Temperature field investigation of hydrogen/air and syngas/air axisymmetric laminar flames using Mach-Zehnder interferometry.

Abstract

In this study, the optical method of Mach-Zehnder interferometry (MZI) is utilized in order to explore the flame structure and temperature field of syngas/air and hydrogen/air flames. Two axisymmetric burners with inner diameters of 4mm and 6mm are used for temperature field measurement of hydrogen and syngas, respectively. The effects of fuel composition, equivalence ratio, and Reynolds number (Re) are investigated at ambient condition (P=0.87 bar, T=300 K). Three different H2/CO fuel compositions with hydrogen fractions of 30%, 50%, and 100% are studied. Temperature profiles are reported at four different sections above the burner tip. Measured temperatures using the interferometry method are compared with thermocouple data and good agreement between them is observed. The results obtained in this investigation indicated that the MZI can be applied for accurate determination of flame front and temperature field, especially for high-temperature flames where other methods cannot be properly utilized. Analyses of the data reduction method revealed that the exact determination of the refractive index distribution and reference temperature is critical for accurate determination of the temperature field. The results indicated that by increasing the Re, the maximum flame temperature is enhanced. Increasing the equivalence ratio leads to expansion of the flame radial distribution (at the same distance from the burner tip). At higher distances from the burner tip, temperature increases uniformly from the flame boundary toward the flame axis, while at lower heights it shows reduction at the burner axis. By increasing the CO content of fuel, the maximum flame temperature increases at all equivalence ratios except at the stoichiometric condition, where SH100 illustrates the highest maximum flame temperature.