Ömer L. Gülder

Spectrally Resolved Measurement of Flame Radiation to Determine Soot Temperature and Concentration

A multiwavelength flame emission technique is developed for high spatial resolution determination of soot temperature and soot volume fraction in axisymmetric laminar diffusion flames. Horizontal scans of line-integrated spectra are collected over a spectral range of 500-945 nm. Inversion of these data through one-dimensional tomography using a three-point Abel inversion yields radial distributions of the soot radiation from which temperature profiles are extracted. From an absolute calibration of the flame emission and by use of these temperature data, absorption coefficients are calculated, which are directly proportional to the soot volume fractions. The important optical parameters are discussed. It is shown that a uniform sampling cross section through the flame must be maintained and that variations in sampling area produce inconsistencies between measurements and theory, which cannot be interpreted as spatial averaging of the property field. The variations in cross-sectional sampling area have the largest influence on the measurements at the edges of the flame, where the highest resolution is required. Emission attenuation by soot has been shown to have minor influence on the soot temperature and soot volume fraction for the soot loading of the axisymmetric flame tested. An emission correction scheme is outlined, which could be used for more heavily sooting flames. For a refractive index absorption function E(m) = Im[(m 2 - 1)/(m 2 + 2)] that is independent of wavelength, the soot temperatures and soot volume fractions measured with this technique are in excellent agreement with data obtained by coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering nitrogen thermometry and two-dimensional soot extinction in the same ethylene coflow diffusion flame. The agreement of the results suggests a limit of the slope of the spectral response of E(m) to be between 0 and 20% over the spectral range examined.

A calibration-independent laser-induced incandescence technique for soot measurement by detecting absolute light intensity

Laser-induced incandescence (LII) has proved to be a useful diagnostic tool for spatially and temporally resolved measurement of particulate (soot) volume fraction and primary particle size in a wide range of applications, such as steady flames, flickering flames, and Diesel engine exhausts. We present a novel LII technique for the determination of soot volume fraction by measuring the absolute incandescence intensity, avoiding the need for ex situ calibration that typically uses a source of particles with known soot volume fraction. The technique developed in this study further extends the capabilities of existing LII for making practical quantitative measurements of soot. The spectral sensitivity of the detection system is determined by calibrating with an extended source of known radiance, and this sensitivity is then used to interpret the measured LII signals. Although it requires knowledge of the soot temperature, either from a numerical model of soot particle heating or experimentally determined by detecting LII signals at two different wavelengths, this technique offers a calibration-independent procedure for measuring soot volume fraction. Application of this technique to soot concentration measurements is demonstrated in a laminar diffusion flame.

Effects of Gas and Soot Radiation on Soot Formation in a Coflow Laminar Ethylene Diffusion Flame

Abstract A computational study of soot formation in an undilute axisymmetric laminar ethylene-air coflow jet diffusion flame at atmospheric pressure was conducted using a detailed gas-phase reaction mechanism and complex thermal and transport properties. A simple two-equation soot model was employed to predict soot formation, growth, and oxidation with interactions between the soot chemistry and the gas-phase chemistry taken into account. Both the optically thin model and the discrete-ordinates method coupled with a statistical narrow-band correlated-K based wide band model for radiative properties of CO, CO2, H2O, and soot were employed in the calculation of radiation heat transfer to evaluate the adequacy of using the optically thin model. Several calculations were performed with and without radiative transfer of radiating gases and/or soot to investigate their respective effects on the computed soot field and flame structure. Radiative heat transfer by both radiating gases and soot were found to be important in this relatively heavily sooting flame studied. Results of the optically thin radiation model are in good agreement with those obtained using the wide band model except for the flame temperature near the flame tip.

Numerical modelling of soot formation and oxidation in laminar coflow non-smoking and smoking ethylene diffusion flames

A numerical study of soot formation and oxidation in axisymmetric laminar coflow non-smoking and smoking ethylene diffusion flames was conducted using detailed gas-phase chemistry and complex thermal and transport properties. A modified two-equation soot model was employed to describe soot nucleation, growth and oxidation. Interaction between the gas-phase chemistry and soot chemistry was taken into account. Radiation heat transfer by both soot and radiating gases was calculated using the discrete-ordinates method coupled with a statistical narrow-band correlated-k based band model, and was used to evaluate the simple optically thin approximation. The governing equations in fully elliptic form were solved. The current models in the literature describing soot oxidation by O2 and OH have to be modified in order to predict the smoking flame. The modified soot oxidation model has only moderate effects on the calculation of the non-smoking flame, but dramatically affects the soot oxidation near the flame tip in the smoking flame. Numerical results of temperature, soot volume fraction and primary soot particle size and number density were compared with experimental data in the literature. Relatively good agreement was found between the prediction and the experimental data. The optically thin approximation radiation model significantly underpredicts temperatures in the upper portion of both flames, seriously affecting the soot prediction.

