netherlands)

1994-01-01

The study on the title subject is aimed at the determination of the form of the flame and the radiation temperature of the flames of the burners in electric power plants. The adjustment of the burners in a boiler is assessed on the basis of the total performance, in which the NO[sub x]- and CO-concentrations in the flue gases are normative. By comparing the burners mutually, deviating adjustments can be observed, applying optical monitoring techniques. Measurements have been carried out of the coal flames in the unit Gelderland13 of the Dutch energy production company EPON and of the gas flames at the Claus plant A and B of the Dutch energy company EPZ. The final aim of the title study is to draft guidelines, based on the measured flame data, by means of which for every individual burner the adjustment of the fuel supply, the relation with the air supply and the swirl of the combustion air can be optimized

Differential Mutagenicity and Lung Toxicity of Smoldering Versus Flaming Emissions from a Variety of Biomass Fuels

Science.gov (United States)

Wildfire smoke properties change with combustion conditions and biomass fuel types. However the specific role of wildfire conditions on the health effects following smoke exposure are uncertain. This study applies a novel combustion and smoke-collection system to examine emission...

Improvement of a combustion model in MELCOR code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ogino, Masao; Hashimoto, Takashi

1999-01-01

NUPEC has been improving a hydrogen combustion model in MELCOR code for severe accident analysis. In the proposed combustion model, the flame velocity in a node was predicted using five different flame front shapes of fireball, prism, bubble, spherical jet, and plane jet. For validation of the proposed model, the results of the Battelle multi-compartment hydrogen combustion test were used. The selected test cases for the study were Hx-6, 13, 14, 20 and Ix-2 which had two, three or four compartments under homogeneous hydrogen concentration of 5 to 10 vol%. The proposed model could predict well the combustion behavior in multi-compartment containment geometry on the whole. MELCOR code, incorporating the present combustion model, can simulate combustion behavior during severe accident with acceptable computing time and some degree of accuracy. The applicability study of the improved MELCOR code to the actual reactor plants will be further continued. (author)

An experimental study on premixed CNG/H2/CO2 mixture flames

Science.gov (United States)

Yilmaz, Ilker; Yilmaz, Harun; Cam, Omer

2018-03-01

In this study, the effect of swirl number, gas composition and CO2 dilution on combustion and emission behaviour of CNG/H2/CO2 gas mixtures was experimentally investigated in a laboratory scale combustor. Irrespective of the gas composition, thermal power of the combustor was kept constant (5 kW). All experiments were conducted at or near stoichiometric and the local atmospheric conditions of the city of Kayseri, Turkey. During experiments, swirl number was varied and the combustion performance of this combustor was analysed by means of centreline temperature distributions. On the other hand, emission behaviour was examined with respect to emitted CO, CO2 and NOx levels. Dynamic flame behaviour was also evaluated by analysing instantaneous flame images. Results of this study revealed the great impact of swirl number and gas composition on combustion and emission behaviour of studied flames.

Premixed combustion on ceramic foam burners

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bouma, P.H.; Goey, de L.P.H.

1999-01-01

Combustion of a lean premixed methane–air mixture stabilized on a ceramic foam burner has been studied. The stabilization of the flame in the radiant mode has been simulated using a one-dimensional numerical model for a burner stabilized flat-flame, taking into account the heat transfer between the

Radiation energy devaluation in diffusion combusting flows of natural gas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Makhanlall, Deodat; Munda, Josiah L.; Jiang, Peixue

2013-01-01

Abstract: CFD (Computational fluid dynamics) is used to evaluate the thermodynamic second-law effects of thermal radiation in turbulent diffusion natural gas flames. Radiative heat transfer processes in gas and at solid walls are identified as important causes of energy devaluation in the combusting flows. The thermodynamic role of thermal radiation cannot be neglected when compared to that of heat conduction and convection, mass diffusion, chemical reactions, and viscous dissipation. An energy devaluation number is also defined, with which the optimum fuel–air equivalence for combusting flows can be determined. The optimum fuel–air equivalence ratio for a natural gas flame is determined to be 0.7. The CFD model is validated against experimental measurements. - Highlights: • Thermodynamic effects of thermal radiation in combusting flows analyzed. • General equation for second-law analyses of combusting flows extended. • Optimum fuel–air equivalence ratio determined for natural gas flame

Effect of an external electric field on the propagation velocity of premixed flames

KAUST Repository

Sánchez-Sanz, Mario

2015-01-01

© 2014 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. There have been many experimental investigations into the ability of electric fields to enhance combustion by acting upon ion species present in flames [1]. In this work, we examine this phenomenon using a one-dimensional model of a lean premixed flame under the influence of a longitudinal electric field. We expand upon prior two-step chain-branching reaction laminar models with reactions to model the creation and consumption of both a positively-charged radical species and free electrons. Also included are the electromotive force in the conservation equation for ion species and the electrostatic form of the Maxwell equations in order to resolve ion transport by externally applied and internally induced electric fields. The numerical solution of these equations allows us to compute changes in flame speed due to electric fields. Further, the variation of key kinetic and transport parameters modifies the electrical sensitivity of the flame. From changes in flame speed and reactant profiles we are able to gain novel, valuable insight into how and why combustion can be controlled by electric fields.

The turbulence structure in an unconfined swirling diffusion flame

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Finzenhagen, F.; Doherty, T.O.; Bates, C.; Wirtz, S.; Kremer, H.

1999-01-01

Turbulent swirling flows are used in many practical combustion systems. The swirl improves the flame stability as a result of the formation of a central recirculation zone combined with fast mixing at the boundaries of this zone. Knowledge about swirl flames has increased over the last few decades as a result of practical experience and fundamental research. Some important questions concerning the influence of the turbulence structure on the flame stability and chemical kinetics of the combustion process remain unresolved. The structure of turbulence, especially turbulent scales and time dependent effects, at the outlet zone controls the mixing process and therefore the flame properties. Understanding of these complex phenomena is far from complete. The present work describes the results of an experimental study of the turbulence structure of a swirled diffusion flame using laser-optical measurement techniques, e.g. Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA) and Particle Image Velocimetry (PW). All the processed information available from the burst-mode Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA) measurements has been combined and compared with high spatial resolution PIV measurements of the flow. The extensive statistical post processing of the data has enabled the turbulent microstructure to be characterised. (author)

Autoignited lifted flames of dimethyl ether in heated coflow air

KAUST Repository

Al-Noman, Saeed M.

2018-05-16

Autoignited lifted flames of dimethyl ether (DME) in laminar nonpremixed jets with high-temperature coflow air have been studied experimentally. When the initial temperature was elevated to over 860 K, an autoignition occurred without requiring an external ignition source. A planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) technique for formaldehyde (CH2O) visualized qualitatively the zone of low temperature kinetics in a premixed flame. Two flame configurations were investigated; (1) autoignited lifted flames with tribrachial edge having three distinct branches of a lean and a rich premixed flame wings with a trailing diffusion flame and (2) autoignited lifted flames with mild combustion when the fuel was highly diluted. For the autoignited tribrachial edge flames at critical autoignition conditions, exhibiting repetitive extinction and re-ignition phenomena near a blowout condition, the characteristic flow time (liftoff height scaled with jet velocity) was correlated with the square of the ignition delay time of the stoichiometric mixture. The liftoff heights were also correlated as a function of jet velocity times the square of ignition delay time. Formaldehydes were observed between the fuel nozzle and the lifted flame edge, emphasizing a low-temperature kinetics for autoignited lifted flames, while for a non-autoignited lifted flame, formaldehydes were observed near a thin luminous flame zone.For the autoignited lifted flames with mild combustion, especially at a high temperature, a unique non-monotonic liftoff height behavior was observed; decreasing and then increasing liftoff height with jet velocity. This behavior was similar to the binary mixture fuels of CH4/H2 and CO/H2 observed previously. A transient homogeneous autoignition analysis suggested that such decreasing behavior with jet velocity can be attributed to partial oxidation characteristics of DME in producing appreciable amounts of CH4/CO/H2 ahead of the edge flame region.

