Flow Reactor Experimental Study of H2/O2 and H2/Air Mixtures Ignition Assisted by the Electrical Discharge

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe paper presents the results of experimental study of the influence of a glow discharge in oxygen on the ignition of hydrogen/oxygen and hydrogen/air mixtures in the low-pressure flow reactor at temperature range 800–1070 K. The study focuses on obtaining the data on the effect of electronically excited molecules O2(a1Δg) on the ignition delay in presence of the minor amount of other discharge products. In order to reduce the effect of O atoms and O3 molecules, the walls of the discharge cell and output duct were coated with mercury oxide. The special attention was paid to the diagnostics of discharge products and the evaluation of the influence of reactor walls on the heterogeneous deactivation of O2(a1Δg) molecules along the reactor. The spectroscopic technique was used for the measurements of O2(a1Δg) and O3 concentrations. It was shown that the induction zone length in H2-O2 and H2-air mixtures could be reduced by 10–50% depending on the initial temperature in the case of glow discharge exposure on the oxygen flow.