Influence of potassium chloride and other metal salts on soot formation studied using imaging LII and ELS, and TEM techniques

Abstract

An experimental investigation has been performed where the influence of metal salts on soot formation has been studied. By combining two-dimensional laser-induced incandescence (LII) and elastic light scattering (ELS), two-dimensional information could be obtained on soot properties in the flames. For these studies, seven metal salts (NaCl, MgCl2, AlCl3, KCl, CaCl2, FeCl3 and ZnCl2) were dissolved in water and aspirated into a premixed ethylene/air flame. At lower flame heights, in the soot inception region, the LII signal (representing soot volume fraction) was marginally affected by all additives, whereas the ELS signal strongly decreased with increasing additive concentration for the alkali salts. At higher heights, in the soot growth region, the soot volume fractions were lowered for the addition of potassium, calcium and sodium chloride, in order of significance. Some of the salts (MgCl2, AlCl3 and FeCl3) resulted in negligible influence on LII signals and slightly higher ELS signals throughout the flames, and we relate the increased ELS signals to salt particles propagating through the flame. Main focus in our study was on the addition of potassium chloride for which several parameters were investigated. For example, soot primary particle sizes were evaluated using combined LII and ELS, showing decreasing particle sizes for increasing concentrations of potassium, in reasonable agreement with particle sizes evaluated using transmission electron microscopy. Also, CARS thermometry showed slightly higher flame temperature, ∼30 K, for the potassium-seeded flame compared to the reference flame.