A computational framework for predicting laminar reactive flows with soot formation

Numerical modeling is an attractive option for cost-effective development of new high-efficiency, soot-free combustion devices. However, the inherent complexities of hydrocarbon combustion require that combustion models rely heavily on engineering approximations to remain computationally tractable. More efficient numerical algorithms for reacting flows are needed so that more realistic physics models can be used to provide quantitative soot predictions. A new, highly-scalable combustion modeling tool has been developed specifically for use on large multiprocessor computer architectures. The tool is capable of capturing complex processes such as detailed chemistry, molecular transport, radiation, and soot formation/destruction in laminar diffusion flames. The proposed algorithm represents the current state of the art in combustion modeling, making use of a second-order accurate finite-volume scheme and a parallel adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) algorithm on body-fitted, multiblock meshes. Radiation is modeled using the discrete ordinates method (DOM) to solve the radiative transfer equation and the statistical narrow-band correlated-k (SNBCK) method to quantify gas band absorption. At present, a semi-empirical model is used to predict the nucleation, growth, and oxidation of soot particles. The framework is applied to two laminar coflow diffusion flames which were previously studied numerically and experimentally. Both a weakly-sooting methane–air flame and a heavily-sooting ethylene–air flame are considered for validation purposes. Numerical predictions for these flames are verified with published experimental results and the parallel performance of the algorithm analyzed. The effects of grid resolution and gas-phase reaction mechanism on the overall flame solutions were also assessed. Reasonable agreement with experimental measurements was obtained for both flames for predictions of flame height, temperature and soot volume fraction. Overall, the algorithm displayed excellent strong scaling performance by achieving a parallel efficiency of 70% on 384 processors. The proposed algorithm proved to be a robust, highly-scalable solution method for sooting laminar flames.

FLAME SURFACE DENSITIES IN PREMIXED COMBUSTION AT MEDIUM TO HIGH TURBULENCE INTENSITIES

The surface densities of flame fronts in turbulent premixed propane/air flames were determined experimentally. The instantaneous flame fronts were visualized using laser induced fluorescence (LIF) of OH on two Bunsen type burners of 11.2 and 22.4 mm diameters. Non-dimensional turbulence intensity, u′/S L, was varied from 0.84 to 15, and the Reynolds number, based on the integral length scale, varied from 34 to 467. These flames are in the flamelet combustion regime as defined by the most recent turbulent premixed combustion diagrams. From 100 to 800 images were recorded for each experimental condition. Flame surface densities were obtained from the instantaneous maps of the progress variable, which is zero in the reactants and unity in the products. These flame surface densities were corrected for the mean direction cosines of the flame fronts, which had a typical value of 0.69 for the Bunsen flames. In the non-dimensional turbulence intensity range of up to 15, it was found that the maximum flame surface density and the integrated flame surface density across the flame brush do not show any significant dependence on turbulence intensity. This was discussed in the framework of a flame surface density-based turbulent premixed flame propagation closure model. The implication is that the conceptual increase in flame surface density with turbulence may not be the dominant mechanism for flame velocity enhancement in turbulent combustion in the region specified as the flamelet combustion regime by the current turbulent premixed combustion diagrams. Small-scale transport of heat and species may be more important and chemistry may not be decoupled from turbulence. Further, the applicability of the flamelet approach may be limited to a much smaller range of conditions than presently believed.

Turbulent premixed combustion in V-shaped flames: Characteristics of flame front

Flame front characteristics of turbulent premixed V-shaped flames were investigated experimentally using the Mie scattering and the particle image velocimetry techniques. The experiments were performed at mean streamwise exit velocities of 4.0, 6.2, and 8.6 m/s, along with fuel-air equivalence ratios of 0.7, 0.8, and 0.9. Effects of vertical distance from the flame-holder, mean streamwise exit velocity, and fuel-air equivalence ratio on statistics of the distance between the flame front and the vertical axis, flame brush thickness, flame front curvature, and angle between tangent to the flame front and the horizontal axis were studied. The results show that increasing the vertical distance from the flame-holder and the fuel-air equivalence ratio increase the mean and root-mean-square (RMS) of the distance between the flame front and the vertical axis; however, increasing the mean streamwise exit velocity decreases these statistics. Spectral analysis of the fluctuations of the flame front position depicts ...

