Numerical investigation of the effects of polydisperse water sprays on extinction conditions of counterflow methane non-premixed flames

Water, sprayed in the form of tiny droplets, has emerged as a potential fire suppressant after the halon compounds such as trifluorobromomethane (CF₃Br, Halon 1301) were banned by the Montreal protocol. The size distribution of the water droplet plays a crucial role in the effectiveness of the water spray in fire suppression. A numerical investigation of the influence of size distribution of a polydisperse water spray on extinction of counterflow diffusion flames is presented in this paper. This study uses laminar finite rate model with reduced CHEMKIN chemistry for numerical simulations. The discrete phase, namely the water spray, is simulated using Lagrangian Discrete Phase Modelling approach. In this work, the polydispersity of water spray is taken into account in the numerical simulation by a suitable Rosin–Rammler distribution. Results obtained from numerical simulation are validated with the experimental results reported in the literature. This study demonstrates that the representation of the polydisperse spray by a monodisperse spray (with droplet diameter same as the SMD of the polydisperse spray) in numerical simulations is not always justified and it leads to deviation from the experimental results. The effects of number mean diameter and spread parameter on the efficacy of flame suppression are investigated for polydisperse sprays. A comprehensive comparison is done between the effectiveness of monodisperse and polydisperse water sprays. An optimum droplet diameter is obtained for monodisperse sprays for which the effectiveness of the spray is maximum. The effects of evaporation Damköhler number and Stokes number of water droplets on flame suppression have also been explained.     

Stagnation-point polydisperse spray flame ignition

A theory of stagnation-point flow polydisperse spray flame ignition by an isothermal hot surface is presented for the first time. The configuration investigated consists of a mixture of fuel droplets and air flowing against an isothermal hot surface (such as a hot ignition probe). The polydisperse spray of droplets is modelled using the sectional approach. A single global chemical reaction is assumed for the case when ignition occurs. The mathematical analysis makes use of a small parameter that is exploited for an asymptotic approach. An analytical criterion for ignition is derived which includes effects of the flow field, the reactants and all the fuel spray-related parameters, including the initial size distribution of the spray's droplets. Numerical calculations disclose how the actual droplet size distribution impacts on the critical stagnation point temperature necessary to promote ignition. Additionally, the analytical estimates are compared with predictions of a numerical finite difference code with very satisfactory agreement.     

Polydisperse spray diffusion flames in oscillating flow

The phenomenon of droplet clustering or grouping found when a spray of droplets is moving in an oscillating host flow field is investigated for the case of a polydisperse spray that fuels a laminar co-flow diffusion flame. A mathematical solution is developed for the liquid phase based on use of small Stokes numbers for size sections into which the polydisperse spray size distribution is divided. Droplet clustering in the oscillatory flow field is accounted for by constructing a special model for the sectional vaporization Damkohler numbers in accordance with droplet size. Combining this with a formal solution for a gas phase Schvab-Zel'dovich variable yields the means whereby flame dynamics can be described. Results calculated from this solution demonstrate that preferential droplet size behaviour (with smaller droplets tending to cluster to a greater extent and reduce the vaporization Damkohler number more than larger ones) can have a major impact on the flame dynamics through local droplet enrichment with attendant consequences on the production of fuel vapour. The dynamics of the sort of flame (over- or under-ventilated) and the occurrence of flame pinching leading to multiple flame sheets are altered under these circumstances. However, potential control of the actual initial spray polydispersity may reduce the intensity of such effects.     

