Jesper Borggren

Vapor phase tri-methyl-indium seeding system suitable for high temperature spectroscopy and thermometry

Tri-methyl-indium (TMI) is used as an indium transport molecule to introduce indium atoms to reactive hot gas flows/combustion environments for spectroscopic diagnostics. A seeding system was constructed to allow the addition of an inert TMI laden carrier gas into an air/fuel mixture burning consequently on a burner. The amount of the seeded TMI in the carrier gas can be readily varied by controlling the vapor pressure through the temperature of the container. The seeding process was calibrated using the fluorescent emission intensity from the indium 6(2)S1/2 → 5(2)P1/2 and 6(2)S1/2 → 5(2)P3/2 transitions as a function of the calculated TMI seeding concentration over a range of 2-45 ppm. The response was found to be linear over the range 3-22.5 ppm; at concentrations above 25 ppm there is a loss of linearity attributable to self-absorption or loss of saturation of TMI vapor pressure in the carrier gas flow. When TMI was introduced into a post-combustion environment via an inert carrier gas, molecular transition from InH and InOH radicals were observed in the flame emission spectrum. Combined laser-induced fluorescence and absorption spectroscopy were applied to detect indium atoms in the TMI seeded flame and the measured atomic indium concentration was found to be at the ppm level. This method of seeding organometallic vapor like TMI to a reactive gas flow demonstrates the feasibility for quantitative spectroscopic investigations that may be applicable in various fields, e.g., chemical vapor deposition applications or temperature measurement in flames with two-line atomic fluorescence.

A novel multi-jet burner for hot flue gases of wide range of temperatures and compositions for optical diagnostics of solid fuels gasification/combustion

A novel multi-jet burner was built to provide one-dimensional laminar flat flames with a wide range of variable parameters for multipurpose quantitative optical measurements. The burner is characterized by two independent plenum chambers, one supporting a matrix of 181 laminar jet flames and the other supporting a co-flow from a perforated plate with small holes evenly distributed among the jets. A uniform rectangular burned gas region of 70 mm × 40 mm can be generated, with a wide range of temperatures and equivalence ratios by controlling independently the gas supplies to the two plenum chambers. The temperature of the hot gas can be adjusted from 1000 K to 2000 K with different flame conditions. The burner is designed to seed additives in gas or liquid phase to study homogeneous reactions. The large uniform region can be used to burn solid fuels and study heterogeneous reactions. The temperature was measured using two-line atomic fluorescence thermometry and the temperature profile at a given height above the burner was found to be flat. Different types of optical diagnostic techniques, such as line of sight absorption or laser-induced fluorescence, can be easily applied in the burner, and as examples, two typical measurements concerning biomass combustion are demonstrated.

Single-shot photofragment imaging by structured illumination

A laser method to suppress background interferences in pump-probe measurements is presented and demonstrated. The method is based on structured illumination, where the intensity profile of the pump beam is spatially modulated to make its induced photofragment signal distinguishable from that created solely by the probe beam. A spatial lock-in algorithm is then applied on the acquired data, extracting only those image components that are characterized by the encoded structure. The concept is demonstrated for imaging of OH photofragments in a laminar methane/air flame, where the signal from the OH photofragments produced by the pump beam is spatially overlapping with that from the naturally present OH radicals. The purpose was to perform for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, single-shot imaging of HO(2) in a flame. These results show an increase in signal-to-interference ratio of about 20 for single-shot data.

Analysis of EGR/Air Mixing by 1-D Simulation, 3-D Simulation and Experiments

The reduction of fuel consumption and the reduction of toxic emissions are the main goals of research and development in the area of internal combustion engines. The use of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) to come further in that direction is today an established method for diesel engines. EGR reduces the emissions of nitrogen oxides with a low penalty in fuel consumption.The increasingly hard regulations on emissions put high pressure on the manufacturers to improve these systems. The present work aims at increasing the knowledge in the area of EGR. Two of the main challenges when applying EGR are addressed, efficiency and mixing.The efficiency of the EGR-system is analyzed, focusing on keeping the fuel penalty low for a given EGR-rate. Different layouts of the EGR system are studied and compared regarding their stationary and transient properties. Exergy analysis is used to show the potential for improvement in different system components. In the same time, exergy analysis as a tool is introduced and compared to energy analysis of a system. The usefulness of exergy analysis of the entire gas exchange is shown by the example of a heavy-duty diesel engine.The problem of EGR and air mixing is approached by a detailed study of the mixing process in a heavy-duty diesel engine. Different methods for the measurement of EGR distribution are presented and compared. Additionally, the possibility to predict the mixing effects by 1-D and 3-D simulation is assessed. It is shown that the mixing between air and EGR is highly dependent on the pulsating nature of the flow. The EGR is shown to be transported in packets in the air flow. This leads to the conclusion that mixing not only at the mixing point, but also mixing in flow direction needs to be optimized, as the distribution of EGR between the cylinders is dependent on the timing between the passage of the EGR packets and the valve opening time.

Spatially Resolved Temperature Measurements Above a Burning Wood Pellet Using Diode Laser-Based Two-Line Atomic Fluorescence

Diode laser-based two-line atomic fluorescence (TLAF) thermometry applied to flames of combusting wood pellets is demonstrated. The temperature above burning wood pellets placed in the hot product gas of gallium seeded laminar flames is measured. The calibration-free technique provides spatially resolved temperatures in one dimension with sufficient temporal resolution to resolve all combustion stages of a pellet, even in highly sooting flames. The temperature above a burning pellet was found to decrease due to the release of volatile gases and the accuracy and precision of the technique is assessed at flame temperatures.

Temperature Imaging in Low-pressure Flames Using Diode Lasers

We present a calibration free technique for spatially resolved imaging of flame temperature. Its application is demonstrated in a low pressure premixed methane flame seeded with indium. Temperature measurements over a range of equivalence ratios are investigated.

Investigation of ps-PFLIF for detection of hydrogen peroxides in laminar flames

Using short (5 ns) pump-probe delay times, photochemical interferences due to CO2 photolysis can be virtually eliminated in flame experiments with photofragmentation laser-induced fluorescence (PFLIF), which enables hydrogen peroxides to be measured with higher accuracy.