Solution of the equation of radiative transfer using a Newton-Krylov approach and adaptive mesh refinement

The discrete ordinates method (DOM) and finite-volume method (FVM) are used extensively to solve the radiative transfer equation (RTE) in furnaces and combusting mixtures due to their balance between numerical efficiency and accuracy. These methods produce a system of coupled partial differential equations which are typically solved using space-marching techniques since they converge rapidly for constant coefficient spatial discretization schemes and non-scattering media. However, space-marching methods lose their effectiveness when applied to scattering media because the intensities in different directions become tightly coupled. When these methods are used in combination with high-resolution limited total-variation-diminishing (TVD) schemes, the additional non-linearities introduced by the flux limiting process can result in excessive iterations for most cases or even convergence failure for scattering media. Space-marching techniques may also not be quite as well-suited for the solution of problems involving complex three-dimensional geometries and/or for use in highly-scalable parallel algorithms. A novel pseudo-time marching algorithm is therefore proposed herein to solve the DOM or FVM equations on multi-block body-fitted meshes using a highly scalable parallel-implicit solution approach in conjunction with high-resolution TVD spatial discretization. Adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) is also employed to properly capture disparate solution scales with a reduced number of grid points. The scheme is assessed in terms of discontinuity-capturing capabilities, spatial and angular solution accuracy, scalability, and serial performance through comparisons to other commonly employed solution techniques. The proposed algorithm is shown to possess excellent parallel scaling characteristics and can be readily applied to problems involving complex geometries. In particular, greater than 85% parallel efficiency is demonstrated for a strong scaling problem on up to 256 processors. Furthermore, a speedup of a factor of at least two was observed over a standard space-marching algorithm using a limited scheme for optically thick scattering media. Although the time-marching approach is approximately four times slower for absorbing media, it vastly outperforms standard solvers when parallel speedup is taken into account. The latter is particularly true for geometrically complex computational domains.

Effects of Pressure and Preheat on Super-Adiabatic Flame Temperatures in Rich Premixed Methane/Air Flames

The structure of freely propagating rich CH4/air flames was studied numerically using detailed thermal and transport properties and the GRI-Mech 3.0 mechanism. Different fresh mixture temperatures and ambient pressures were considered in the simulation to investigate the effects of preheat and pressure on the super-adiabatic flame temperature (SAFT) phenomenon. The occurrence of SAFT in rich CH4/air flames is chemical kinetics in nature and is associated with the overproduction of CH2CO and H2O in the reaction zone followed by their endothermic dissociations in the post-flame region. Preheat lowers the degree of H2O concentration overshoot and results in faster depletion of CH2CO concentration in the post-flame region. Preheat accelerates a rich CH4/air flame to approach equilibrium and suppresses the occurrence of SAFT. Increased pressure reduces the H radical concentration in the reaction zone and increases the overshoot of H2O concentration and the peak concentration of CH2CO. Although pressure also accelerates the approach of a rich CH4/air flame to equilibrium, it actually enhances the degree of SAFT.

Investigation of Dynamics of Lean Turbulent Premixed Flames by Rayleigh Imaging

Turbulent premixed flames of propane/air and methane/air were studied on a stabilized Bunsen-type burner to investigate the interactions between turbulence and the structure of the flame front in the thin reaction zones regime. The fuel-air equivalence ratio was varied from 0.7 to stoichiometric for propane flames, and from 0.6 to stoichiometric for methane flames. The nondimensional turbulence intensity u/S L covered the range from 2.7 to 24.1. The flame front data were obtained using planar Rayleigh scattering technique, and particle image velocimetry was used to measure the instantaneous velocity field of the flames. Thermal structure of the flame front was observed to change with increasing U/S L . The reaction zone and preheat zone thicknesses increased modestly with nondimensional turbulence intensity in both propane and methane flames. Flame front curvature statistics displayed the same Gaussian-like distribution, which centered around zero for all the flame conditions studied. Flame surface density results exhibited almost no dependence on the nondimensional turbulence intensity. It was found that the flame curvature was able to broaden the flame front and reduce the flame surface density.