Autoignited lifted flames of dimethyl ether in heated coflow air

KAUST Repository

Al-Noman, Saeed M.; Choi, Byung Chul; Chung, Suk-Ho

2018-01-01

Autoignited lifted flames of dimethyl ether (DME) in laminar nonpremixed jets with high-temperature coflow air have been studied experimentally. When the initial temperature was elevated to over 860 K, an autoignition occurred without requiring an external ignition source. A planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) technique for formaldehyde (CH2O) visualized qualitatively the zone of low temperature kinetics in a premixed flame. Two flame configurations were investigated; (1) autoignited lifted flames with tribrachial edge having three distinct branches of a lean and a rich premixed flame wings with a trailing diffusion flame and (2) autoignited lifted flames with mild combustion when the fuel was highly diluted. For the autoignited tribrachial edge flames at critical autoignition conditions, exhibiting repetitive extinction and re-ignition phenomena near a blowout condition, the characteristic flow time (liftoff height scaled with jet velocity) was correlated with the square of the ignition delay time of the stoichiometric mixture. The liftoff heights were also correlated as a function of jet velocity times the square of ignition delay time. Formaldehydes were observed between the fuel nozzle and the lifted flame edge, emphasizing a low-temperature kinetics for autoignited lifted flames, while for a non-autoignited lifted flame, formaldehydes were observed near a thin luminous flame zone.For the autoignited lifted flames with mild combustion, especially at a high temperature, a unique non-monotonic liftoff height behavior was observed; decreasing and then increasing liftoff height with jet velocity. This behavior was similar to the binary mixture fuels of CH4/H2 and CO/H2 observed previously. A transient homogeneous autoignition analysis suggested that such decreasing behavior with jet velocity can be attributed to partial oxidation characteristics of DME in producing appreciable amounts of CH4/CO/H2 ahead of the edge flame region.

Turbulent Jet Flames Into a Vitiated Coflow. PhD Thesis awarded Spring 2003

Science.gov (United States)

Holdeman, James D. (Technical Monitor); Cabra, Ricardo

2004-01-01

Examined is the vitiated coflow flame, an experimental condition that decouples the combustion processes of flows found in practical combustors from the associated recirculating fluid mechanics. The configuration consists of a 4.57 mm diameter fuel jet into a coaxial flow of hot combustion products from a lean premixed flame. The 210 mm diameter coflow isolates the jet flame from the cool ambient, providing a hot environment similar to the operating conditions of advanced combustors; this important high temperature element is lacking in the traditional laboratory experiments of jet flames into cool (room) air. A family of flows of increasing complexity is presented: 1) nonreacting flow, 2) all hydrogen flame (fuel jet and premixed coflow), and 3) set of methane flames. This sequence of experiments provides a convenient ordering of validation data for combustion models. Laser Raman-Rayleigh-LIF diagnostics at the Turbulent Diffusion Flame laboratory of Sandia National Laboratories produced instantaneous multiscalar point measurements. These results attest to the attractive features of the vitiated coflow burner and the well-defined boundary conditions provided by the coflow. The coflow is uniform and steady, isolating the jet flame from the laboratory air for a downstream distance ranging from z/d = 50-70. The statistical results show that differential diffusion effects in this highly turbulent flow are negligible. Complementing the comprehensive set of multiscalar measurements is a parametric study of lifted methane flames that was conducted to analyze flame sensitivity to jet and coflow velocity, as well as coflow temperature. The linear relationship found between the lift-off height and the jet velocity is consistent with previous experiments. New linear sensitivities were found correlating the lift-off height to coflow velocity and temperature. A blow-off study revealed that the methane flame blows off at a common coflow temperature (1260 K), regardless of

Gaseous Non-Premixed Flame Research Planned for the International Space Station

Science.gov (United States)

Stocker, Dennis P.; Takahashi, Fumiaki; Hickman, J. Mark; Suttles, Andrew C.

2014-01-01

Thus far, studies of gaseous diffusion flames on the International Space Station (ISS) have been limited to research conducted in the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) in mid-2009 and early 2012. The research was performed with limited instrumentation, but novel techniques allowed for the determination of the soot temperature and volume fraction. Development is now underway for the next experiments of this type. The Advanced Combustion via Microgravity Experiments (ACME) project consists of five independent experiments that will be conducted with expanded instrumentation within the stations Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR). ACMEs goals are to improve our understanding of flame stability and extinction limits, soot control and reduction, oxygen-enriched combustion which could enable practical carbon sequestration, combustion at fuel lean conditions where both optimum performance and low emissions can be achieved, the use of electric fields for combustion control, and materials flammability. The microgravity environment provides longer residence times and larger length scales, yielding a broad range of flame conditions which are beneficial for simplified analysis, e.g., of limit behaviour where chemical kinetics are important. The detailed design of the modular ACME hardware, e.g., with exchangeable burners, is nearing completion, and it is expected that on-orbit testing will begin in 2016.

Flame acceleration of hydrogen - air - diluent mixtures at middle scale using ENACCEF: experiments and modelling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fabrice Malet; Nathalie Lamoureux; Nabiha Djebaili-Chaumeix; Claude-Etienne Paillard; Pierre Pailhories; Jean-Pierre L'heriteau; Bernard Chaumont; Ahmed Bentaib

2005-01-01

Full text of publication follows: In the case of hypothetic severe accident on light water nuclear reactor, hydrogen would be produced during reactor core degradation and released to the reactor building which could subsequently raise a combustion hazard. A local ignition of the combustible mixture would give birth initially to a slow flame which can be accelerated due to turbulence. Depending on the geometry and the premixed combustible mixture composition, the flame can accelerate and for some conditions transit to detonation or be quenched after a certain distance. The flame acceleration is responsible for the generation of high pressure loads that could damage the reactor's building. Moreover, geometrical configuration is a major factor leading to flame acceleration. Thus, recording experimental data notably on mid-size installations is required for the numeric simulations validation before modelling realistic scales. The ENACCEF vertical facility is a 6 meters high acceleration tube aimed at representing steam generator room leading to containment dome. This setup can be equipped with obstacles of different blockage ratios and shapes in order to obtain an acceleration of the flame. Depending on the geometrical characteristics of these obstacles, different regimes of the flame propagation can be achieved. The mixture composition's influence on flame velocity and acceleration has been investigated. Using a steam physical-like diluent (40% He - 60% CO 2 ), influence of dilution on flame speed and acceleration has been investigated. The flame front has also been recorded with ultra fast ombroscopy visualization, both in the tube and in dome's the entering. The flame propagation is computed using the TONUS code. Based on Euler's equation solving code using structured finite volumes, it includes the CREBCOM flames modelling and simulates the hydrogen/air turbulent flame propagation, taking into account 3D complex geometry and reactants concentration gradients. Since

Transported PDF Modeling of Ethanol Spray in Hot-Diluted Coflow Flame

OpenAIRE

Ma, L.; Naud, B.; Roekaerts, D.J.E.M.

2015-01-01

This paper presents a numerical modeling study of one ethanol spray flame from the Delft Spray-in-Hot-Coflow (DSHC) database, which has been used to study Moderate or Intense Low-oxygen Dilution (MILD) combustion of liquid fuels (Correia Rodrigues et al. Combust. Flame 162(3), 759–773, 2015). A “Lagrangian-Lagrangian” approach is adopted where both the joint velocity-scalar Probability Density Function (PDF) for the continuous phase and the joint PDF of droplet properties are modeled and solv...

