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NASA NTRS1983

Unsteady Flow Effects in Combustor Systems

A wide variety of combustion problems, including combustion instabilities and turbulent diffusion flames, appear to involve the entrainment and deformation of laminar flames by large vortex structures in the flow field. First, some details of this process of laminar flame distortion are examined by considering the interactions of time-dependent diffusion flames with two dimensional vortices. Second, Some results on the modelling of the non-steady combustion in burners for aircraft gas turbines are given. The general aim of the work is to develop a one dimensional model applicable to the NASA-Lewis Non-Steady Combustion Rig.

Subbaiah, M. V.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Effect of CF3H and CF3Br on laminar diffusion flames in normal and microgravity

Chemical inhibition of diffusion flames through addition of halogenated inhibitors is a problem of significant practical and scientific interest. Extensive studies on diffusion flames in microgravity have shown that these flames have significantly different characteristics than those under normal gravity. However, the mechanisms through which inhibitors reach the reaction zone to suppress combustion in diffusion flames and the effectiveness of these compounds under reduced gravity have yet to be investigated. This study reports preliminary results of investigations on the behavior of laminar jet diffusion flames upon the addition of bromotrifluoromethane (CF3Br) and trifluoromethane (CF3H) to the surroundings under normal and microgravity conditions. The results show that the flame structure in microgravity is significantly different from that under normal gravity conditions, and more importantly, that conditions for flame stability are less stringent under microgravity. Experiments show that flames that cannot be stabilized under normal gravity are quite stable under microgravity conditions. In addition, normal gravity experiments at reduced pressure (low buoyancy) did not reproduce the structure or stability limits of inhibited flames in microgravity.

Vanderwege, B. A.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Soot and Radiation Measurements in Microgravity Jet Diffusion Flames

The subject of soot formation and radiation heat transfer in microgravity jet diffusion flames is important not only for the understanding of fundamental transport processes involved but also for providing findings relevant to spacecraft fire safety and soot emissions and radiant heat loads of combustors used in air-breathing propulsion systems. Our objectives are to measure and model soot volume fraction, temperature, and radiative heat fluxes in microgravity jet diffusion flames. For this four-year project, we have successfully completed three tasks, which have resulted in new research methodologies and original results. First is the implementation of a thermophoretic soot sampling technique for measuring particle size and aggregate morphology in drop-tower and other reduced gravity experiments. In those laminar flames studied, we found that microgravity soot aggregates typically consist of more primary particles and primary particles are larger in size than those under normal gravity. Comparisons based on data obtained from limited samples show that the soot aggregate's fractal dimension varies within +/- 20% of its typical value of 1.75, with no clear trends between normal and reduced gravity conditions. Second is the development and implementation of a new imaging absorption technique. By properly expanding and spatially-filtering the laser beam to image the flame absorption on a CCD camera and applying numerical smoothing procedures, this technique is capable of measuring instantaneous full-field soot volume fractions. Results from this technique have shown the significant differences in local soot volume fraction, smoking point, and flame shape between normal and reduced gravity flames. We observed that some laminar flames become open-tipped and smoking under microgravity. The third task we completed is the development of a computer program which integrates and couples flame structure, soot formation, and flame radiation analyses together. We found good agreements between model predictions and experimental data for laminar and turbulent flames under both normal and reduced gravity. We have also tested in the laboratory the techniques of rapid-insertion fine-wire thermocouples and emission pyrometry for temperature measurements. These techniques as well as laser Doppler velocimetry and spectral radiative intensity measurement have been proposed to provide valuable data and improve the modeling analyses.

Ku, Jerry C.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Particle-Image Velocimetry in Microgravity Laminar Jet Diffusion Flames

This paper discusses planned velocity measurements in microgravity laminar jet diffusion flames. These measurements will be conducted using Particle-Image Velocimetry (PIV) in the NASA Glenn 2.2-second drop tower. The observations are of fundamental interest and may ultimately lead to improved efficiency and decreased emissions from practical combustors. The velocity measurements will support the evaluation of analytical and numerical combustion models. There is strong motivation for the proposed microgravity flame configuration. Laminar jet flames are fundamental to combustion and their study has contributed to myriad advances in combustion science, including the development of theoretical, computational and diagnostic combustion tools. Nonbuoyant laminar jet flames are pertinent to the turbulent flames of more practical interest via the laminar flamelet concept. The influence of gravity on these flames is deleterious: it complicates theoretical and numerical modeling, introduces hydrodynamic instabilities, decreases length scales and spatial resolution, and limits the variability of residence time. Whereas many normal-gravity laminar jet diffusion flames have been thoroughly examined (including measurements of velocities, temperatures, compositions, sooting behavior and emissive and absorptive properties), measurements in microgravity gas-jet flames have been less complete and, notably, have included only cursory velocity measurements. It is envisioned that our velocity measurements will fill an important gap in the understanding of nonbuoyant laminar jet flames.

