The evolution of incipient soot particles in an inverse diffusion flame of ethene

Abstract

Motivated by the application of internally air-assisted flares and recent anomalous data that black carbon (BC) emissions changes are not monotonic with the amount of air added inside the fuel stream, a burner was designed to study the flow, emissions, and stability aspects of the existence of both normal and inverse jet diffusion flames in close proximity. Since the radius of curvature of a burner affects all aspects of combustion, such as dynamics, stability, flame structure, and emissions, a slot burner configuration, inspired by the Wolfhard-Parker burner, was adopted. This multi-slot burner consists of five parallel rectangular slots (i.e., the central slot for the inner air, sandwiched between two fuel slots, and surrounded by two outer air slots). When operated with laminar fuel and air flows, this burner produced flame sheets at each fuel-air mixing layer with open optical access to all the flows. Flow fields were characterized using two-dimensional two-component particle image velocimetry, while simultaneous single-lens reflex photography was used to establish the overall height and the location of the flames. Emission measurements specifically targeted BC, a precursor of soot, and oxides of nitrogen (NOx). The experimental test conditions involved constant flows of outer air and propane, and variable inner air flow. At one extreme, i.e., zero inner air flow, two flame bases were produced at the interfaces between the fuel and outer air streams. These flames merged to produce a normal diffusion flame. With the addition of inner air, two more flame bases appeared (referred to as the inner flame) and formed an inverse diffusion flame. With increasing inner air flow, the inner flame transitioned from a closed-tip flame, to an open-tip flame, and eventually to a lifted flame. With increasing inner air flow, the NOx emissions remained constant while the BC emissions, which were 3 g/kg-fuel with no inner air, rose by an order of magnitude as it became an open-tip flame. Only when the inner flame finally lifted off due to the inner air flow, did the BC emissions collapse to near zero. Phenomenological models associated with the importance of partial premixing were proposed to explain this collapse, thereby generalizing this finding to other combustion systems when attempting to reduce BC emissions through secondary internal air addition.