Evaluation method for radiative heat transfer in polydisperse water droplets

Simplifications of the model for nongray radiative heat transfer analysis in participating media comprised of polydisperse water droplets are presented. Databases of the radiative properties for a water droplet over a wide range of wavelengths and diameters are constructed using rigorous Mie theory. The accuracy of the radiative properties obtained from the database interpolation is validated by comparing them with those obtained from the Mie calculations. The radiative properties of polydisperse water droplets are compared with those of monodisperse water droplets with equivalent mean diameters. Nongray radiative heat transfer in the anisotropic scattering fog layer, including direct and diffuse solar irradiations and infrared sky flux, is analyzed using REM². The radiative heat fluxes within the fog layer containing polydisperse water droplets are compared with those in the layer containing monodisperse water droplets. Through numerical simulation of the radiative heat transfer, polydisperse water droplets can be approximated by using the Sauter diameter, a technique that can be useful in several research fields, such as engineering and atmospheric science. Although this approximation is valid in the case of pure radiative transfer problems, the Sauter diameter is reconfirmed to be the appropriate diameter for approximating problems in radiative heat transfer, although volume-length mean diameter shows better accordance in some cases. The CPU time for nongray radiative heat transfer analysis with a fog model is evaluated. It is proved that the CPU time is decreased by using the databases and the approximation method for polydisperse particulate media.     

Planar Droplet Sizing for the Characterization of Droplet Clusters in an Industrial Gun‐Type Burner

An important problem in spray combustion deals with the existence of dense regions of droplets, called clusters. To understand their formation mechanism, the droplet dynamics and fuel concentration profile are investigated by means of planar laser techniques in an industrial gun‐type burner. The simultaneous measurement of elastic Mie scattering and Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) allows the instantaneous measurement of the Sauter Mean Diameter (SMD), after proper calibration. Using two different CCDs to get the two signals requires a detailed calibration of the CCD response before getting absolute diameters. Pixels are binned 6 by 6 to obtain the final SMD map, this is a compromise between spatial accuracy and noise. Velocity field is measured on both sets of images using standard Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) algorithms. The comparison of cross‐correlation technique with PDA results shows that the velocity measured on the LIF images are close to the velocity based on D₃₀, whereas the Mie scattering results are similar to D₂₀. On Mie scattering images, regions of high interfacial area forming clusters can be detected. A special tracking scheme is used to characterize their dynamics in terms of velocity and diameters by ensuring that the same volume of fluid is tracked. It is shown that the clusters have a velocity similar to the velocity of droplets with the same diameter as the mean SMD of the cluster. It is also shown that an increase of pressure tends to trigger the appearance of such a group of droplets, due to a smaller diameter of the droplets caused by the increase of pressure discharge. Uncertainties for the different techniques used are discussed.     

四种磁绝缘传输线的横向空间电荷流

根据电磁场基本理论及电子运动守恒方程，导出平板、圆柱、圆锥和圆盘这4种常用传输线的横向空间电荷流的数值模型和磁绝缘临界条件。通过数值模拟得到:传输线的电压越高，无磁场的横向空间电荷流越大，但是磁缘性能却越显著；若分别增大圆柱、圆锥的几何结构因子，既有助于减小它们的无磁场横向空间电荷流又有助于增强它们的磁绝缘性能；对于圆锥，若电极夹角较大，内电极的极角较小，则对减小无磁场空间电荷流和增强磁绝缘性也有一定好处。     

Ignition of fuel issuing from a porous cylinder located adjacent to a heated wall: A numerical study

This work deals with the numerical simulation on an unstructured mesh of the ignition and burning in an oxidizing atmosphere of a fuel droplet heated on one side. This is relevant for studying the ignition of droplets in a spray when they are crossing a flame zone stabilized in it. The droplet here is replaced by a porous cylinder, and the flame by a hot solid wall. The reaction is assumed to be described by a single step, A?+?νB?→?P. The cell-centred finite volume scheme considered here uses a generalized Roe's approximate Riemann solver with the monotonic upwind scheme for conservative laws (MUSCL) technique for the convective part and Green–Gauss type interpolation for the viscous part. The thinness of the reaction zone is taken into account by using an adaptive refinement–unrefinement procedure. It has been found that the process of droplet ignition takes place by means of a propagation of a triple flame around the ‘droplet’ when the chemical reaction is sufficiently fast with respect to the molecular heat and mass diffusion process.     

