Turbulent flame speed and morphology of pure ammonia flames and blends with methane or hydrogen

Ammonia appears a promising hydrogen-energy carrier as well as a carbon-free fuel. However, there remain limited studies for ammonia combustion especially under turbulent conditions. To that end, using the spherically expanding flame configuration, the turbulent flame speeds of stoichiometric ammonia/air, ammonia/methane and ammonia/hydrogen were examined. The composition of blends studied are currently being investigated for gas turbine application and are evaluated at various turbulent intensities, covering different kinds of turbulent combustion regimes. Mie-scattering tomography was employed facilitating flame structure analysis. Results show that the flame propagation speed of ammonia/air increases exponentially with increasing hydrogen amount. It is less pronounced with increasing methane addition, analogous to the behavior displayed in the laminar regime. The turbulent to laminar flame speed ratio increases with turbulence intensity. However, smallest gains were observed at highest hydrogen content, presumably due to differences in the combustion regime, with the mixture located within the corrugated flamelet zone, with all other mixtures positioned within the thin reaction zone. A good correlation of the turbulent velocity based on the Karlovitz and Damköhler numbers is observable with the present dataset, as well as previous experimental measurements available in literature, suggesting that ammonia-based fuels may potentially be described following the usual turbulent combustion models. Flame morphology and stretch sensitivity analysis were conducted, revealing that flame curvature remains relatively similar for pure ammonia and ammonia-based mixtures. The wrinkling ratio is found to increase with both increasing ammonia fraction and turbulent intensity, in good agreement with measured increases in turbulent flame speed. On the other hand, in most cases, the flame stretch effect does not change significantly with increasing turbulence, whilst following a similar trend to that of the laminar Markstein length.     

Experimental investigation on ammonia combustion behavior in a spark-ignition engine by means of laminar and turbulent expanding flames

Ammonia combustion appears as a meaningful way to retrieve stored amounts of excess variable renewable energy, and the spark-ignition (SI) engine has been proposed as a practical conversion system. The present work aims at elucidating the combustion characteristics of ammonia blends in engine-relevant turbulent conditions. To that end, laminar and turbulent flame experiments were conducted in a constant-volume vessel at engine-relevant conditions of 445 K and 0.54 MPa to assess the combustion behavior of ammonia/hydrogen/air, ammonia/methane/air and methane/hydrogen/air mixtures observed in an all-metal single-cylinder SI engine. Results show that the respective accelerating or decelerating effects of hydrogen or methane enrichment observed in the SI engine could not be sufficiently explained by the measured laminar burning velocities of the mixtures. Since the latter are very low, the studied combustion regimes are at the boundary between the thin and broken reaction zones regimes, and thus strongly influenced by flame-turbulence interactions. The quantification of the flame response to turbulence shows much higher effects for ammonia blends, than for methane-based fuels. The aforementioned opposite effects of ammonia enrichment with hydrogen or methane are observed on the turbulent burning velocity during the turbulent flame experiments and correlated to the thermochemical properties of the reactants and the flame sensitivity to stretch. The latter may explain an unexpected bending effect on the turbulent-to-laminar velocity ratio when increasing the hydrogen fraction in the ammonia/hydrogen blend. Nevertheless, a very good correlation of the turbulent velocity was found with the Karlovitz and Damköhler numbers, that suggests that ammonia combustion in SI engines may be described following the usual turbulent combustion models. This encourages further investigations on ammonia combustion for the optimization of practical systems, by means of dedicated experiments and numerical simulations.     

Laser Spectrometric Measurement System for Local Express Diagnostics of Flame at Combustion of Liquid Hydrocarbon Fuels

A laboratory laser spectrometric measurement system for investigation of spatial distributions of local temperatures in a flame at combustion of vapors of various liquid hydrocarbon fuels in oxygen or air at atmospheric pressure is presented. The system incorporates a coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectrometer with high spatial resolution for local thermometry of nitrogen-containing gas mixtures in a single laser shot and a continuous operation burner with a laminar diffusion flame. The system test results are presented for measurements of spatial distributions of local temperatures in various flame zones at combustion of vapor—gas n-decane/nitrogen mixtures in air. Its applicability for accomplishing practical tasks in comparative laboratory investigation of characteristics of various fuels and for research on combustion in turbulent flames is discussed.     

