Heat transfer to a thin solid combustible in flame spreading at microgravity

Journal Article · Thu Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1991 · Journal of Heat Transfer (Transactions of the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers), Series C); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1115/1.2910617· OSTI ID:5568070

Bhattacharjee, S ^[1]; Altenkirch, R A ^[2]; Olson, S L; Sotos, R G ^[3]

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1. San Diego State Univ., CA (United States)
2. Mississippi State Univ., Mississippi State (United States)
3. NASA-Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, OH (United States)

The heat transfer rate to a thin solid combustible from an attached diffusion flame, spreading across the surface of the combustible in a quiescent, microgravity environment, was determined from measurements made in the drop tower facility at NASA-Lewis Research Center. With first-order Arrhenium pyrolysis kinetics, the solid-phase mass and energy equations along with the measured spread rate and surface temperature profiles were used to calculate the net heat flux to surface. Results of the measurements are compared to numerical solution of the complete set of coupled differential equations that describe the temperature, species, and velocity fields in the gas and solid phases. The theory and experiment agree on the major qualitative features of the heat transfer. Some fundamental differences are attributed to the neglect of radiation in the theoretical model. A scale analysis is developed that makes use of the experimental data at different ambient conditions to support the notion that radiation is important and to investigate the effect of pressure on the spread rate.

• OSTI ID: 5568070
• Journal Information: Journal of Heat Transfer (Transactions of the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers), Series C); (United States), Journal Name: Journal of Heat Transfer (Transactions of the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers), Series C); (United States) Vol. 113:3; ISSN 0022-1481; ISSN JHTRA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
400800 -- Combustion
Pyrolysis
& High-Temperature Chemistry
42 ENGINEERING
420400* -- Engineering-- Heat Transfer & Fluid Flow
ARRHENIUS EQUATION
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COMBUSTION
DECOMPOSITION
DIFFUSION
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ENERGY TRANSFER
EQUATIONS
FLAME PROPAGATION
HEAT TRANSFER
KINETICS
NASA
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
OXIDATION
PLATES
PYROLYSIS
RADIATIONS
THERMAL RADIATION
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
US ORGANIZATIONS