Observation of droplet motion during flame spread on three-fuel-droplet array with a pendulum suspender

Flame spread on a fuel droplet array has been studied as a simple model of spray combustion. A three-fuel-droplet array with a pendulum suspender was employed to investigate interactions between flame spread and droplet motion in the axial direction. Initial droplet diameter was 0.8 mm, and fuel was n-heptane. A silicon carbide pendulum suspender of 15 μm in diameter and 30 mm in length was used for the third droplet. The first fixed droplet was ignited by electric spark. Behavior of the flame and the third droplet was observed using a high-speed video camera with an image intensifier. Particle tracking velocimetry (PTV) measurements were performed to explain the behavior of the third movable droplet. The dimensionless droplet span, which is the average of droplet-to-droplet distances divided by the average initial diameter of the three droplets, was varied from 2.5 to 8 for observing flame spread, and fixed at 5.5 for PTV measurements. It was observed that the third droplet moved away from the second droplet before the flame spread to the third droplet. The displacement of the third droplet is remarkable when the dimensionless droplet span is close to the limit of flame spread. This implies that the movement of the droplet decreases the dimensionless span of the flame spread limit and the flame spread speed near the flame spread limit. Results of PTV measurements suggest that the heat expansion wave, caused by ignition of the premixture which was accumulated around the second droplet, and the burned gas flow from the second droplet pushed away the third droplet; then natural convection, induced by the flames of the first and second droplets, drew the third droplet to the second droplet. The heat expansion wave and the burned gas flow of the second droplet reached nearly 12 in dimensionless span.     

Coupling of turbulence on the ignition of multicomponent sprays

This study examines the effect of turbulence on the ignition of multicomponent surrogate fuels and its role in modifying preferential evaporation in multiphase turbulent spray environments. To this end, two zero-dimensional droplet models are considered that are representative of asymptotic conditions of diffusion limit and the distillation limit are considered. The coupling between diffusion, evaporation and combustion is first identified using a scale analysis of 0D homogeneous batch reactor simulations. Subsequently, direct numerical simulations of homogeneously dispersed multicomponent droplets are performed for both droplet models, in decaying isotropic turbulence and at quiescent conditions to examine competing time scale effects arising from evaporation, ignition and turbulence. Results related to intra-droplet transport and effects of turbulence on autoignition and overall combustion are studied using an aviation fuel surrogate. Depending on the characteristic scale, it is shown that turbulence can couple through modulation of evaporation time or defer the ignition phase as a result of droplet cooling or gas-phase homogenization. Both preferential evaporation and turbulence are found to modify the ignition delay time, up to a factor of two. More importantly, identical droplet ignition behavior in homogeneous gas phase can imply fundamentally different combustion modes in heterogeneous environments.     

Analysis of steady state polydisperse counterflow spray diffusion flames in the large Stokes number limit

A new mathematical analysis is presented of certain aspects of the behavior of opposed flow polydisperse spray diffusion flames within the framework of a model in which large slip is permitted between the droplets and their host surroundings. The sectional approach is used to model the polydisperse spray. Operating conditions are identified under which the inverses of sectional Stokes numbers are small spray-related parameters to be used in a perturbation analysis of the liquid phase governing equations. The steady state equations and their solutions are similar in form to the equivalent equations considered in previous work of the authors in which dynamical equilibrium of the droplets with the carrier phase was assumed. However, here there is much more mathematical complexity involved in the spray equations solution. A hybrid Eulerian–Lagrangian approach is also suggested to get an insight into the phenomenon of reversal in the motion of the droplets that has been reported in independent experimental and computational research. Computed results based on the analytical solutions up to the 1st order of approximation reveal the influence of large droplet slip on the droplets velocity field and on the spray diffusion flame’s thermal field, for which appreciable heterogeneous combustion can occur under the operating conditions considered.     

