Soot formation and temperature field structure in laminar propane-air diffusion flames at elevated pressures

Journal Article · Thu Jun 15 04:00:00 EDT 2006 · Combustion and Flame

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.combustflame.2006.01.010· OSTI ID:20758231

Bento, Decio S; Guelder, OEmer L ^[1]; Thomson, Kevin A ^[2]

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1. Institute for Aerospace Studies, University of Toronto, 4925 Dufferin Street, Toronto, ON M3H 5T6 (Canada)
2. National Research Council, ICPET Combustion Technology, 1200 Montreal Road M-9, Ontario K1A 0R6 (Canada)

The effect of pressure on soot formation and the structure of the temperature field was studied in coflow propane-air laminar diffusion flames over the pressure range of 0.1 to 0.73 MPa in a high-pressure combustion chamber. The fuel flow rate was selected so that the soot was completely oxidized within the visible flame and the flame was stable at all pressures. Spectral soot emission was used to measure radially resolved soot volume fraction and soot temperature as a function of pressure. Additional soot volume fraction measurements were made at selected heights using line-of-sight light attenuation. Soot concentration values from these two techniques agreed to within 30% and both methods exhibited similar trends in the spatial distribution of soot concentration. Maximum line-of-sight soot concentration along the flame centerline scaled with pressure; the pressure exponent was about 1.4 for pressures between 0.2 and 0.73 MPa. Peak carbon conversion to soot, defined as the percentage of fuel carbon content converted to soot, also followed a power-law dependence on pressure, where the pressure exponent was near to unity for pressures between 0.2 and 0.73 MPa. Soot temperature measurements indicated that the overall temperatures decreased with increasing pressure; however, the temperature gradients increased with increasing pressure. (author)

• OSTI ID: 20758231
• Journal Information: Combustion and Flame, Journal Name: Combustion and Flame Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 145; ISSN CBFMAO; ISSN 0010-2180
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
AIR
PRESSURE DEPENDENCE
PRESSURE RANGE KILO PA
PROPANE
SCALING LAWS
SOOT
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION
TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION
TEMPERATURE GRADIENTS