Nonpremixed flame in a counterflow under electric fields

KAUST Repository

Park, Daegeun

2016-05-08

Electrically assisted combustion has been studied in order to control or improve flame characteristics, and emphasizing efficiency and emission regulation. Many phenomenological observations have been reported on the positive impact of electric fields on flame, however there is a lack of detailed physical mechanisms for interpreting these. To clarify the effects of electric fields on flame, I have investigated flame structure, soot formation, and flow field with ionic wind electrical current responses in nonpremixed counterflow flames. The effects of direct current (DC) electric field on flame movement and flow field was also demonstrated in premixed Bunsen flames. When a DC electric field was applied to a lower nozzle, the flames moved toward the cathode side due to Lorentz force action on the positive ions, soot particles simultaneously disappeared completely and laser diagnostics was used to identify the results from the soot particles. To understand the effects of an electric field on flames, flow visualization was performed by Mie scattering to check the ionic wind effect, which is considered to play an important role in electric field assisted combustion. Results showed a bidirectional ionic wind, with a double-stagnant flow configuration, which blew from the flame (ionic source) toward both the cathode and the anode. This implies that the electric field affects strain rate and the axial location of stoichiometry, important factors in maintaining nonpremixed counterflow flames; thus, soot formation of the counterflow flame can also be affected by the electric field. In a test of premixed Bunsen flames having parallel electrodes, flame movement toward the cathode and bidirectional ionic wind were observed. Using PIV measurement it was found that a created radial velocity caused by positive ions (i.e. toward a cathode), was much faster than the velocity toward the anode. Even in a study of alternating current (AC) electric fields, bidirectional ionic wind could

Plasma Assisted Combustion

Science.gov (United States)

2007-02-28

Tracking an individual streamer branch among others in a pulsed induced discharge J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 35 2823--9 [29] van Veldhuizen E M and Rutgers...2005) AIAA–2005–0405. [99] E.M. Van Veldhuizen (ed) Electrical Discharges for Environmental Purposes: Fun- damentals and Applications (New York: Nova...Vandooren J, Van Tiggelen P J 1977 Reaction Mechanism and Rate Constants in Lean Hydrogen–Nitrous Oxide Flames Combust. Flame 28 165 [201] Dean A M, Steiner

Augmenting the Structures in a Swirling Flame via Diffusive Injection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jonathan Lewis

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Small scale experimentation using particle image velocimetry investigated the effect of the diffusive injection of methane, air, and carbon dioxide on the coherent structures in a swirling flame. The interaction between the high momentum flow region (HMFR and central recirculation zone (CRZ of the flame is a potential cause of combustion induced vortex breakdown (CIVB and occurs when the HMFR squeezes the CRZ, resulting in upstream propagation. The diffusive introduction of methane or carbon dioxide through a central injector increased the size and velocity of the CRZ relative to the HMFR whilst maintaining flame stability, reducing the likelihood of CIVB occurring. The diffusive injection of air had an opposing effect, reducing the size and velocity of the CRZ prior to eradicating it completely. This would also prevent combustion induced vortex breakdown CIVB occurring as a CRZ is fundamental to the process; however, without recirculation it would create an inherently unstable flame.

Halogenated flame retardants in the Great Lakes environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Venier, Marta; Salamova, Amina; Hites, Ronald A

2015-07-21

Flame retardants are widely used industrial chemicals that are added to polymers, such as polyurethane foam, to prevent them from rapidly burning if exposed to a small flame or a smoldering cigarette. Flame retardants, especially brominated flame retardants, are added to many polymeric products at percent levels and are present in most upholstered furniture and mattresses. Most of these chemicals are so-called "additive" flame retardants and are not chemically bound to the polymer; thus, they migrate from the polymeric materials into the environment and into people. As a result, some of these chemicals have become widespread pollutants, which is a concern given their possible adverse health effects. Perhaps because of their environmental ubiquity, the most heavily used group of brominated flame retardants, the polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), was withdrawn from production and use during the 2004-2013 period. This led to an increasing demand for other flame retardants, including other brominated aromatics and organophosphate esters. Although little is known about the use or production volumes of these newer flame retardants, it is evident that some of these chemicals are also becoming pervasive in the environment and in humans. In this Account, we describe our research on the occurrence of halogenated and organophosphate flame retardants in the environment, with a specific focus on the Great Lakes region. This Account starts with a short introduction to the first generation of brominated flame retardants, the polybrominated biphenyls, and then presents our measurements of their replacement, the PBDEs. We summarize our data on PBDE levels in babies, bald eagles, and in air. Once these compounds came off the market, we began to measure several of the newer flame retardants in air collected on the shores of the Great Lakes once every 12 days. These new measurements focus on a tetrabrominated benzoate, a tetrabrominated phthalate, a hexabrominated diphenoxyethane

Methodology for full comparative assessment of direct gross glycerin combustion in a flame tube furnace

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Maturana, Aymer Yeferson; Pagliuso, Josmar D. [Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. Sao Carlos School of Engineering. University of Sao Paulo, Sao Carlos, SP (Brazil)], e-mails: aymermat@sc.usp.br, josmar@sc.usp.br

2010-07-01

This study is to develop a methodology to identify and evaluate the emissions and heat transfer associated to combustion of gross glycerin a by-product of the Brazilian biodiesel manufacture process as alternative energy source. It aims to increase the present knowledge on the matter and to contribute to the improvement of the economic and environmental perspective of biodiesel industry. This methodology was considered to be used for assessment of gross glycerin combustion from three different types of biodiesel (bovine tallow, palm and soy). The procedures for evaluation and quantification of emissions of sulphur and nitrogen oxides, total hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and acrolein were analyzed, described and standardized. Experimental techniques for mutagenic and toxic effects assessment of gases similarly were analyzed and standardized, as well as the calorific power, the associate heat transfer and fundamentals operational parameters. The methodology was developed, using a full-instrumented flame tube furnace, continuous gas analyzers, a chromatograph, automatic data acquisition systems and other auxiliary equipment. The mutagenic and toxic effects of the study was based on Tradescantia clone KU-20, using chambers of intoxication and biological analytical techniques previously developed and others were specially adapted. The benchmark for the initial set up was based on the performance evaluation of the previous equipment tested with diesel considering its behavior during direct combustion. Finally, the following factors were defined for the combustion of crude glycerin, configurations of equipment types, operational parameters such as air fuel ratio adiabatic temperature and other necessary aspect for successful application of the methodology. The developed and integrated methodology was made available to the concern industry, environmental authorities and researchers as procedures to access the viability of gross glycerin or similar fuels as

FY1995 annual report on the advanced combustion science in microgravity field

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1996-03-01

Research was implemented continuously from the previous year on combustion equipment enabling advanced combustion technologies, by studying combustion in a microgravity field, for the purpose of preventing environmental pollution caused by diversification of energy sources and exhaust gasses. In joint studies with NASA, the 1995 themes were continued, for which tests were conducted 34 times using Japanese drop test equipment. Further, studies were added for flammability limits and flame dynamics of spherical flames in homogeneous and heterogeneous mixed fuels. The evaluation and analysis of the experiments and test data by the microgravity test equipment were such that laser ignitions of floating or fuel-oozing droplets, spherical/cylindrical combustion of liquid fuels, for example, were studied in regards to the combustion and vaporization process of fuel droplets, that high calorie fuel combustion in microgravitation field for example was investigated in relation to the combustion characteristics of high density fuels, that flame stability of lean premixed gasses for example was researched concerning flammability limit, and that NOx generation mechanism in liquid fuel combustion was looked into in connection with emission mechanisms of pollutant gaseous materials. (NEDO)

Characteristics of transitional and turbulent jet diffusion flames in microgravity

Science.gov (United States)

Bahadori, Yousef M.; Small, James F., Jr.; Hegde, Uday G.; Zhou, Liming; Stocker, Dennis P.

1995-01-01

This paper presents the ground-based results obtained to date in preparation of a proposed space experiment to study the role of large-scale structures in microgravity transitional and turbulent gas-jet diffusion flames by investigating the dynamics of vortex/flame interactions and their influence on flame characteristics. The overall objective is to gain an understanding of the fundamental characteristics of transitional and turbulent gas-jet diffusion flames. Understanding of the role of large-scale structures on the characteristics of microgravity transitional and turbulent flames will ultimately lead to improved understanding of normal-gravity turbulent combustion.

Resonance ionization detection of combustion radicals

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cool, T.A. [Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)

1993-12-01

Fundamental research on the combustion of halogenated organic compounds with emphasis on reaction pathways leading to the formation of chlorinated aromatic compounds and the development of continuous emission monitoring methods will assist in DOE efforts in the management and disposal of hazardous chemical wastes. Selective laser ionization techniques are used in this laboratory for the measurement of concentration profiles of radical intermediates in the combustion of chlorinated hydrocarbon flames. A new ultrasensitive detection technique, made possible with the advent of tunable VUV laser sources, enables the selective near-threshold photoionization of all radical intermediates in premixed hydrocarbon and chlorinated hydrocarbon flames.

