Nils-Erik Olofsson

Are Sooting Premixed Porous-Plug Burner Flames One-Dimensional? A Laser-Based Experimental Investigation

The one-dimensional character of sooting premixed porous-plug (McKenna) burner flames has been examined, motivated by recent investigations where the one-dimensionality has been questioned. The examination employs laser diagnostic techniques to measure different characteristics: temperature using rotational coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy (CARS) and soot properties using laser-induced incandescence and elastic light scattering. Special attention has been paid to the influence of an outer shroud gas flow of either nitrogen or air. The nitrogen shroud gas leads to flame cooling at the outer edge, whereas the air shroud results in heating through the oxidation of CO/H2/soot. This generally results in a more inhomogeneous spatial particle size profile for the nitrogen shroud flame, with smaller particle sizes at the flame edge. The present results emphasize the need to characterize burner and operating conditions accurately, and also, regarding parameters that at first glance seem less relevant, such as the shroud gas, to provide useful data for comparison between laboratories.

Soot Formation in Unstrained Diffusion Flames

The formation of soot particles has been investigated in CH4/O2 diffusion flames using a unique burner design, which allows the creation of a nearly unstrained planar reaction sheet. Spatially resolved soot volume fractions were obtained using laser-induced incandescence. These soot measurements and the sooting limits were obtained as a function of bulk flow across the flame and mixture strength. Samples were collected using thermophoretic sampling and analyzed using electron microscopy, revealing a broad range of microstructures including particles with unusually large primary diameters and carbon nanotubes. A theoretical model is presented, which confirms that under certain conditions the 1D nature of the flow field of the burner and the strong adverse temperature gradient on the fuel side of the flame result in the soot particles being held in place by thermophoretic forces and allowed to grow for very long time periods. Some of these so-called super aggregates reached sizes of tens of microns and became visible to the naked eye in the soot layer.