Experimental study on induced accelerated combustion of premixed hydrogen-air in a confined environment

Abstract

The study on induced accelerated combustion of premixed hydrogen-air in a confined environment is of great significance for the efficient utilization of hydrogen energy in internal combustion engines. The accelerated flame induced by the orifice plate is more stable and easy to control, which is beneficial to achieve controlled and rapid turbulent combustion. In this work, the accelerated combustion process induced by the orifice plate, and the influence of the orifice structure and initial conditions on the flame propagation and combustion characteristics were investigated by constant volume combustion bomb and schlieren method. The results show that the combustion process induced by the orifice plate consists of three stages: the initial stage of propagation, the accelerated stage of the orifice plate, and the end combustion stage. The reduction in aperture induces greater turbulence intensity and increases the perturbation of the orifice plate to the flame, resulting in a substantial increase in flame propagation speed through the orifice plate. As the initial pressure and the equivalence ratio increase, the velocity of turbulent flame induced by the orifice plate and the change rate of the velocity before and after the orifice plate increase. As the initial temperature increases, the turbulent flame propagation velocity does not change much, and the velocity change rate before and after the orifice plate decreases. The effect of the initial conditions on flame acceleration induced by the orifice plate is essentially the influence of flame propagation speed and instability. The greater the flame propagation speed and the stronger the flame instability, the stronger the induced turbulence and the greater the influence of the turbulent flow disturbance, and the greater the velocity of the turbulent flame induced by the orifice plate. There exists an optimum aperture for the shortest combustion duration at any initial conditions, but the optimal diameter is not sensitive to changes in initial conditions. The effect of orifice-induced combustion acceleration is remarkable, and the combustion durations induced by each orifice plate are shortened by more than 50%.