Abstract
The effect of sodium and potassium seeding on the sooting behavior of a laminar ethylene diffusion flame was investigated. Optical extinction and light scattering measurements were made to obtain soot volume fractions, number densities, particle diameters, and surface areas in seeded and unseeded flames. Sodium has no significant effects on the flame while potassium seeding leads to reductions in soot volume fraction of about 40% without affecting the particle number density. These results are in marked contrast with those found for alkali metal additions to premixed flames but it is not clear why this should be. The coupling of the temperature field with soot loadings in a diffusion flame limits the usefulness of perturbation techniques, such as seeding, as a means of investigating soot formation phenomena in diffusion flames.
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