H2/air旋流预混燃烧的流场特性和火焰结构分析

本文采用完全可压缩的N-S方程,对当量比为1.0的H₂/air旋流预混火焰进行了直接数值模拟研究。氢气和空气的化学反应采用9种组分19步的详细机理。模拟结果表明,强旋流流场中存在回流区,碗形旋流火焰稳定在回流区的外围。在火焰面上沿火焰法向提取了局部火焰结构,将局部湍流火焰结构与层流预混火焰的火焰结构进行了比较,发现局部湍流火焰比层流预混火焰更薄,燃烧强度更高。     

甲烷层流和湍流预混火焰OH^*和CH^*的化学发光特性

化学发光能够对火焰结构和燃烧过程进行良好的表征,但利用化学发光对湍流火焰进行测量的研究相对较少。为了更深入地研究和发展湍流燃烧理论,设计了伴燃射流燃烧器,通过ICCD相机和相应滤波片获取了OH^*和CH^*的化学发光图像,对甲烷/空气层流和湍流预混火焰的化学发光特性进行了研究,并利用分布高度、峰值位置、强反应区占比、峰值等参数对不同速度和当量比时的OH^*和CH^*进行表征。结果表明,层流时OH^*和CH^*的分布明显不同,而湍流的混合作用导致二者的分布范围趋向一致。随着当量比增大,不同速度下OH^*和CH^*的分布高度都呈单调递增趋势,但湍流的增长趋势要相对平缓;峰值位置的变化趋势与分布高度几乎一致,间接表明OH^*和CH^*的主导生成反应不变。强反应区占比在层流和湍流状态下的表现完全相反:从贫燃到富燃,层流中由大于0.1降低到0.05以下,而湍流中则由0.05上升到0.1以上,表明湍流对贫燃时的燃烧反应起抑制作用,在富燃时反而起促进作用。另外, OH^*和CH^*的峰值变化可以对火焰的流动状态进行判断,且CH^*尤为明显:随当量比增加,如果峰值先升后降,则可以认为火焰为层流状态;如果峰值单调递增,则是湍流状态。以速度和当量比为自变量,以OH^*和CH^*的峰值比为因变量,提出了不同速度条件下利用化学发光对当量比进行定量表征的统一关系式,解决了不同速度时需要分别进行拟合的问题,对后续的化学发光燃烧诊断研究具有重要意义。     

Large eddy simulation of piloting effects on turbulent swirling flames

Pilot flames, created by additional injectors of pure fuel, are often used in turbulent burners to enhance flame stabilization and reduce combustion instabilities. The exact mechanisms through which these additional rich zones modify the flame anchoring location and the combustion dynamics are often difficult to identify, especially when they include unsteady hydrodynamic motion. This study presents Large Eddy Simulations (LES) of the reacting flow within a large-scale gas turbine burner for two different cases of piloting, where either 2 or 6% of the total methane used in the burner is injected through additional pilot flame lines. For each case, LES shows how the pilot fuel injection affects both flame stabilization and flame stability. The 6% case leads to a stable flame and limited hydrodynamic perturbations in the initial flame zone. The 2% case is less stable, with a small-lift-off of the flame and a Precessing Vortex Core (PVC) in the cold stabilization zone. This PVC traps some of the lean cold gases issuing from the pilot passage stream, changes the flame stabilization point and induces instability.     

Analysis of turbulent premixed flame structure using simultaneous PIV-OH PLIF

In the present study, we used a simultaneous PIV-OH PLIF measurement to acquire the strain rate and the chemical intensity and suggested a new combustion phase diagram. This simultaneous measurement was used to analyze the flame structure and to classify the combustion regimes of the opposed impinging jet combustor according to the change of the orifice diameters at the pre-chambers. The shear strain rates were obtained from the velocity measurement by PIV to represent flow characteristics and the OH radical intensities were obtained from OH PUF to indicate the flame characteristics. When the strain rate and OH intensity at each point of the measurement zones are plotted at the strain rate-chemical intensity diagram, the distribution of each case showed the characteristics of each flame regime. The change of combustor condition made different distribution in the combustion phase diagram. As the orifice diameter of the pre-chamber decreases, well-mixed turbulent flames are produced and the combustion phase is moved from the moderated turbulence regime to the thickened reaction regime.     