Theoretical analysis of the conical premixed flame response to upstream velocity disturbances considering flame speed development effects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ghazaleh Esmaeelzade

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The effect of upstream velocity perturbations on the response of a premixed flame was investigated in terms of the flame transfer function dependency on excitation frequency. In this study, the assumption of constant flame speed was extended and the effect of flame speed development was considered; i.e., the flame speed would grow with the time after ignition or with the distance from a flame-holder. In the present study, the kinematics of a conical flame was investigated by linearization of the front tracking equation of flame to uniform and convected fluctuations of the flow velocity and the response was compared with that of a V-shaped flame and the experimental data in the previous studies. The results show that the effect of flame speed development could influence a decreasing gain and increase the phase of the flame response to the uniform velocity oscillations in low and moderate frequencies. Comparing the variations in the gain of flame response upon normalized frequency, show that a conical flame has lower values than the V-flame. In other words, these flames might be less susceptible to combustion instabilities than the V-flames. Furthermore, the variations in phase of the V-flames responses, which show a quasi-linear behavior with normalized frequency, have higher values than the saturated behavior in phase of the conical flame responses. Also, considering that the flame speed development induces an increase in the gain and phase of the conical flame response to the convected velocity oscillations in certain frequencies; because the developed flame front has longer length in comparison to the flame front in constant flame speed model. Therefore, the flame length may be longer than convective wavelength and the heat release would be generated in different points of the flame; consequently the flow oscillations might exert a stronger impact on the unsteady heat release fluctuations.

Electron-beam-induced acoustic-wave enhancement of gaseous combustion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bidwell, S.W.; Bosch, R.A.; Gilgenbach, R.M.

1989-01-01

The combustion rate of premixed gases in a closed vessel was increased by injecting a high-current electron beam into the gas mixture within about 20 ms of spark ignition. This effect was observed with the fuels ethylene, methane, ethane, propane, and n-butane. Experimental results provide strong evidence that e-beam excitation of the fundamental longitudinal-acoustic mode of the cylindrical chamber is the mechanism of combustion enhancement. An observable combustion enhancement required that the amplitude of the fluid velocity oscillation in this acoustic mode be greater than or approximately equal to the flame propagation speed and was associated with a wrinkled or cellular flame structure with dimensions on the order of 1/2 cm. These results are in good agreement with values for the threshold acoustic velocity amplitude and dimension of cellular structure predicted for a periodically accelerated flame

Experimental and modeling studies of small molecule chemistry in expanding spherical flames

Science.gov (United States)

Santner, Jeffrey

Accurate models of flame chemistry are required in order to predict emissions and flame properties, such that clean, efficient engines can be designed more easily. There are three primary methods used to improve such combustion chemistry models - theoretical reaction rate calculations, elementary reaction rate experiments, and combustion system experiments. This work contributes to model improvement through the third method - measurements and analysis of the laminar burning velocity at constraining conditions. Modern combustion systems operate at high pressure with strong exhaust gas dilution in order to improve efficiency and reduce emissions. Additionally, flames under these conditions are sensitized to elementary reaction rates such that measurements constrain modeling efforts. Measurement conditions of the present work operate within this intersection between applications and fundamental science. Experiments utilize a new pressure-release, heated spherical combustion chamber with a variety of fuels (high hydrogen content fuels, formaldehyde (via 1,3,5-trioxane), and C2 fuels) at pressures from 0.5--25 atm, often with dilution by water vapor or carbon dioxide to flame temperatures below 2000 K. The constraining ability of these measurements depends on their uncertainty. Thus, the present work includes a novel analytical estimate of the effects of thermal radiative heat loss on burning velocity measurements in spherical flames. For 1,3,5-trioxane experiments, global measurements are sufficiently sensitive to elementary reaction rates that optimization techniques are employed to indirectly measure the reaction rates of HCO consumption. Besides the influence of flame chemistry on propagation, this work also explores the chemistry involved in production of nitric oxide, a harmful pollutant, within flames. We find significant differences among available chemistry models, both in mechanistic structure and quantitative reaction rates. There is a lack of well

Method and apparatus for generating highly luminous flame

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gitman, G.M.

1992-05-12

A combustion process and apparatus are provided for generating a variable high temperature, highly luminous flame with low NOx emission by burning gaseous and liquid materials with oxygen and air. More particularly, the invention provides a process in which there is initial control of fuel, oxygen, and air flows and the delivery of the oxidizers to a burner as two oxidizing gases having different oxygen concentrations (for example, pure oxygen and air, or oxygen and oxygen-enriched air). A first oxidizing gas containing a high oxygen concentration is injected as a stream into the central zone of a combustion tunnel or chamber, and part of the fuel (preferably the major part) is injected into the central pyrolysis zone to mix with the first oxidizing gas to create a highly luminous high-temperature flame core containing microparticles of carbon of the proper size for maximum luminosity and high temperature, and a relatively small amount of hydrocarbon radicals. In addition, part of the fuel (preferably the minor part) is injected in a plurality of streams about the flame core to mix with a second oxidizing gas (containing a lower oxygen concentration than the first oxidizing gas) and injecting the second oxidizing mixture about the flame core and the minor fuel flow to mix with the minor fuel flow. This creates a plurality of fuel-lean (oxygen-rich) flames which are directed toward the luminous flame core to form a final flame pattern having high temperature, high luminosity, and low NOx content. 6 figs.

Cellular burning in lean premixed turbulent hydrogen-air flames: Coupling experimental and computational analysis at the laboratory scale

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Day, M S; Bell, J B; Beckner, V E; Lijewski, M J; Cheng, R K; Tachibana, S

2009-01-01

One strategy for reducing US dependence on petroleum is to develop new combustion technologies for burning the fuel-lean mixtures of hydrogen or hydrogen-rich syngas fuels obtained from the gasification of coal and biomass. Fuel-flexible combustion systems based on lean premixed combustion have the potential for dramatically reducing pollutant emissions in transportation systems, heat and stationary power generation. However, lean premixed flames are highly susceptible to fluid-dynamical combustion instabilities making robust and reliable systems difficult to design. Low swirl burners are emerging as an important technology for meeting design requirements in terms of both reliability and emissions for next generation combustion devices. In this paper, we present simulations of a lean, premixed hydrogen flame stabilized on a laboratory-scale low swirl burner. The simulations use detailed chemistry and transport without incorporating explicit models for turbulence or turbulence/chemistry interaction. Here we discuss the overall structure of the flame and compare with experimental data. We also use the simulation data to elucidate the characteristics of the turbulent flame interaction and how this impacts the analysis of experimental measurements.

An experimental study on premixed CNG/H2/CO2 mixture flames

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yilmaz Ilker

2018-03-01

Full Text Available In this study, the effect of swirl number, gas composition and CO2 dilution on combustion and emission behaviour of CNG/H2/CO2 gas mixtures was experimentally investigated in a laboratory scale combustor. Irrespective of the gas composition, thermal power of the combustor was kept constant (5 kW. All experiments were conducted at or near stoichiometric and the local atmospheric conditions of the city of Kayseri, Turkey. During experiments, swirl number was varied and the combustion performance of this combustor was analysed by means of centreline temperature distributions. On the other hand, emission behaviour was examined with respect to emitted CO, CO2 and NOx levels. Dynamic flame behaviour was also evaluated by analysing instantaneous flame images. Results of this study revealed the great impact of swirl number and gas composition on combustion and emission behaviour of studied flames.

Effects of ambient temperature and oxygen concentration on diesel spray combustion using a single-nozzle injector in a constant volume combustion chamber

KAUST Repository

Jing, Wei

2013-09-02

This work investigates the effects of ambient conditions on diesel spray combustion in an optically accessible, constant volume chamber using a single-nozzle fuel injector. The ambient O2 concentration was varied between five discrete values from 10% to 21% and three different ambient temperatures (800 K, 1000 K, and 1200 K). These conditions simulate different exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) levels and ambient temperatures in diesel engines. Both conventional diesel combustion and low temperature combustion (LTC) modes were observed under these conditions. A transient analysis and a quasi-steady state analysis are employed in this article. The transient analysis focuses on the flame development from beginning to the end, illustrating how the flame structure changes during this process; the quasi-steady state analysis focuses on the stable flame structure. The transient analysis was conducted using high-speed imaging of both OH* chemiluminescence and natural luminosity (NL). In addition, three different images were acquired using an ICCD camera, corresponding to OH* chemiluminescence, narrow-band flame emission at 430 nm (Band A) and at 470 nm (Band B), and were used to investigate the quasi-steady state combustion process. From the transient analysis, it was found that the NL signal becomes stronger and confined to narrow regions when the temperature and O2 concentration increase during the development of flame. The OH* intensity is much lower for the 10% ambient O2 and 800 K conditions compared to the higher temperatures and O2 levels. This implies the occurrence of LTC under these conditions. Results from the quasi-steady combustion stage indicate that high-temperature reactions effectively oxidize the soot in the downstream locations where only OH* signal is observed. In addition, an area was calculated for each spectral region, and results show that the area of Band A and Band B emissions in these images is larger than the area of OH* emissions at the lower O2

