ALBERT

Description: 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 coflow or jet velocity. An explanation for this phenomenon is that entrainment of ambient air at the high lift-off heights prevents autoignition. Analysis of the results suggests that flame stabilization occurs through a combination of flame propagation, autoignition, and localized extinction processes. Proposed is an expanded view of distributed reaction combustion based on analysis of the distributions of probe volume conditions at the stabilization region of the lifted hydrogen and methane flames. Turbulent eddies the size of the flame thickness mix fuel and hot coflow across the flame front, thereby enhancing the reaction zone with autoignition of reactants at elevated temperatures; this is the reverse effect of turbulent flames in ambient air, where intense turbulence in cool mixtures result in localized extinction. Each of the three processes (i.e., flame propagation, autoignition and localized extinction) contributes to flame stabilization in varying degrees, depending on flow conditions.

Description: An experimental investigation of lifted spray flames in a coflow of hot, vitiated gases is presented. The vitiated coflow burner is a spray flame that issues into a coaxial flow of hot combustion products from a lean, premixed H2/Air flame. The spray flame in a vitiated coflow emulates the combustion that occurs in many advanced combustors without the detailed fluid mechanics. Two commercially available laser diagnostic systems are used to characterize the spray flame and to demonstrate the vitiated coflow burner's amenability to optical investigation. The Ensemble Particle Concentration and Size (EPCS) system is used to measure the path-average droplet size distribution and liquid volume fraction at several axial locations while an extractive probe instrument named the Real-time Fuel-air Analyzer (RFA) is used to measure the air to fuel ratio downstream of the spray nozzle with high temporal and spatial resolution. The effect of coflow conditions (stoichiometry) and dilution of the fuel with water was studied with the EPCS optical system. As expected, results show that water retards the evaporation and combustion of fuels. Measurements obtained by the RFA extractive probe show that while the Delavan manufactured nozzle does distribute the fuel over the manufacturer specified spray angle, it unfortunately does not distribute the fuel uniformly, providing conditions that may result in the production of unwanted NOx. Despite some limitations due to the inherent nature of the experimental techniques, the two diagnostics can be readily applied to spray flames in the vitiated coflow environment.