Optical determination of incipient soot particle concentrations in ethene laminar diffusion flames.

Conference · Tue Jul 06 04:00:00 EDT 1999

OSTI ID:11876

Gupta, S B; Santoro, R J

Recent studies in premixed flames have shown the existence of ''transparent particles.'' These particles, 2 nm in size and in high number densities are considered to be a phase transitional between the gas phase PAH species and particulate soot. In the present study, various optical diagnostics were evaluated for measuring the concentration of these particles in situ, Through such evaluations, a technique using extinction at two wavelengths was found to be ideal. While employing such a technique, the volume fractions of these particles in an ethene laminar diffusion flame were measured. Low in the flame, these particles were found to be concentrated in the fuel rich core, while at higher locations, they could be found with appreciable volume fractions even in the soot laden regions. Having given due consideration for the errors due to uncertainties in the optical constants, we report the existence of these particles in an ethene flame with volume fractions comparable to those of soot. Also, similar measurements performed in a low sooting ethene/methanol flame show the concentration of these particles to be of the same order of magnitude as in a pure ethene flame.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., IL (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: US Department of Energy (US)
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 11876
• Report Number(s): ANL/ES/CP-99394
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
COMBUSTION KINETICS
CONCENTRATION RATIO
DIAGNOSTIC TECHNIQUES
ETHYLENE
FLAMES
METHANOL FUELS
OPACITY
POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS
SOOT