Effects of ambient temperature and oxygen concentration on diesel spray combustion using a single-nozzle injector in a constant volume combustion chamber

KAUST Repository

Jing, Wei; Roberts, William L.; Fang, Tiegang

2013-01-01

This work investigates the effects of ambient conditions on diesel spray combustion in an optically accessible, constant volume chamber using a single-nozzle fuel injector. The ambient O2 concentration was varied between five discrete values from 10% to 21% and three different ambient temperatures (800 K, 1000 K, and 1200 K). These conditions simulate different exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) levels and ambient temperatures in diesel engines. Both conventional diesel combustion and low temperature combustion (LTC) modes were observed under these conditions. A transient analysis and a quasi-steady state analysis are employed in this article. The transient analysis focuses on the flame development from beginning to the end, illustrating how the flame structure changes during this process; the quasi-steady state analysis focuses on the stable flame structure. The transient analysis was conducted using high-speed imaging of both OH* chemiluminescence and natural luminosity (NL). In addition, three different images were acquired using an ICCD camera, corresponding to OH* chemiluminescence, narrow-band flame emission at 430 nm (Band A) and at 470 nm (Band B), and were used to investigate the quasi-steady state combustion process. From the transient analysis, it was found that the NL signal becomes stronger and confined to narrow regions when the temperature and O2 concentration increase during the development of flame. The OH* intensity is much lower for the 10% ambient O2 and 800 K conditions compared to the higher temperatures and O2 levels. This implies the occurrence of LTC under these conditions. Results from the quasi-steady combustion stage indicate that high-temperature reactions effectively oxidize the soot in the downstream locations where only OH* signal is observed. In addition, an area was calculated for each spectral region, and results show that the area of Band A and Band B emissions in these images is larger than the area of OH* emissions at the lower O2

Experimental study on the influence of oxygen content in the combustion air on the combustion characteristics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bělohradský, Petr; Skryja, Pavel; Hudák, Igor

2014-01-01

This study was focused on the experimental investigation of the very promising combustion technology called as the oxygen-enhanced combustion (OEC), which uses the oxidant containing higher proportion of oxygen than in the atmospheric air, i.e. more than 21%. The work investigated and compared the characteristics of two OEC methods, namely the premix enrichment and air-oxy/fuel combustion, when the overall oxygen concentration was varied from 21% to 46%. The combustion tests were performed with the experimental two-gas-staged burner of low-NO x type at the burner thermal input of 750 kW for two combustion regimes – one-staged and two-staged combustion. The oxygen concentration in the flue gas was maintained in the neighborhood of 3% vol. (on dry basis). The aim of tests was to assess the impact of the oxidant composition, type of OEC method and fuel-staging on the characteristic combustion parameters in detail. The investigated parameters included the concentration of nitrogen oxides (NO x ) in the flue gas, flue gas temperature, heat flux to the combustion chamber wall, and lastly the stability, shape and dimensions of flame. It was observed that NO x emission is significantly lower when the air-oxy/fuel method is used compared to the premix enrichment method. Moreover, when the fuel was staged, NO x emission was below 120 mg/Nm 3 at all investigated oxygen flow rates. Increasing oxygen concentration resulted in higher heating intensity due to higher concentrations of CO 2 and H 2 O. The available heat at 46% O 2 was higher by 20% compared with that at 21% O 2 . - Highlights: • Premix-enrichment and air-oxy/fuel combustion methods were experimentally studied. • NO x increased sharply as oxygen concentration increased during PE tests. • NO x was below 120 mg/Nm 3 for all investigated oxygen flow rates in AO tests. • Radiative heat transfer was enhanced ca. 20% as O 2 concentration was increased. • OEC flames were observed stable, more luminous and

GOTHIC-3D applicability to hydrogen combustion analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Jung Jae; Lee, Jin Yong; Park, Goon Cherl; Yoo, Ho Jong; Kim, Hyeong Taek; Lee, Byung Chul; Oh, Seung Jong

2005-01-01

Severe accidents in nuclear power plants can cause hydrogen-generating chemical reactions, which create the danger of hydrogen combustion and thus threaten containment integrity. For containment analyses, a three-dimensional mechanistic code, GOTHIC-3D has been applied near source compartments to predict whether or not highly reactive gas mixtures can form during an accident with the hydrogen mitigation system working. To assess the code applicability to hydrogen combustion analysis, this paper presents the numerical calculation results of GOTHIC-3D for various hydrogen combustion experiments, including FLAME, LSVCTF, and SNU-2D. In this study, a technical base for the modeling of large- and small-scale facilities was introduced through sensitivity studies on cell size and burn modeling parameters. Use of a turbulent burn option of the eddy dissipation concept enabled scale-free applications. Lowering the burn parameter values for the flame thickness and the burn temperature limit resulted in a larger flame velocity. When applied to hydrogen combustion analysis, this study revealed that the GOTHIC-3D code is generally able to predict the combustion phenomena with its default burn modeling parameters for large-scale facilities. However, the code needs further modifications of its burn modeling parameters to be applied to either small-scale facilities or extremely fast transients

Premixed combustion under electric field in a constant volume chamber

KAUST Repository

Cha, Min Suk

2012-12-01

The effects of electric fields on outwardly propagating premixed flames in a constant volume chamber were experimentally investigated. An electric plug, subjected to high electrical voltages, was used to generate electric fields inside the chamber. To minimize directional ionic wind effects, alternating current with frequency of 1 kHz was employed. Lean and rich fuel/air mixtures for both methane and propane were tested to investigate various preferential diffusion conditions. As a result, electrically induced instability showing cracked structure on the flame surface could be observed. This cracked structure enhanced flame propagation speed for the initial period of combustion and led to reduction in flame initiation and overall combustion duration times. However, by analyzing pressure data, it was found that overall burning rates are not much affected from the electric field for the pressurized combustion period. The reduction of overall combustion time is less sensitive to equivalence ratio for methane/air mixtures, whereas the results demonstrate pronounced effects on a lean mixture for propane. The improvement of combustion characteristics in lean mixtures will be beneficial to the design of lean burn engines. Two hypothetical mechanisms to explain the electrically induced instability were proposed: 1) ionic wind initiated hydrodynamic instability and 2) thermodiffusive instability through the modification of transport property such as mass diffusivity. © 2012 IEEE.

Premixed combustion under electric field in a constant volume chamber

KAUST Repository

Cha, Min; Lee, Yonggyu

2012-01-01

The effects of electric fields on outwardly propagating premixed flames in a constant volume chamber were experimentally investigated. An electric plug, subjected to high electrical voltages, was used to generate electric fields inside the chamber. To minimize directional ionic wind effects, alternating current with frequency of 1 kHz was employed. Lean and rich fuel/air mixtures for both methane and propane were tested to investigate various preferential diffusion conditions. As a result, electrically induced instability showing cracked structure on the flame surface could be observed. This cracked structure enhanced flame propagation speed for the initial period of combustion and led to reduction in flame initiation and overall combustion duration times. However, by analyzing pressure data, it was found that overall burning rates are not much affected from the electric field for the pressurized combustion period. The reduction of overall combustion time is less sensitive to equivalence ratio for methane/air mixtures, whereas the results demonstrate pronounced effects on a lean mixture for propane. The improvement of combustion characteristics in lean mixtures will be beneficial to the design of lean burn engines. Two hypothetical mechanisms to explain the electrically induced instability were proposed: 1) ionic wind initiated hydrodynamic instability and 2) thermodiffusive instability through the modification of transport property such as mass diffusivity. © 2012 IEEE.

Direct numerical simulations of non-premixed ethylene-air flames: Local flame extinction criterion

KAUST Repository

Lecoustre, Vivien R.

