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Title: Comparison between a propane-air combustion front and a helium-air simulated combustion front

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6123252

Turbulent combustion experiments were performed in a right cylindrical combustion bomb using a premixed propane-air gaseous fuel. The initial conditions inside the combustion chamber were three psig and room temperature. Prior to spark firing, the turbulence intensity inside the combustion chamber was measured and could be varied over a ten fold range. The effect of initial turbulence intensity on turbulent flame propagation was investigated. Two regimes of turbulent combustion were identified, which is in agreement with a previous investigator's results. One of them, a ''transition regime'' occurs when the turbulence intensity is approximately twice the laminar flame speed. Within the transition regime, the turbulent burning speed is linearly proportional to initial turbulence intensity and independent of laminar flame speed and turbulence length scale. A high pressure helium front was injected into the combustion chamber to simulate the combustion front. Since the helium front is isothermal, hot-wire anemometry can be used to quantify the change in turbulence intensity ahead of the propagating front. The helium front was found to have different characteristics than the combustion front.

Research Organization:
Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-77ER04461
OSTI ID:
6123252
Report Number(s):
DOE/ER/04461-T2; ON: TI85011911
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Thesis
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English