Several applications of laser diagnostics for visualization of combustion phenomena

Several applications of laser diagnostic techniques to visualize combustion phenomena are presented, including reactive Mie scattering for flow, Rayleigh and Raman spectroscopy for major species, laser-induced fluorescence for minor species, and laser extinction, scattering, and laser-induced incandescence for soot. These techniques have been applied to diffusion flame oscillation, a recirculation zone in a burner, laminar and turbulent lifted flames, flame propagation along a vortex tube, and soot zone characteristics, to demonstrate the usefulness of the techniques to provide a better understanding of physical mechanisms.     

Simultaneous OH-PLIF and PIV measurements in a gas turbine model combustor

In highly turbulent environments, combustion is strongly influenced by the effects of turbulence chemistry interactions. Simultaneous measurement of the flow field and flame is, therefore, obligatory for a clear understanding of the underlying mechanisms. In the current studies simultaneous PIV and OH-PLIF measurements were conducted in an enclosed gas turbine model combustor for investigating the influence of turbulence on local flame characteristics. The swirling CH₄/air flame that was investigated had a thermal power of 10.3 kW with an overall equivalence ratio of ϕ=0.75 and exhibited strong thermoacoustic oscillations at a frequency of approximately 295 Hz. The measurements reveal the formation of reaction zones at regions where hot burned gas from the recirculation zones mixes with the fresh fuel/air mixture at the nozzle exit. However, this does not seem to be a steady phenomenon as there always exist regions where the mixture has failed to ignite, possibly due to the high local strain rates present, resulting in small residence time available for a successful kinetic runaway to take place. The time averaged PIV images showed flow fields typical of enclosed swirl burners, namely a big inner recirculation zone and a small outer recirculation zone. However, the instantaneous images show the existence of small vortical structures close to the shear layers. These small vortical structures are seen playing a vital role in the formation and destruction of reaction zone structures. One does not see a smooth laminar flame front in the instantaneous OH-PLIF images, instead isolated regions of ignition and extinction highlighting the strong interplay between turbulence and chemical reactions. PACS 33.20.-t; 33.50.-j; 47.27.-i; 47.32.Ef; 47.70.Pq; 82.33.Vx; 82.40.-g     

双组分燃料的层流火焰速度模型

以往关于层流火焰速度的理论分析均只考虑单组分燃料,本文对双组分燃料的平面火焰进行了大活化能渐近理论分析。在理论分析中,将火焰结构分为预热区、化学反应区和平衡区,并在大活化能假设下对各个区域分别求解了关于温度与燃料质量分数的微分方程。根据每两个区域分界面上满足的结合条件,本文推导出了双组分燃料的层流火焰速度模型。该模型表明双组分燃料层流火焰速度的平方为各个单组分燃料层流火焰速度平方的加权平均。     

Visualisation of results from LES of combustion

We examine the role of visualisation in the context of LES simulations of premixed turbulent combustion. The physical processes involved in premixed turbulent combustion are extremely complex, and the modelling of both the turbulence (via LES) and the combustion (via flame-wrinkling models) is difficult. Appropriate visualisation is required to understand the behaviour of the models, and ultimately to understand better the flow processes which are important in many industrial applications. We examine visualisations of two specific cases; simple flame kernel growth in a box of turbulence, and combustion behind a backward-facing step. A number of visualisation techniques are used to produce results that are similar to experimentally determined Schlieren and Mie photography for the flame kernel. In addition, isosurfaces of the reaction regress variable coloured by the laminar flame speed and sub-grid wrinkling are also plotted in an attempt to gain deeper insight into the physics of turbulent combustion in the context of these particular cases. Finally we discuss the role of the WWW in the continuing development of scientific visualisation techniques.     

Imaging and diagnostics of turbulent methane-air premixed flames by acetone-OH simultaneous PLIF

A strategy of diagnostics of ultra-lean combustion based on acetone-OH simultaneous PLIF is presented. Acetone seeded in the fuel flow and combustion-generated OH work for a marker of \ldunburned\rd and \ldburnt\rd zones, respectively. Since acetone and OH does not coexist when the proper combustion takes place, the signal \ldvalley\rd (dark zone) between acetone and OH fluorescence can be detected, which corresponds to flame zone; representative of the combustion status. System required for current imaging technique is one-laser and one-detector combination with \ldturned\rd band-pass filter. Transmittance characteristics of the filter and acetone-seeding rate are key issues to attain clear imaging, and we found that there is proper combination of them for that purpose. Imaging demonstration for the turbulent premixed flames shows the usefulness and applicability of this scheme on complex flame diagnostics: unique flame broken flame structure (\ldunburned\rd or \ldburnt\rd islands exist separately) are clearly obtained by this approach.     

