Measurements and predictions of thermophoretic soot deposition

Abstract

A thin laminar flow channel with a transverse temperature gradient was used to examine thermophoretic deposition of soot aerosol particles in experiments and modeled in Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) simulations. Conditions investigated included three flowrates, with nominal Reynolds number based on the hydraulic diameter of 55, 115 and 230, and two applied temperature gradients, nominally 10 °C/mm and 20 °C/mm, with repeats. Soot was generated from a propene diffusion flame. The burner exhaust was mixed with dilution air, and most large agglomerates greater than 1 μm aerodynamic diameter were removed prior to the channel inlet. The expected thermophoretic velocity of the aerosol was calculated from the applied temperature gradient. A calculated deposition velocity was determined from the mass of deposition, the channel inlet soot concentration, and the exposure time. Uniform soot deposition allowed targets to be used to measure the mass of deposition on the cold side of the channel. The mass of deposition was also determined by subtracting the mass of soot exiting the channel from the mass of soot entering the channel during the exposure time. The deposition velocities from these two methods generally agreed with the thermophoretic velocity and with each other. The deposition mass predicted by the FDS model also compared well with the experiments in most cases. The disagreements for the lowest flow rate cases are attributed to buoyant flow effects adding uncertainty to the actual temperature gradients present in the channel. (The opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in this paper are the authors’ and do not represent the views or policies of NIST or the United States Government.)