Role of Fluid-Dynamics in Soot Formation and Microstructure in Acetylene-Air Laminar Diffusion Flames

Abstract

Residence time and thermo-chemical environment are important factors in the soot-formation process in flames. Studies have revealed that flow-dynamics plays a dominant role in soot formation process. For understanding the effect of flow dynamics on soot formation and physical structure of the soot formed in different combustion environments two types of laminar diffusion flames of Acetylene and air, a normal diffusion flame (NDF) and an inverse diffusion flame (IDF) have been investigated. The fuel and air supply in the reaction zone in two flame types were kept constant but the interchange of relative position of fuel and air altered the burner exit Reynolds and Froude numbers of gases, fuel/air velocity ratio and flame shape. Soot samples were collected using thermophoretic sampling on transmission electron microscope (TEM) grids at different flame heights and were analyzed off-line in a Transmission Electron Microscope. Soot primary particle size, soot aggregate size and soot volume fraction were measured using an image analysis software. In NDF the maximum flame temperature was about 1525 K and 1230 K for IDF. The soot primary particles are distinctly smaller in size in IDF (between 19 – 26 nm) compared to NDF (between 29–34 nm). Both NDF and IDF show chainlike branched structure of soot agglomerate with soot particles of a nearly spherical shape. The average number of soot primary particles per aggregate in NDF was in the range of 24 to 40 and in IDF it varied between 16 to 24. Soot volume fraction was between 0.6 to 1.5 ppm in NDF where as it was less than 0.2 ppm in IDF. The change in sooting characteristics of the two flame types is attributed to changed fuel/air velocity ratio, entrainment of gas molecules and thermophoresis on soot particles.