2014-11-01

Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) of ethylene/air diffusion flame extinctions in decaying two-dimensional turbulence were performed. A Damköhler-number-based flame extinction criterion as provided by classical large activation energy asymptotic (AEA) theory is assessed for its validity in predicting flame extinction and compared to one based on Chemical Explosive Mode Analysis (CEMA) of the detailed chemistry. The DNS code solves compressible flow conservation equations using high order finite difference and explicit time integration schemes. The ethylene/air chemistry is simulated with a reduced mechanism that is generated based on the directed relation graph (DRG) based methods along with stiffness removal. The numerical configuration is an ethylene fuel strip embedded in ambient air and exposed to a prescribed decaying turbulent flow field. The emphasis of this study is on the several flame extinction events observed in contrived parametric simulations. A modified viscosity and changing pressure (MVCP) scheme was adopted in order to artificially manipulate the probability of flame extinction. Using MVCP, pressure was changed from the baseline case of 1 atm to 0.1 and 10 atm. In the high pressure MVCP case, the simulated flame is extinction-free, whereas in the low pressure MVCP case, the simulated flame features frequent extinction events and is close to global extinction. Results show that, despite its relative simplicity and provided that the global flame activation temperature is correctly calibrated, the AEA-based flame extinction criterion can accurately predict the simulated flame extinction events. It is also found that the AEA-based criterion provides predictions of flame extinction that are consistent with those provided by a CEMA-based criterion. This study supports the validity of a simple Damköhler-number-based criterion to predict flame extinction in engineering-level CFD models. © 2014 The Combustion Institute.

Effects of premixed flames on turbulence and turbulent scalar transport

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lipatnikov, A.N.; Chomiak, J. [Department of Applied Mechanics, Chalmers University of Technology, 412 75 Goeteborg (Sweden)

2010-02-15

Experimental data and results of direct numerical simulations are reviewed in order to show that premixed combustion can change the basic characteristics of a fluctuating velocity field (the so-called flame-generated turbulence) and the direction of scalar fluxes (the so-called countergradient or pressure-driven transport) in a turbulent flow. Various approaches to modeling these phenomena are discussed and the lack of a well-elaborated and widely validated predictive approach is emphasized. Relevant basic issues (the transition from gradient to countergradient scalar transport, the role played by flame-generated turbulence in the combustion rate, the characterization of turbulence in premixed flames, etc.) are critically considered and certain widely accepted concepts are disputed. Despite the substantial progress made in understanding the discussed effects over the past decades, these basic issues strongly need further research. (author)

Numerical study of turbulent normal diffusion flame CH4-air stabilized by coaxial burner

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Riahi Zouhair

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The practical combustion systems such as combustion furnaces, gas turbine, engines, etc. employ non-premixed combustion due to its better flame stability, safety, and wide operating range as compared to premixed combustion. The present numerical study characterizes the turbulent flame of methane-air in a coaxial burner in order to determine the effect of airflow on the distribution of temperature, on gas consumption and on the emission of NOx. The results in this study are obtained by simulation on FLUENT code. The results demonstrate the influence of different parameters on the flame structure, temperature distribution and gas emissions, such as turbulence, fuel jet velocity, air jet velocity, equivalence ratio and mixture fraction. The lift-off height for a fixed fuel jet velocity is observed to increase monotonically with air jet velocity. Temperature and NOx emission decrease of important values with the equivalence ratio, it is maximum about the unity.

A Burke-Schumann Analysis of Dual-Flame Structure Supported by a Burning Droplet

Science.gov (United States)

Nayagam, V.; Dietrich, D.; Williams, F. A.

2016-01-01

Droplet combustion experiments carried out onboard the International Space Station (ISS), using pure fuels and fuel mixtures, have shown that quasi-steady burning can be sustained by a non-traditional flame configuration, namely a "cool flame" burning in the "partial-burning" regime where both fuel and oxygen leak through the low-temperature controlled flame-sheet. Recent experiments involving large, bi-component fuel (n-decane and hexanol, 50/50 by volume) droplets at elevated pressures show that the visible, hot flame becomes extremely weak while the burning rate remains relatively high, suggesting the possibility of simultaneous presence of "cool" and "hot" flames of roughly equal importance. The radiant output from these bi-component droplets is relatively high and cannot be accounted for only by the presence of a visible hot-flame. In this analysis we explore the theoretical possibility of a dual-flame structure, where one flame lies close to the droplet surface called the "cool-flame," and other farther away from the droplet surface, termed the "hot-flame." A Burke-Schumann analysis of this dual-structure seems to indicate such flame structures are possible over a narrow range of initial conditions. Theoretical results can be compared against available experimental data for pure and bi-component fuel droplet combustion to test how realistic the model may be.

Enhancement of Combustion and Flame Stabilization Using Transient Non-Equilibrium Plasma

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Ju, Yiguang; Ombrello, Timothy; Fridman, Alexander; Gutsol, Alexander; Gangoli, Shailesh

2007-01-01

.... Laser diagnostics of flame temperature and OH distribution using planar Rayleigh scattering and planar laser-induced fluorescence revealed that the plasma-flame interaction at low air temperature...

Response of a swirl-stabilized flame to transverse acoustic excitation

Science.gov (United States)

O'Connor, Jacqueline

This work addresses the issue of transverse combustion instabilities in annular gas turbine combustor geometries. While modern low-emissions combustion strategies have made great strides in reducing the production of toxic emissions in aircraft engines and power generation gas turbines, combustion instability remains one of the foremost technical challenges in the development of next generation combustor technology. To that end, this work investigates the response of a swirling flow and swirl-stabilized flame to a transverse acoustic field is using a variety of high-speed laser techniques, especially high-speed particle image velocimetry (PIV) for detailed velocity measurements of this highly unsteady flow phenomenon. Several important issues are addressed. First, the velocity-coupled pathway by which the unsteady velocity field excites the flame is described in great detail. Here, a transfer function approach has been taken to illustrate the various pathways through which the flame is excited by both acoustic and vortical velocity fluctuations. It has been shown that while the direct excitation of the flame by the transverse acoustic field is a negligible effect in most combustor architectures, the coupling between the transverse acoustic mode in the combustor and the longitudinal mode in the nozzle is an important pathway that can result in significant flame response. In this work, the frequency response of this pathway as well as the resulting flame response is measured using PIV and chemiluminescence measurements, respectively. Next, coupling between the acoustic field and the hydrodynamically unstable swirling flow provides a pathway that can lead to significant flame wrinkling by large coherent structures in the flow. Swirling flows display two types of hydrodynamic instability: an absolutely unstable jet and convectively unstable shear layers. The absolute instability of the jet results in vortex breakdown, a large recirculation zone along the centerline of

Combustion of pulverized fuel under oxycoal conditions at low oxygen concentrations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Toporov D.; Foerster M.; Kneer R. [RWTH Aachen University, Aachen (Germany). Institute of Heat and Mass Transfer

2007-07-01

Oxycoal combustion followed by post-combustion CO{sub 2} sequestration has gained justified interest as an option for significant and relatively quick reduction of emissions from fossil fuel power generation, while taking advantage of the existing power plant infrastructure. Burning pulverised coal in a mixture of CO{sub 2}/O{sub 2} instead of air, however, will lead to modified distributions of temperature, species, and radiation fluxes inside the combustion chamber causing a retroaction on the homogeneous and heterogeneous reactions. Utilizing a burner design, which was optimised for coal combustion in air, for oxycoal combustion will lead to flame instability and poor burnout. Stabilisation of the combustion process can be obtained by: i) an increased oxygen concentration (more than 21% vol.) in the oxidiser mixture, thus achieving similar reaction rates and temperature levels to a pulverised fuel-air flame without significant changes to the flame aerodynamics. ii) modifications to the burner aerodynamics, as presented here. The results in this study are obtained in the frame of OXYCOAL-AC, the research project, having the aim to burn a pulverised coal in a CO{sub 2}/O{sub 2}-atmosphere with oxygen, produced from high-temperature ceramic membrane thus leading to higher efficiency of the whole oxycoal process. Numerical and experimental investigations of a stable oxycoal flame, obtained with {le} 21% oxygen concentration in the burning mixture at the RWTH test facility are reported. Two different burner designs are considered, conclusions concerning the achievement of a stable oxycoal flame at O{sub 2} volume concentrations equal and less to the one of oxygen in air are derived. 8 refs., 7 figs., 1 tab.

Improvement study for the dry-low-NOx hydrogen micromix combustion technology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Haj Ayed

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The dry-low-NOx (DLN micromix combustion principle is developed for the low emission combustion of hydrogen in an industrial gas turbine APU GTCP 36-300. The further decrease of NOx emissions along a wider operation range with pure hydrogen supports the introduction of the micromix technology to industrial applications. Experimental and numerical studies show the successful advance of the DLN micromix combustion to extended DLN operation range. The impact of the hydrogen fuel properties on the combustion principle and aerodynamic flame stabilization design laws, flow field, flame structure and emission characteristics is investigated by numerical analysis using an eddy dissipation concept combustion model and validated against experimental results.

