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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 91 records · Page 5
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Comparing gas composition from fast pyrolysis of live foliage measured in bench-scale and fire-scale experiments

Background: Fire models have used pyrolysis data from oxidising and non-oxidising environments for flaming combustion. In wildland fires pyrolysis, flaming and smouldering combustion typically occur in an oxidising environment (the atmosphere). Aims: Using compositional data analysis methods, determine if the composition of pyrolysis gases measured in non-oxidising and ambient (oxidising) atmospheric conditions were similar. Methods: Permanent gases and tars were measured in a fuel-rich (non-oxidising) environment in a flat flame burner (FFB). Permanent and light hydrocarbon gases were measured for the same fuels heated by a fire flame in ambient atmospheric conditions (oxidising environment). Log-ratio balances of the measured gases common to both environments (CO, CO 2 , CH 4 , H 2 , C 6 H 6 O (phenol), and other gases) were examined by principal components analysis (PCA), canonical discriminant analysis (CDA) and permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA). Key results: Mean composition changed between the non-oxidising and ambient atmosphere samples. PCA showed that flat flame burner (FFB) samples were tightly clustered and distinct from the ambient atmosphere samples. CDA found that the difference between environments was defined by the CO-CO 2 log-ratio balance. PERMANOVA and pairwise comparisons found FFB samples differed from the ambient atmosphere samples which did not differ from each other. Conclusion: Relative composition of these pyrolysis gases differed between the oxidising and non-oxidising environments. This comparison was one of the first comparisons made between bench-scale and field scale pyrolysis measurements using compositional data analysis. Implications: These results indicate the need for more fundamental research on the early time-dependent pyrolysis of vegetation in the presence of oxygen.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

HIGH-FIDELITY SIMULATION OF SOOT FORMATION AND THERMAL RADIATION IN A LABORATORY-SCALE RICH-QUENCH-LEAN BURNER

High-fidelity simulations of a swirl-stabilized turbulent spray flame in a laboratory-scale aero-combustor have been performed to evaluate the predictability of state-of-the-art models in capturing soot formation. The simulations employ a complex chemical mechanism developed for Jet-A with PAH chemistry, coupled with the Hybrid Method of Moments (HMOM) soot model, and a Lagrangian dilute spray model for the fuel injection. Two simulations are performed to compare the results when thermal radiation is neglected or included in the solution with a mean spectral model. Modeling closures for the soot differential diffusion effects in mixture fraction space, as well as turbulence-radiation interaction are also evaluated using the data generated by the simulations. Given the degree of complexity of the simulation, the results showed good agreement with experimental measurements of the spatial distribution of the soot volume fraction ensemble average. A closer agreement with the experiment is observed when thermal radiation is included in the solution. Thermal radiation is observed to reduce the flame temperature and increase the flame intermittency, denoted by the increase in the temperature standard deviation in mixture fraction space. The reduction in temperature also leads to a reduction in PAH production and soot volume fraction. Turbulence is observed to have different effects on radiative emission depending on the mixture fraction. Turbulent scalar fluctuations significantly enhance radiative emission in fuel lean mixtures and can also play a role for fuel rich conditions. The statistical description of the turbulence-radiation interaction, previously proposed in the literature, was observed to correctly reproduce the high-fidelity results. Model coefficients were provided for swirl-stabilized flames. The soot differential diffusion model, previously proposed in the literature, based on the residual between the exact term and its model approximation, was also evaluated. The residual correction term further improved the agreement with exact differential diffusion term evaluated with the high-fidelity simulation data in mixture fraction space. The results suggest that the effective turbulent Lewis number can be equal to unity in simulations of turbulent non-premixed recirculating flames.

Soriano, Bruno [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL)↗
DOE OSTI2025

Computational diagnostics and characterization of combustion recession in diesel sprays

While low-temperature combustion (LTC) strategies have been found to mitigate nitrogen oxides and particulate matter emissions in diesel engines, studies have also associated LTC with an increase in unburnt hydrocarbons. With more recent studies on diesel after end-of-injection (AEOI), combustion recession is identified as a phenomenon where at near nozzle region, high-temperature ignition (HTI) combustion can propagate back to the nozzle tip consuming the unburnt hydrocarbons AEOI. Current literature has suggested that combustion recession is controlled by auto-ignition. However, high-fidelity simulations and detailed analysis of such a mechanism are missing. In this study, comprehensive Large Eddy Simulations of a reacting spray at “Spray A” conditions are performed, where detailed analysis of combustion recession concerning flame morphology and propagation modes are included. In particular, this study demonstrated for the first time that while combustion recession is mainly auto-ignition dominated (consistent with the literature), a cool flame was found to deflagrate towards the richer regions of the mixture, promoting mixing and increasing the mixture temperature. This leads to HTI kernels, which then grow and develop as deflagrative waves, therefore sustaining the combustion recession process. The study also detailed the extinction mechanism of combustion: the entrainment wave will overlean the near-nozzle mixtures, rendering it unable to support HTI, which leads to the extinction of the upstream flame AEOI in lower reactivity mixtures. Combustion recession is also observed to be contingent on the chemical and diffusion processes, even at low scalar dissipation rates. Finally, a new criterion for combustion recession based on chemical explosive mode is proposed and validated with previous combustion recession index to quantify the extent of HTI in near-nozzle mixtures AEOI. The newly developed metric combined with a previous experimentally-based metric can provide simple but valuable measurements of the degree and propensity of the upstream flame AEOI.

CEMA↗
DOE OSTI2025

Assessment of flamelet/progress variable methods for supersonic combustion

Tabulated chemistry models, including the flamelet/progress variable approach, have been successfully used for a variety of turbulent flame simulations. The progress variable describes the progress of reactions in a system and parameterizes a lookup table of thermochemical variables. This approach reduces the cost of simulations, transporting only one scalar (progress variable) instead of the many species mass fractions required for detailed chemistry. Originally developed for low Mach number flame simulations, recent works have focused on extensions of this approach to compressible flames, supersonic combustion, and detonations, with applications such as scramjet combustors and rotating detonation engines. Unlike low Mach simulations, compressible flow simulations require solving the energy transport equation, which is coupled to the equation of state. This leads to additional modeling challenges regarding the thermodynamics and its impact on the chemistry. The validity of modeling assumptions, for example the relationship between energy and temperature, also varies with the combustion regime. The present work provides a detailed assessment of the existing strategies for chemistry tabulation for compressible/supersonic combustion, including detonations. A priori analysis indicates that approximations which are reasonable for weakly compressible flames may break down for shock-induced combustion. Furthermore, the analysis identifies specific assumptions and approximations that do not hold for detonations, emphasizing that care must be taken when applying tabulated chemistry models outside their intended combustion regimes.

Detonations↗