LES-CMC of high-altitude relight in an RQL aeronautical combustor

Large-Eddy Simulations with the Conditional Moment Closure sub-grid combustion model and detailed chemistry for kerosene were performed for the ignition process in an Rich-Quench-Lean aviation gas turbine combustor at high-altitude conditions. The simulations used realistic boundary conditions for the flow inlet and spray droplet size distributions and velocity. Due to the large droplets, the Central Recirculation Zone (CRZ) is filled with fuel, mostly in liquid form. The first phase of the ignition process is critical and the results show that the spark kernel must provide enough energy to evaporate the spray and pyrolyse the fuel for the flame to grow and establish in the corner of the combustor. The second phase is characterised by the flame burning the mixture in the scorner and propagating around the Inner Shear Layer. This phase is also critical, as the flame needs the prevaporised fuel and smaller droplets in the corner to sufficiently increase the temperature and be able to propagate inside the CRZ, filled with liquid fuel and cold air. If this propagation inside the CRZ is achieved, phase three is accomplished and the burner is fully ignited. The simulations demonstrate the particular importance of detailed chemistry and proper boundary conditions for flame ignition simulations in high-altitude relight conditions.     

Flame structure and stabilization of lean-premixed sprays in a counterflow with low-volatility fuel

An experimental study was performed on the combustion of lean-premixed spays in a counterflow. n-Decane was used as a liquid fuel with low volatility. The flame structure and stabilization were discussed based on the flame-spread mechanism of a droplet array with a low-volatility fuel. The spray flame consisted of a blue region and a yellow luminous region. The flame spread among droplets and group-flame formation through the droplet interaction were observed on the premixed spray side, while envelope flames were also observed on the opposing airflow side. The blue-flame region consisted of premixed flames propagating in the mixture layer around each droplet, the envelope diffusion flames around each droplet, the lower parts of the group diffusion flame surrounding each droplet cluster, and the envelope flame around droplets passing through the group flame. The flame was stabilized within a specific range of the mean droplet diameter via a balance between the droplet velocity and the flame-spread rate of the premixed spray.     

Interpreting the influence of fuel spray impact on mixture preparation for HCCI combustion with port-fuel injection

This paper addresses the influence of fuel spray impact on fuel/air mixture for combustion in port-fuel injection engines. The experiments include time resolved measurements of surface temperature synchronized with PDA measurements of droplet dynamics at impact and were conducted to quantify the effects of interactions between successive injections on the mixture preparation for combustion in homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engines. Analysis shows that, during engine warm up, the heat transfer over the entire valve surface occurs within the vaporization-nucleate-boiling regime and the local instantaneous surface temperature correlates with the dynamics of droplets impacting at the same point. A functional relation is found for the heat transfer coefficient, which also describes other experiments reported in the literature. Similarity does not hold after the engine warms up because heat transfer and droplet vaporization at the surface are dominated by multiple interactions between droplets arisen from diverse heat transfer regimes. However, results evidence the existence of a critical surface temperature which sets a transition between overall heat transfer regimes dominated by local nucleate boiling at lower temperatures and by local intermittent transition regimes at higher temperatures. The heat transfer within the overall nucleate boiling regime is shown to be due to a thin film boiling mechanism leading to breakdown of the liquid-film at a nearly constant surface temperature, regardless of injection frequency or any other spray conditions. While at low frequencies this regime is not limited neither by the delivery of liquid to the surface, nor by the removal of vapour from the surface, at higher frequencies it is triggered by enhanced vaporization induced by piercing and mixing the liquid film. The results further evidence the important role of spray impingement for mixture preparation as required for HCCI.     