A simplified hydrodynamic model of hydrogen flame propagation in reactor vessels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baer, M.; Ratzel, A.

1983-01-01

A hydrodynamic model for hydrogen flame propagation in reactor geometries is presented. This model is consistent with the theory of slow combustion in which the gasdynamic field equations are treated in the limit of small Mach numbers. To the lowest order, pressure is spatially uniform. The flame is treated as a density and entropy discontinuity which propagates at prescribed burning velocities, corresponding to laminar or turbulent flames. Radiation cooling of the burned combustion gases and possible preheating of the unburned gases during propagation of the flame is included using a molecular gas-band thermal radiation model. Application of this model has been developed for 1-D variable area flame propagation. Multidimensional effects induced by hydrodynamics and buoyancy are introduced as a correction to the burn velocity (which reflects a modification of planar flame surface to a distorted surface) using experimentally measured pressure-rise time data for hydrogen/air deflagrations in cylindrical vessels. This semianalytical model of flame propagation reduces to a set of ordinary differential equations which describes the temporal variations of vessel pressure, burned volume and gas entropy. The thermodynamic state of the burned gas immediately following the flame is determined using an isobaric Hugoniot relationship. At other locations the burned gas thermodynamic states are determined using a Lagrangian particle tracking method. Results of a computer code using the method are presented

A combustion chemistry analysis of carbonate solvents used in Li-ion batteries

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Harris, Stephen J.; Timmons, Adam [General Motors R and D Center, MC 480-102-000, Warren, MI 48090-9055 (United States); Pitz, William J. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94551 (United States)

2009-09-05

Under abusive conditions Li-ion cells can rupture, ejecting electrolyte and other flammable gases. In this paper we consider some of the thermochemical and combustion properties of these gases that determine whether they ignite and how energetically they burn. We find a significant variation among the carbonate solvents in the factors that are important to determining flammability, such as combustion enthalpy and vaporization enthalpy. We also show that flames of carbonate solvents are fundamentally less energetic than those of conventional hydrocarbons. An example of this contrast is given using a recently developed mechanism for dimethyl carbonate (DMC) combustion, where we show that a diffusion flame burning DMC has only half the peak heat release rate of an analogous propane flame. Interestingly, peak temperatures differ by only 25%. We argue that heat release rate is a more useful parameter than temperature when evaluating the likelihood that a flame in one cell will ignite a neighboring cell. Our results suggest that thermochemical and combustion property factors might well be considered when choosing solvent mixtures when flammability is a concern. (author)

The instability characteristics of lean premixed hydrogen and syngas flames stabilized on meso-scale bluff-body

KAUST Repository

Kim, Yu Jeong

2017-01-05

Bluff-body flame stabilization has been used as one of main flame stabilization schemes to improve combustion stability in both large and small scale premixed combustion systems. The detailed investigation of instability characteristics is needed to understand flame stability mechanism. Direct numerical simulations are conducted to investigate flame dynamics on the instability of lean premixed hydrogen/air and syngas/air flames stabilized on a meso-scale bluff-body. A two-dimensional channel of 10 mm height and 10 mm length with a square bluff-body stabilizer of 0.5 mm is considered. The height of domain is chosen as an unconfined condition to minimize the effect of the blockage ratio. Flame/flow dynamics are observed by increasing the mean inflow velocity from a steady stable to unsteady asymmetrical instability, followed by blowoff. Detailed observations between hydrogen and syngas flames with a time scale analysis are presented.

Modeling random combustion of lycopodium particles and gas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M Bidabadi

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The random modeling combustion of lycopodium particles has been researched by many authors. In this paper, we extend this model and we also generate a different method by analyzing the effect of random distributed sources of combustible mixture. The flame structure is assumed to consist of a preheat-vaporization zone, a reaction zone and finally a post flame zone. We divide the preheat zone to different parts. We assumed that there is different distribution of particles in sections which are really random. Meanwhile, it is presumed that the fuel particles vaporize first to yield gaseous fuel. In other words, most of the fuel particles are vaporized at the end of the preheat zone. It is assumed that the Zel’dovich number is large; therefore, the reaction term in preheat zone is negligible. In this work, the effect of random distribution of particles in the preheat zone on combustion characteristics such as burning velocity, flame temperature for different particle radius is obtained.

Turbulent structure and emissions of strongly-pulsed jet diffusion flames

Science.gov (United States)

Fregeau, Mathieu

This current research project studied the turbulent flame structure, the fuel/air mixing, the combustion characteristics of a nonpremixed pulsed (unsteady) and unpulsed (steady) flame configuration for both normal- and microgravity conditions, as well as the flame emissions in normal gravity. The unsteady flames were fully-modulated, with the fuel flow completely shut off between injection pulses using an externally controlled valve, resulting in the generation of compact puff-like flame structures. Conducting experiments in normal and microgravity environments enabled separate control over the relevant Richardson and Reynolds numbers to clarify the influence of buoyancy on the flame behavior, mixing, and structure. Experiments were performed in normal gravity in the laboratory at the University of Washington and in microgravity using the NASA GRC 2.2-second Drop Tower facility. High-speed imaging, as well as temperature and emissions probes were used to determine the large-scale structure dynamics, the details of the flame structure and oxidizer entrainment, the combustion temperatures, and the exhaust emissions of the pulsed and steady flames. Of particular interest was the impact of changes in flame structure due to pulsing on the combustion characteristics of this system. The turbulent flame puff celerity (i.e., the bulk velocity of the puffs) was strongly impacted by the jet-off time, increasing markedly as the time between pulses was decreased, which caused the degree of puff interaction to increase and the strongly-pulsed flame to more closely resemble a steady flame. This increase occurred for all values of injection time as well as for constant fuelling rate and in both the presence and absence of buoyancy. The removal of positive buoyancy in microgravity resulted in a decrease in the flame puff celerity in all cases, amounting to as much as 40%, for both constant jet injection velocity and constant fuelling rate. The mean flame length of the strongly

A nonlinear wave equation in nonadiabatic flame propagation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Booty, M.R.; Matalon, M.; Matkowsky, B.J.

1988-01-01

The authors derive a nonlinear wave equation from the diffusional thermal model of gaseous combustion to describe the evolution of a flame front. The equation arises as a long wave theory, for values of the volumeric heat loss in a neighborhood of the extinction point (beyond which planar uniformly propagating flames cease to exist), and for Lewis numbers near the critical value beyond which uniformly propagating planar flames lose stability via a degenerate Hopf bifurcation. Analysis of the equation suggests the possibility of a singularity developing in finite time

Effect of ammonium perchlorate grain sizes on the combustion of solid rocket propellant

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hegab, A.; Balabel, A. [Menoufia Univ., Menoufia (Egypt). Faculty of Engineering

2007-07-01

The combustion of heterogeneous solid rocket propellant consisting of ammonium perchlorate (AP) particles was discussed with reference to the chemical and physical complexity of the propellant and the microscopic scale of the combustion zone. This study considered the primary flame between the decomposition products of the binder and the AP oxidizer; the primary diffusion flame from the oxidizer; density and conductivity of the AP and binder; temperature-dependent gas-phase transport properties; and, an unsteady non-planer regression surface. Three different random packing disc models for the AP particles imbedded in a matrix of a hydroxyl terminated polybutadience (HTPB) fuel-binder were used as a base of the combustion code. The models have different AP grain sizes and distribution with the fuel binder. A 2D calculation was developed for the combustion of heterogeneous solid propellant, accounting for the gas phase physics, the solid phase physics and an unsteady non-planar description of the regressing propellant surface. The mathematical model described the unsteady burning of a heterogeneous propellant by simultaneously solving the combustion fields in the gas phase and the thermal field in the solid phase with appropriate jump condition across the gas/solid interface. The gas-phase kinetics was represented by a two-step reaction mechanism for the primary premixed flame and the primary diffusion flame between the decomposition products of the HTPB and the oxidizer. The essentially-non-oscillatory (ENO) scheme was used to describe the propagation of the unsteady non-planer regression surface. The results showed that AP particle size has a significant effect on the combustion surface deformation as well as on the burning rate. This study also determined the effect of various parameters on the surface propagation speed, flame structure, and the burning surface geometry. The speed by which the combustion surface recedes was found to depend on the exposed pressure

Recent measurements of flame acceleration in semiconfined geometries

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Abou-Arab, T.W. (King Fahd Univ. of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran (SA). Mechanical Engineering Dept.); Enayet, M.M.; Kamel, M.M. (Cairo Univ., Giza (EG). Mechanical Power Engineering Dept.)