Sunderland, P. B.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Ignition and structure of a laminar diffusion flame in a compressible mixing layer with finite rate chemistry

The ignition and structure of a reacting compressible mixing layer is considered using finite rate chemistry lying between two streams of reactants with different freestream speeds and temperatures. Numerical integration of the governing equations show that the structure of the reacting flow can be quite complicated depending on the magnitude of the Zeldovich number. An analysis of both the ignition a diffusion flame regimes is presented using a combination of large Zeldovich number asymptotics and numerics. This allows to analyze the behavior of these regimes as a function of the parameters of the problem.

Grosch, C. E.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Ignition and structure of a laminar diffusion flame in the field of a vortex

The distortion of flames in flows with vortical motion is examined via asymptotic analysis and numerical simulation. The model consists of a constant density, one step, irreversible Arrhenius reaction between initially unmixed species occupying adjacent half-planes which are then allowed to mix and react in the presence of a vortex. The evolution in time of the temperature and mass fraction fields is followed. Emphasis is placed on the ignition time and location as a function of vortex Reynolds number and initial temperature differences of the reacting species. The study brings out the influence of the vortex on the chemical reaction. In all phases, good agreement is observed between asymptotic analysis and the full numerical solution of the model equations.

Macaraeg, Michele G.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Ignition and structure of a laminar diffusion flame in a compressible mixing layer with finite rate chemistry

The ignition and structure of a reacting compressible mixing layer is considered using finite rate chemistry lying between two streams of reactants with different freestream speeds and temperatures. Numerical integration of the governing equations show that the structure of the reacting flow can be quite complicated depending on the magnitude of the Zeldovich number. An analysis of both the ignition and diffusion flame regimes is presented using a combination of large Zeldovich number asymptotics and numerics. This allows to analyze the behavior of these regimes as a function of the parameters of the problem.

Grosch, C. E.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Multigrid methods for numerical simulation of laminar diffusion flames

This paper documents the result of a computational study of multigrid methods for numerical simulation of 2D diffusion flames. The focus is on a simplified combustion model, which is assumed to be a single step, infinitely fast and irreversible chemical reaction with five species (C3H8, O2, N2, CO2 and H2O). A fully-implicit second-order hybrid scheme is developed on a staggered grid, which is stretched in the streamwise coordinate direction. A full approximation multigrid scheme (FAS) based on line distributive relaxation is developed as a fast solver for the algebraic equations arising at each time step. Convergence of the process for the simplified model problem is more than two-orders of magnitude faster than other iterative methods, and the computational results show good grid convergence, with second-order accuracy, as well as qualitatively agreement with the results of other researchers.

Liu, C.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Ignition dynamics of a laminar diffusion flame in the field of a vortex embedded in a shear flow

The role of streamwise-spanwise vorticity interactions that occur in turbulent shear flows on flame/vortex interactions is examined by means of asymptotic analysis and numerical simulation in the limit of small Mach number. An idealized model is employed to describe the interaction process. The model consists of a one-step, irreversible Arrhenius reaction between initially unmixed species occupying adjacent half-planes which are then allowed to mix and react in the presence of a streamwise vortex embedded in a shear flow. It is found that the interaction of the streamwise vortex with shear gives rise to small-scale velocity oscillations which increase in magnitude with shear strength. These oscillations give rise to regions of strong temperature gradients via viscous heating, which can lead to multiple ignition points and substantially decrease ignition times. The evolution in time of the temperature and mass-fraction fields is followed, and emphasis is placed on the ignition time and structure as a function of vortex and shear strength.