Instability of a flame front propagating through a fuel-rich droplet–vapour–air cloud

A simple model of a flame front propagating through a fuel-rich droplet–vapour–air mixture is presented in which the fuel droplets are assumed to evaporate in a sharp front ahead of the reaction front. By performing a linear stability analysis neutral stability boundaries are determined. It is shown that the presence of the spray of droplets in the fresh mixture can have a profound effect by causing cellularization of the flame front. Specifically, we demonstrate that under certain circumstances a spray flame can be cellular when its equivalent non-spray flame is completely stable. Furthermore, it is shown that even when the non-spray flame is itself cellular the equivalent spray flame will have a finer cellular structure. These theoretical predictions verify qualitatively for the first time independent experimental observations from the literature. It is thus shown that the primary effect of the spray on the stability of these flames is due to heat loss from the absorption of heat by the droplets for vaporization. The influence of the initial liquid fuel loading and the latent heat of vaporization on the critical wavenumber associated with cellularity provide further evidence of the responsibility of the heat loss mechanism for these spray-related phenomena. Finally, the cellularity of the spray flames with their attendant increase in flame front area suggest a plausible rationale for the experimentally observed burning velocity enhancement induced by the use of a spray of fuel droplets.     

Combustion behaviors of isolated n-decane and ethanol droplets in carbon dioxide-rich ambience under microgravity

The burning and sooting behaviors of isolated fuel droplets for ethanol and n-decane are examined in high concentration of the ambient carbon dioxide under microgravity. A quartz fiber with the diameter of 50 μm maintains the droplet in the center of the combustion chamber and the range in the initial droplet diameter is from 0.30 to 0.80 mm. The ambience consists of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide. The concentration of oxygen is 21% in volume, and that of carbon dioxide is varied from 0% to 60% in volume. Detail measurements of the projected image of the droplet are conducted by using a high speed video camera and the effective droplet diameter squared are calculated from the surface area of the rotating body of the projected object. From evolutions of the droplet diameter squared, the instantaneous burning rates are calculated. Time history of the instantaneous burning rate clearly represents the droplet combustion events, such as the initial thermal expansion, ignition and following combustion. The instantaneous burning rate for n-decane shows an increasing trend during combustion, while that for non-sooting ethanol remains almost constant or shows a decreasing trend. A slight stepwise increase in the instantaneous burning rate is observed for larger n-decane droplets in air, which may be attributed to soot accumulation. However, this behavior of the burning rate disappears in higher concentration of carbon dioxide. Direct observation of the droplet flame indicates suppression of soot production in higher concentration of carbon dioxide and the suppression is enhanced for smaller droplet.     

多喷嘴喷雾场数值模拟分析

本文建立了多喷嘴喷雾场的三维物理数学模型,运用欧拉-拉格朗日法对多喷嘴下的喷雾场进行了详细数值模拟,得到了双喷嘴及三喷嘴情况下喷射入口压力和流量变化对喷雾场内雾滴索太尔直径和雾滴速度的影响规律;并通过与单喷嘴情况进行对比,给出了喷嘴数目对喷雾场内雾滴速度及粒径大小分布的影响。     

A digital image analysis technique for quantitative characterisation of high-speed sprays

A digital image analysis technique developed as a particle or droplet sizing tool and capable of measuring non-spherical objects has been examined in terms of its suitability for quantitative measurements in moderately dense sprays and in particular the potential capability for the characterisation of small diameter, high-speed two-phase flows by employing high-intensity pulsed lasers for illumination. In order to evaluate robustness of the image analysis technique (PDIA), measurement certainty and also to assess whether measurement performance is sensitive to the optical set-up, the technique was applied to data obtained from a hollow cone spray via two independent optical configurations which employed firstly a diode laser and secondly an Nd:YAG laser. The calibration response of the two optical set-ups revealed significant differences in terms of the depth-of-field characteristics and thus effective measurement volume dimensions. Despite these differences, a comparison of PDIA spray data revealed excellent agreement between the two datasets for measured diameters in the range 10–90 μm in the number distributions which not only confirmed robustness of the technique but also the potential of PDIA for the measurement of fast, small diameter objects. Subsequent comparisons of the PDIA data were made with PDA data obtained within the same spray in space and time and showed excellent agreement between the two techniques for droplets larger than approximately 25 μm in diameter. Discrepancies between PDIA and PDA were observed in the volume size distributions for the larger droplets measured whose diameters were greater than approximately 40 μm. This discrepancy is due to the ability of PDIA to measure the diameter of non-spherical droplets which were shown to exist in significant numbers at this measurement location within the spray. In contrast, the well-established technique PDA, which relies on the assumption of droplet sphericity clearly does not detect the presence of these larger deformed droplets.     