1991-04-01

Turbulent premixed combustion under certain conditions may lead to large flame speeds sufficient to cause significant damage to nearby structures. Experiments, both large and small scale, have confirmed that obstructions cause severe flame acceleration to occur. In these cases, flame speeds as high as 800 ms{sup -1} may be achieved. In this work experimental investigation of some factors affecting flame acceleration in a semiconfined channel has been carried out. The experimental facility and the developed ionization gap measuring technique are also described. It has been found that the presence of obstacles, degree of confinement, height of fuel-air cloud (FAC), as well as fuel concentration gradient in the FAC have profound effects on the rate at which the flame accelerates. Finally, consideration of the flame acceleration as a possible mechanism for the transition to detonation will be discussed. (author).

Bifurcation, pattern formation and chaos in combustion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bayliss, A.; Matkowsky, B.J.

1991-01-01

In this paper problems in gaseous combustion and in gasless condensed phase combustion are studied both analytically and numerically. In gaseous combustion we consider the problem of a flame stabilized on a line source of fuel. The authors find both stationary and pulsating axisymmetric solutions as well as stationary and pulsating cellular solutions. The pulsating cellular solutions take the form of either traveling waves or standing waves. Transitions between these patterns occur as parameters related to the curvature of the flame front and the Lewis number are varied. In gasless condensed phase combustion both planar and nonplanar problems are studied. For planar condensed phase combustion we consider two models: accounts for melting and does not. Both models are shown to exhibit a transition from uniformly to pulsating propagating combustion when a parameter related to the activation energy is increased. Upon further increasing this parameter both models undergo a transition to chaos: by intermittency and by a period doubling sequence. In nonplanar condensed phase combustion the nonlinear development of a branch of standing wave solutions is studied and is shown to lead to relaxation oscillations and subsequently to a transition to quasi-periodicity

Impacts of Combustion Conditions and Photochemical Processing on the Light Absorption of Biomass Combustion Aerosol.

Science.gov (United States)

Martinsson, J; Eriksson, A C; Nielsen, I Elbæk; Malmborg, V Berg; Ahlberg, E; Andersen, C; Lindgren, R; Nyström, R; Nordin, E Z; Brune, W H; Svenningsson, B; Swietlicki, E; Boman, C; Pagels, J H

2015-12-15

The aim was to identify relationships between combustion conditions, particle characteristics, and optical properties of fresh and photochemically processed emissions from biomass combustion. The combustion conditions included nominal and high burn rate operation and individual combustion phases from a conventional wood stove. Low temperature pyrolysis upon fuel addition resulted in "tar-ball" type particles dominated by organic aerosol with an absorption Ångström exponent (AAE) of 2.5-2.7 and estimated Brown Carbon contributions of 50-70% to absorption at the climate relevant aethalometer-wavelength (520 nm). High temperature combustion during the intermediate (flaming) phase was dominated by soot agglomerates with AAE 1.0-1.2 and 85-100% of absorption at 520 nm attributed to Black Carbon. Intense photochemical processing of high burn rate flaming combustion emissions in an oxidation flow reactor led to strong formation of Secondary Organic Aerosol, with no or weak absorption. PM1 mass emission factors (mg/kg) of fresh emissions were about an order of magnitude higher for low temperature pyrolysis compared to high temperature combustion. However, emission factors describing the absorption cross section emitted per kg of fuel consumed (m(2)/kg) were of similar magnitude at 520 nm for the diverse combustion conditions investigated in this study. These results provide a link between biomass combustion conditions, emitted particle types, and their optical properties in fresh and processed plumes which can be of value for source apportionment and balanced mitigation of biomass combustion emissions from a climate and health perspective.

NEDO project reports. High performance industrial furnace development project - High temperature air combustion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2000-03-21

For the purpose of reducing energy consumption, a NEDO project 'Developmental research on high efficiency industrial furnaces' was carried out from FY 1993 to FY 1999 by The Japan Industrial Furnaces Manufacturers Association, and the paper outlined the details of the project. Industrial furnaces handled in this R and D can bring 30% reduction of the energy consumption and approximately 50% NOx reduction, and were given the 9th Nikkei global environmental technology prize. In the study of combustion phenomena of high temperature air combustion, the paper arranged characteristics of flame, the base of gaseous fuel flame, the base of liquid fuel flame, the base of solid fuel flame, etc. Concerning high temperature air combustion models for simulation, fluid dynamics and heat transfer models, and reaction and NOx models, etc. As to impacts of high temperature air combustion on performance of industrial furnaces, energy conservation, lowering of pollution, etc. In relation to a guide for the design of high efficiency industrial furnaces, flow charts, conceptual design, evaluation method for heat balance and efficiency using charts, combustion control system, applicability of high efficiency industrial furnaces, etc. (NEDO)

NEDO project reports. High performance industrial furnace development project - High temperature air combustion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2000-03-21

For the purpose of reducing energy consumption, a NEDO project 'Developmental research on high efficiency industrial furnaces' was carried out from FY 1993 to FY 1999 by The Japan Industrial Furnaces Manufacturers Association, and the paper outlined the details of the project. Industrial furnaces handled in this R and D can bring 30% reduction of the energy consumption and approximately 50% NOx reduction, and were given the 9th Nikkei global environmental technology prize. In the study of combustion phenomena of high temperature air combustion, the paper arranged characteristics of flame, the base of gaseous fuel flame, the base of liquid fuel flame, the base of solid fuel flame, etc. Concerning high temperature air combustion models for simulation, fluid dynamics and heat transfer models, and reaction and NOx models, etc. As to impacts of high temperature air combustion on performance of industrial furnaces, energy conservation, lowering of pollution, etc. In relation to a guide for the design of high efficiency industrial furnaces, flow charts, conceptual design, evaluation method for heat balance and efficiency using charts, combustion control system, applicability of high efficiency industrial furnaces, etc. (NEDO)

EFFECTS OF SIMPLIFIED CHEMICAL KINETIC MODEL ON THE MICRO-FLAME STRUCTURE AND TEMPERATURE OF THE LEAN PREMIXED METHANE-AIR MIXTURES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

JUNJIE CHEN

2015-07-01

Full Text Available The effect of simplified chemical kinetic model on the micro-flame structure, central axis and wall temperatures were investigated with different one-step global chemical kinetic mechanisms following Mantel, Duterque and Fernández-Tarrazo models. Numerical investigations of the premixed methane-air flame in the micro-channel and lean conditions were carried out to compare and analyze the effect of the comprehensive chemical kinetic mechanisms. The results indicate that one-step global chemical kinetic mechanism affects both the micro-flame shape and the combustion temperature. Among three simulation models, Mantel model allows a stable micro-flame with a bamboo shoot form, which anchor at the inlet. Duterque model gives a stable elongated micro-flame with a considerable ignition delay, and a dead zone with fluid accumulation is observed at the entrance, which may explain the very high combustion temperature and the fast reaction rate obtained, despite the micro-flame development presents a very hot spot and causes a broadening of the combustion zone. Fernández-Tarrazo model results in a rapid extinction and doesn't seem to take all the kinetic behavior into account for the appropriate micro-combustion simulations.

Experimental Study of Liquid Fuel Spray Combustion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Westlye, Fredrik Ree

the specific physical quantities needed in CFD validation of these types of flames. This work is a testament to that fact. The first part of this thesis is an extensive study of optical combustion diagnostics applied to complex transient sprayflames in a high temperature and pressure environment...... by the Danish Council for Strategic Research. Other supporters of the project have been MAN Diesel & Turbo A/S, DTU Mechanical Engineering, DTU Chemical Engineering, Sandia National Laboratories USA, Norwegian University of Science & Technology (NTNU) and University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus.......The physiochemical properties and electromagnetic interactions in flames, of which various optical combustion diagnostics are based, have been reviewed. Key diagnostics have been presented with practical examples of their application which, together with a comprehensive review of fuel spray flames, form...