Macaraeg, Michele G.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Triple flame structure and diffusion flame stabilization

The stabilization of diffusion flames is studied using asymptotic techniques and numerical tools. The configuration studied corresponds to parallel streams of cold oxidizer and fuel initially separated by a splitter plate. It is shown that stabilization of a diffusion flame may only occur in this situation by two processes. First, the flame may be stabilized behind the flame holder in the wake of the splitter plate. For this case, numerical simulations confirm scalings previously predicted by asymptotic analysis. Second, the flame may be lifted. In this case a triple flame is found at longer distances downstream of the flame holder. The structure and propagation speed of this flame are studied by using an actively controlled numerical technique in which the triple flame is tracked in its own reference frame. It is then possible to investigate the triple flame structure and velocity. It is shown, as suggested from asymptotic analysis, that heat release may induce displacement speeds of the triple flame larger than the laminar flame speed corresponding to the stoichiometric conditions prevailing in the mixture approaching the triple flame. In addition to studying the characteristics of triple flames in a uniform flow, their resistance to turbulence is investigated by subjecting triple flames to different vortical configurations.

Veynante, D.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Premixed turbulent flame propagation in microgravity

To reduce pollutant formation there is, at present, an increased interest in employing premixed fuel/air mixture in combustion devices. It is well known that greater control over local temperature can be achieved with premixed flames and with lean premixed mixtures, significant reduction of pollutants such as NO(x) can be achieved. However, an issue that is still unresolved is the predictability of the flame propagation speed in turbulent premixed mixtures, especially in lean mixtures. Although substantial progress has been made in recent years, there is still no direct verification that flame speeds in turbulent premixed flows are highly predictable in complex flow fields found in realistic combustors. One of the problems associated with experimental verification is the difficulty in obtaining access to all scales of motion in typical high Reynolds number flows, since, such flows contain scales of motion that range from the size of the device to the smallest Kolmogorov scale. The overall objective of this study is to characterize the behavior of turbulent premixed flames at reasonable high Reynolds number, Re(sub L). Of particular interest here is the thin flame limit where the laminar flame thickness is much smaller than the Kolmogorov scale. Thin flames occur in many practical combustion devices and will be numerically studied using a recently developed new formulation that is briefly described.

Menon, S.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Flow/Soot-Formation Interactions in Nonbuoyant Laminar Diffusion Flames

Nonpremixed (diffusion) flames are attractive for practical applications because they avoid the stability, autoignition, flashback, etc. problems of premixed flames. Unfortunately, soot formation in practical hydrocarbon-fueled diffusion flames reduces their attractiveness due to widely-recognized public health and combustor durability problems of soot emissions. For example, more deaths are attributed to the emission of soot (15,000-60,000 deaths annually in the U.S. alone) than any other combustion-generated pollutant. In addition, continuum radiation from soot-containing flames is the principle heat load to combustor components and is mainly responsible for engine durability problems of aircraft and gas turbine engines. As a result, there is considerable interest in controlling both soot concentrations within flames and soot emissions from flames. Thus, the objective of the present investigation is to study ways to control soot formation in diffusion flames by manipulating the mixing process between the fuel and oxidant streams. In order to prevent the intrusion of gravity from masking flow properties that reduce soot formation in practical flames (where effects of gravity are small), methods developed during past work will be exploited to minimize effects of buoyant motion.

Dai, Z.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Microgravity Apparatus And Ground-Based Study Of The Flame Propagation And Quenching In Metal Dust Suspensions

Due to particle sedimentation and relatively low laminar flame speeds in dust suspensions, microgravity environment is essential for the observation of laminar dust flames in a wide range of particle sizes and fuel concentrations [1]. The capability of a reduced-gravity environment to facilitate study of dust combustion was realized by researchers long before current microgravity programs were established by the various national Space Agencies. Thus, several experimentalists even built their own, albeit very short-duration, drop tower facilities to study flames in particle and droplet suspensions [2,3]. About ten years ago, authors of the present paper started their dust combustion reduced gravity research with the investigation of the constant volume dust flames in a spherical-bomb on board a parabolic flight aircraft [4]. However it was soon realized that direct observation of the constant-pressure flame might be more beneficial. Thus, microgravity apparatus, permitting examination of the freely propagating flames in open-end tubes, was tested in parabolic flights three years later [5]. The improved design of the newlyconstructed apparatus for the experiments on board the NASA KC-135 aircraft is also based on the observation of the dust flame propagating in semi-opened tubes with free expansion of the combustion products that are continuously vented overboard. The apparatus design and results of its extensive ground-based testing are presented below.

Goroshin, Sam↗