Ignition and combustion of a falling, single sodium droplet

Ignition and combustion of a single sodium droplet has been studied experimentally, by use of a falling droplet. It is found that the ignition delay time increases first gradually and then rapidly, with decreasing initial temperature and/or oxygen concentration, and reaches the limit of ignitability, because of the suppression of surface reaction in the ignition stage. It is also found that with decreasing droplet diameter, the ignition delay time first decreases gradually, because of the decrease in the droplet mass to be heated, and then increases steeply, because of the enhancement of heat loss from the droplet surface. As for the effect of the relative speed, it is found that the ignition delay time increases with increasing relative speed, because of the enhanced heat loss. Experimental comparisons with the analytical results have also been conducted to elucidate dominant parameters, and it is confirmed that a set of comprehensive parameters in the literature can be useful in correlating dominant parameters that influence the ignition delay and/or the limit of ignitability. Furthermore, the analysis has been extended to determine the critical size for the ignition and that for the minimum ignition delay time. Combustion behavior after the ignition has also been examined, and it is found that d²-law can hold for the sodium droplet combustion. In addition, it is found that the burning rate-constant without forced convection has nearly the same value as those for usual hydrocarbon droplets, while the sodium combustion in air is quite similar to that of the usual hydrocarbon fuel in an oxidizer-rich environment.     

Combustion of partially premixed spray jets

Gas turbines, liquid rocket motors, and oil-fired furnaces utilize the spray combustion of continuously injected liquid fuels. In most cases, the liquid spray is mixed with an oxidizer prior to combustion, and further oxidizer is supplied from the outside of the spray to complete diffusion combustion. This rich premixed spray is called “partially premixed spray.” Partially premixed sprays have not been studied systematically although they are of practical importance. In the present study, the burning behavior of partially premixed sprays was experimentally studied with a newly developed spray burner. A fuel spray and an oxidizer, diluted with nitrogen, was injected into the air. The overall equivalence ratio of the spray jet was set larger than unity to establish partially premixed spray combustion. In the present burner, the mean droplet diameter of the atomized liquid fuel could be varied without varying the overall equivalence ratio of the spray jet. Two combustion modes with and without an internal flame were observed. As the mean droplet diameter was increased or the overall equivalence ratio of the spray jet was decreased, the transition from spray combustion only with an external group flame to that with the internal premixed flame occurred. The results suggest that the internal flame was supported by flammable mixture through the vaporization of fine droplets, and the passage of droplet clusters deformed the internal flame and caused internal flame oscillation. The existence of the internal premixed flame enhanced the vaporization of droplets in the post-premixed-flame zone within the external diffusion flame.     

A practical method for diameter,number density and material characterization of 40–90 µm size droplets by stimulated Raman scattering

We demonstrate that the technique of Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS) is a practical method for the simultaneous characterization of diameter, number density and constituent material of microsize droplets. The method is applicable to all Raman active materials and to droplets with a diameter of at least 8 µm. Our experimental study was focused on water and ethanol monodisperse droplets in the diameter range of 40–90 µm. Results of a single laser pulse and multiple pulses are analyzed, indicating that the SRS method can diagnose droplets of mixed liquids and ensembles of polydisperse droplets.