高温空气燃烧炉内湍流混合特性的数值研究

应用自行研发的三维流动、燃烧、传热和污染物NO_x湍流生成的数值模拟程序,对高温空气燃烧实验模型炉进行了湍流扩散燃烧混合特性的数值模拟.数值预报了燃烧室内气体燃料和空气的混合物分数及其湍流脉动的三维分布.数值研究结果表明:在一定的几何条件和气体动力学条件下,高温空气燃烧的湍流混合在更广泛的区域内以较小梯度的进行;混合物分数的脉动主要分布在燃烧区,这表明高温空气燃烧的火焰厚度更大,具有燃烧释热更趋均匀的特性.数值模拟结果与相关的实验结果有相同的规律.     

CO2 addition and pressure effects on laminar and turbulent lean premixed CH4 air flames

An experimental study on CH₄–CO₂–air flames at various pressures is conducted by using both laminar and turbulent Bunsen flame configurations. The aim of this research is to contribute to the characterization of fuel lean methane/carbon dioxide/air premixed laminar and turbulent flames at different pressures, by studying laminar and turbulent flame propagation velocities, the flame surface density and the instantaneous flame front wrinkling parameters. PREMIX computations and experimental results indicate a decrease of the laminar flame propagation velocities with increasing CO₂ dilution rate. Instantaneous flame images are obtained by Mie scattering tomography. The image analysis shows that although the height of the turbulent flame increases with the CO₂ addition rate, the flame structure is quite similar. This implies that the flame wrinkling parameters and flame surface density are indifferent to the CO₂ addition. However, the pressure increase has a drastic effect on both parameters. This is also confirmed by a fractal analysis of instantaneous images. It is also observed that the combustion intensity S_T/S_L increases both with pressure and the CO₂ rate. Finally, the mean fuel consumption rate decreases with the CO₂ addition rate but increases with the pressure.     

Evaluation of models for flame stretch due to curvature in the thin reaction zones regime

Direct numerical simulation (DNS) was used to study modelling assumptions for the curvature-propagation component of flame stretch in the thin reaction zones regime of turbulent premixed combustion, a regime in which small eddies can penetrate the preheat zone but not the thinner fuel breakdown zone. Simulations of lean hydrogen–air and methane–air flames were conducted, and statistics of flame stretch due to curvature, henceforth referred to simply as stretch, were extracted from a species mass fraction iso-surface taken to represent the flame. The study focussed on investigating the modelling assumptions of Peters [J. Fluid Mech. 384 (1999) 107]. It was found that the mean stretch is dominated by stretch due to correlations of flame speed with curvature, and specifically the effects of tangential diffusion. The modelling suggestions of Peters were found to provide an improvement over the assumptions of a constant flame speed or a flame speed governed by the linear relationship with stretch at small and steady stretch. However for the conditions considered here, diffusive-thermal effects remain well into the thin reaction zones regime, and the suggestions of Peters generally over-predict the mean compressive stretch. An effective diffusivity for flame stretch was suggested and evaluated for the methane simulations. It was found that the effective diffusivity was comparable to the mass diffusivity for flames with a high ratio of flame time to eddy turnover time. The length scales contributing to stretch were investigated, and it was found that while most flame area has a radius of curvature greater than the laminar flame thickness, most stretch occurs in more tightly curved flame elements.     

A three mixture fraction flamelet model for multi-stream laminar pulverized coal combustion

A three mixture fraction flamelet model is proposed for multi-stream laminar pulverized coal combustion. The technique of coordinate transformation is utilized to map the flamelet solutions from a unit pyramid space into a unit cubic space to improve the stability of the simulation. The validity of the three mixture fraction flamelet model was assessed on different configurations, including a laminar counterflow pulverized coal/methane flame and a laminar piloted pulverized coal jet flame. The flamelet predictions were compared to the reference results of the detailed chemistry solutions. For the counterflow flame, it was found that the flame temperature and major species mass fractions are correctly predicted by the three mixture fraction flamelet model. However, discrepancies are observed for combustion-mode-sensitive species such as CO and H₂ in the premixed combustion region. The thermo-chemical quantities in the char surface reaction zone cannot be correctly predicted if the mixing between the char off-gas stream and other streams is neglected. For the piloted jet flame, it was shown that the stable thermo-chemical variables can be correctly predicted at the upper and middle stream locations. However, at the downstream location, discrepancies can be observed in certain regions. Overall, the validity of the three mixture fraction flamelet model for multi-stream pulverized coal combustion is confirmed and its performance in turbulent pulverized coal combustion will be tested in future work.     

