Recent cpl_mc items

Flame Structure and Soot Formation in Inverse Diffusion Flames (Ph.D. Dissertation)

Wed, 16 May 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Flame structure and soot and carbon monoxide (CO) formation were studied in laminar co-flowing co-annular inverse diffusion flames (IDFs) in normal and microgravity. An IDF is a non-premixed flame that consists of an inner air flow surrounded by a fuel flow. Soot formation is important to understand because soot particles are a health concern and have a strong influence on flame radiation, while CO formation is important because of the role it plays in fire-related deaths. Soot formation in normal diffusion flames (NDFs) is difficult to study because soot forms in the center of the flame and is oxidized so that soot cannot be sampled easily. Soot formation can be studied more easily in IDFs because soot forms on the fuel side of the reaction zone, is convected away from the reaction zone without oxidizing, and cools quickly. Therefore, in IDFs, newly formed soot is easier to sample than in NDFs. Soot formation was studied in microgravity IDFs because buoyancy-induced...

Laser Extinction in Laminar Inverse Diffusion Flames

Tue, 18 Oct 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Measurements of line-of-sight laser extinction in a co-annular ethylene-air laminar inverse diffusion flame (IDF) were made to determine soot concentration. Extinction has frequently been used in the literature to measure soot concentration in normal diffusion flames (NDFs), but it has rarely been applied to IDFs. A coflow IDF contains a primary air flow surrounded by a fuel annulus. Soot particles form on the outside of IDFs, advect upward, and eventually quench without being oxidized. It has been proposed in the literature that IDFs will produce less near-flame soot than NDFs because, for flames of comparable fuel, size and flow rates, movement of soot outward into cool regions of an IDF limits its simultaneous exposure to the high temperatures and fuel pyrolysis products needed for soot growth. A two-dimensional soot concentration map of an IDF using experimental data confirms this hypothesis by showing integrated soot volume fractions to be an order of magnitude lower than...

COSMIC: Carbon Monoxide and Soot in Microgravity Inverse Combustion

Fri, 26 Aug 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Almost seventy percent of fire related deaths are caused by the inhalation of toxins such as CO and soot that are produced when fires become underventilated.(1) Although studies have established the importance of CO formation during underventilated burning,(2) the formation processes of CO (and soot) in underventilated fires are not well understood. The goal of the COSMIC project is to study the formation processes of CO and soot in underventilated flames. A potential way to study CO and soot production in underventilated flames is the use of inverse diffusion flames (IDFs). An IDF forms between a central air jet and a surrounding fuel jet. IDFs are related to underventilated flames because they may allow CO and soot to escape unoxidized. Experiments and numerical simulations of laminar IDFs of CH4 and C2H4 were conducted in 1-g and µ-g to study CO and soot formation. Laminar flames were studied because turbulent models of underventilated fires are uncertain. Microgravity was...

Effect of Varied Air Flow on Flame Structure of Laminar Inverse Diffusion Flames

Fri, 26 Aug 2005 00:00:00 +0000

The structure of laminar inverse diffusion flames (IDFs) of methane and ethylene was studied using a cylindrical co-flowing burner. Several flames of the same fuel flow-rate yet various air flow-rates were examined. Heights of visible flames were obtained using measurements of hydroxyl (OH) laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) and visible images. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) LIF and soot laser-induced incandescence (LII) were also measured. In visible images, radiating soot masks the blue region typically associated with the flame height in normal diffusion flames (NDFs). Increased air flow-rates resulted in longer flames. PAH LIF and soot LII indicated that PAH and soot are present on the fuel side of the flame and that soot is located closer to the reaction zone than PAH. Ethylene flames produced significantly higher PAH LIF and soot LII signals than methane flames, which is consistent with the sooting propensity of

Flow-Assisted Flame Propagation Through a Porous Combustible in Microgravity

Wed, 24 Aug 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Experiments were conducted to measure the flame propagation rate of a plug-flow flame through a combustible matrix of randomly oriented cubes of polyurethane foam in microgravity and normal gravity as a function of the forced air flow. The experiments in microgravity were conducted at the Japan Microgravity Center (JAMIC) drop tower, which provides 10s of microgravity. The normal gravity experiments were simulations of the microgravity experiments, and by comparison, were used to determine the effect of gravity on the flame propagation process. The experiment was conducted in a cylindrical geometry. Ignition was accomplished by means of a hot-surface igniter brought into direct contact with the foam at one end of the sample holder. The other end of the sample was sealed to a fan drawing air through the sample, which was adjustable using a variable DC power supply. In this configuration the flame propagation is flow-assisted. The flame propagation rate was determined...