Engineering topics

Bundy, Matthew

Publications and source records attributed to Bundy, Matthew.

3 records

NASA NTRS2003

Microgravity Superagglomerates Produced By Silane And Acetylene

The size of the agglomerates produced in the upper portion of a flame is important for a variety of applications. Soot particle size and density effect the amount of radiative heat transfer from a fire to its surroundings. Particle size determines the lifetime of smoke in a building or in the atmosphere, and exposure hazard for smoke inhaled and deposited in the lungs. The visibility through a smoke layer and dectectability of the smoke are also greatly affected by agglomerate size. Currently there is limited understanding of soot growth with an overall dimension of 10 m and larger. In the case of polystyrene, smoke agglomerates in excess of 1 mm have been observed raining out from large fires. Unlike hydrocarbon fuels, silane has the advantage that silica particles are the major combustion product resulting in a particle volume fraction a factor of ten greater than that for a carbonaceous smoke. There are two very desirable properties of silica aero-gels that are important for both space and earth based applications. The first important property is its inertness to most oxidizing and reducing atmospheres. Therefore, silica aero-gels make excellent fire ablatives and can be used in very demanding applications. The second important property is that silica aero-gels are expected to have very high porosity (greater than 0.999), making them lightweight and ideal for aerospace applications. The added benefit of the high porosity is that they can be used as extremely efficient filters for many earth based applications as well. Evidence of the formation of superagglomerates in a laminar acetylene/air diffusion flame was found by Sorensen et al. [1]. An interconnecting web of super-agglomerates was observed to span the width of the soot plume in the region just above the flame tip and described as a gel state. It was observed that this gel state immediately breaks up into agglomerates as larges as 100 m due to buoyancy induced turbulence. Large soot agglomerates were observed in microgravity butane jet diffusion flames by Ito et al.[2]. Several other works to date have studied the effect of flame structure on soot volume fraction and agglomeration size in a microgravity environment.[3-4]. In microgravity the absence of buoyant convective flows increases the residence time in the flame and causes a broadening of the high temperature region in the flame. Both of these factors play a significant role in gas phase radiation and soot formation

Gokoglu, Suleyman↗

NASA NTRS2003

Suppression and Structure of Low Strain Rate Nonpremixed Flames

The agent concentration required to achieve suppression of low strain rate nonpremixed flames is an important fire safety consideration. In a microgravity environment such as a space platform, unwanted fires will likely occur in near quiescent conditions where strain rates are very low. Diffusion flames typically become more robust as the strain rate is decreased. When designing a fire suppression system for worst-case conditions, low strain rates should be considered. The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of radiative emission, flame strain, agent addition, and buoyancy on the structure and extinction of low strain rate nonpremixed flames through measurements and comparison with flame simulations. The suppression effectiveness of a suppressant (N2) added to the fuel stream of low strain rate methane-air diffusion flames was measured. Flame temperature measurements were attained in the high temperature region of the flame (T greater than 1200 K) by measurement of thin filament emission intensity. The time varying temperature was measured and simulated as the flame made the transition from normal to microgravity conditions and as the flame extinguished.

Hamins, Anthony↗

NASA NTRS1995

Solid surface combustion experiment flame spread in a quiescent, microgravity environment implications of spread rate and flame structure

A unique environment in which flame spreading, a phenomenon of fundamental, scientific interest, has importance to fire safety is that of spacecraft in which the gravitational acceleration is low compared with that of the Earth, i.e., microgravity. Experiments aboard eight Space Shuttle missions between October 1990 and February 1995 were conducted using the Solid Surface Combustion Experiment (SSCE) payload apparatus in an effort to determine the mechanisms of gas-phase flame spread over solid fuel surfaces in the absence of any buoyancy induced or externally imposed oxidizer flow. The overall SSCE effort began in December of 1984. The SSCE apparatus consists of a sealed container, approximately 0.039 cu m, that is filled with a specified O2/N2 mixture at a prescribed pressure. Five of the experiments used a thin cellulosic fuel, ashless filter paper, 3 cm wide x 10 cm long, 0.00825 cm half-thickness, ignited in five different ambient conditions. Three of the experiments, the most recent, used thick polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) samples 0.635 cm wide x 2 cm long, 0.32 cm half-thickness. Three experiments, STS 41, 40 and 43, were designed to evaluate the effect of ambient pressure on flame spread over the thin cellulosic fuel while flights STS 50 and 47 were at the same pressure as two of the earlier flights but at a lower oxygen concentration in order to evaluate the effect of ambient oxygen level on the flame spread process at microgravity. For the PMMA flights, two experiments, STS 54 and 63, were at the same pressure but different oxygen concentrations while STS 64 was at the same oxygen concentration as STS 63 but at a higher pressure. Two orthogonal views of the experiments were recorded on 16 mm cine-cameras operating at 24 frames/s. In addition to filmed images of the side view of the flames and surface view of the burning samples, solid- and gas-phase temperatures were recorded using thermocouples. The experiment is battery powered and follows an automated sequence upon activation by the Shuttle Crew. In this study we separate the SSCE data into two groups according to the fuel type: (1) thin cellulose; and (2) thick PMMA. The experimental spread rates are compared with prediction from a number of models in an effort to uncover the important physics that characterize microgravity flame spread. Both steady and unsteady solutions are employed to explore the flame evolution, especially for thick fuels. Finally, the flame structure in downward spread is compared with the microgravity flame structure and modeling results to delineate the difference between the two configurations and the influence of normal gravity.

Bundy, Matthew↗