Modelling of turbulent lifted jet flames using flamelets: a priori assessment and a posteriori validation

This study focuses on the modelling of turbulent lifted jet flames using flamelets and a presumed Probability Density Function (PDF) approach with interest in both flame lift-off height and flame brush structure. First, flamelet models used to capture contributions from premixed and non-premixed modes of the partially premixed combustion in the lifted jet flame are assessed using a Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) data for a turbulent lifted hydrogen jet flame. The joint PDFs of mixture fraction Z and progress variable c, including their statistical correlation, are obtained using a copula method, which is also validated using the DNS data. The statistically independent PDFs are found to be generally inadequate to represent the joint PDFs from the DNS data. The effects of Z–c correlation and the contribution from the non-premixed combustion mode on the flame lift-off height are studied systematically by including one effect at a time in the simulations used for a posteriori validation. A simple model including the effects of chemical kinetics and scalar dissipation rate is suggested and used for non-premixed combustion contributions. The results clearly show that both Z–c correlation and non-premixed combustion effects are required in the premixed flamelets approach to get good agreement with the measured flame lift-off heights as a function of jet velocity. The flame brush structure reported in earlier experimental studies is also captured reasonably well for various axial positions. It seems that flame stabilisation is influenced by both premixed and non-premixed combustion modes, and their mutual influences.     

Transient soot dynamics in turbulent nonpremixed ethylene-air counterflow flames

The dynamics of soot formation in turbulent ethylene-air nonpremixed counterflow flames is studied using direct numerical simulation (DNS) with a semi-empirical soot model and the discrete ordinate method (DOM) as a radiation solver. Transient characteristics of soot behavior are studies by a model problem of flame interaction with turbulence inflow at various intensities. The interaction between soot and turbulence reveals that the soot volume fraction depends on the combined effects of the local conditions of flow, temperature, and fuel concentration, while the soot number density depends predominantly on the high temperature regions. Depending on the relative strength between mixing and reaction, the effects of turbulence on the soot formation lead to three distinct paths in deviating the data points away from the laminar flame conditions. It is found that turbulence has twofold effects of increasing the overall soot yield by generating additional flame volume and of reducing soot by dissipating soot pockets out of high-temperature regions. The relative importance between the two effects depends on the relative length scales of turbulence and flame, suggesting that a nonmonotonic response of soot yield to turbulence level may be expected in turbulent combustion.     

Direct numerical simulations of rich premixed turbulent n-dodecane/air flames at diesel engine conditions

Rich premixed turbulent n-dodecane/air flames at diesel engine conditions are analyzed using direct numerical simulations. The conditions correspond to a parametric variation of the Engine Combustion Network Spray A (pressure 60 atm; oxidizer oxygen level and temperature 21% and 900 K, respectively; fuel temperature 363 K). Three simulations with equivalence ratios of 3, 5, and 7 are performed with a Karlovitz number (Ka, based on flame time) of order 100 to match the estimated Ka of the rich premixed combustion region in Spray A. At these conditions, the reference laminar flames exhibit a complex structure which involves both low-temperature chemistry (LTC) and high-temperature chemistry over a wide range of length scales. In the presence of turbulence, the flame structure is strongly affected in physical space and the reaction zone exhibits a very complex structure in which broken, distributed, and thin regions co-exist, especially for the leanest case. However, the contribution of the LTC pathway is only weakly affected by turbulence. In progress variable space, the mean flame structure, including the chemical source terms, is found to match remarkably well that of the corresponding unity Lewis number laminar flame, particularly for the $?=$ 3 and 5 cases. This behavior is attributed to the strong turbulent mixing occurring throughout the flames/reaction zones, which suppresses differential diffusion effects. Nevertheless, large conditional fluctuations around the mean chemical source terms are identified. These are found to correlate very well with radical species mass fractions such as OH. In addition, a similar functional dependence is obtained from counterflow laminar flames. As such, it appears from these results that laminar flame models have a potential to be used to represent the thermochemical state of rich premixed turbulent flames under diesel engine conditions.