Lycopodium Particles Research Articles

Pyrolysis and combustion kinetics of lycopodium particles in thermogravimetric analysis

Biomass is a kind of renewable energy which is used increasingly in different types of combustion systems or in the production of fuels like bio-oil. Lycopodium is a cellulosic particle, with good combustion properties, of which microscopic images show that these particles have spherical shapes with identical diameters of 31 μm. The measured density of these particles is 1.0779 g/cm2. Lycopodium particles contain 64.06% carbon, 25.56% oxygen, 8.55% hydrogen and 1.83% nitrogen, and no sulfur. Thermogravimetric analysis in the nitrogen environment indicates that the maximum of particle mass reduction occurs in the temperature range of 250–550 °C where the maximum mass reduction in the DTG diagrams also occurs in. In the oxygen environment, an additional peak can also be observed in the temperature range of 500–600 °C, which points to solid phase combustion and ignition temperature of lycopodium particles. The kinetics of reactions is determined by curve fitting and minimization of error.

A parametric study of lycopodium dust flame

Dust flames are associated with two-phase combustion phenomena where flame characteristics depend on interactions between solid and gas phases. Since organic dust particles can be effectively utilized in energy production systems, investigation of this phenomenon is essential. In this study, an analytical model is presented to simulate the combustion process of moist organic dust. The flame structure is divided into three zones: preheat zone, reaction zone, and postflame zone. To determine the effects of moisture content and volatile evaporation, the preheat zone is also divided into four subzones: first heating subzone and drying subzone, second heating subzone, and volatile evaporation subzone. The results obtained from the presented model are in reasonable agreement with experimental data for lycopodium particles. An increase in moisture content causes a reduction in burning velocity owing to moisture evaporation resistance. Consequently, the effects of some important parameters, like volatilization temperature, volatilization Damköhler number and drying Damköhler number are investigated. In special cases, like high moisture content, low volatilization temperature, and high drying resistance, the second heating subzone is omitted.

On the explosion and flammability behavior of mixtures of combustible dusts

In the work presented in this paper, the explosion and flammability behavior of combustible dust mixtures was studied. Lycopodium, Nicotinic acid and Ascorbic acid were used as sample dusts.In the case of mixtures of two dusts, the minimum explosive concentration is reproduced well by a Le Chatelier's rule-like formula, whereas the minimum ignition energy is a linear combination of the ignition energies of the pure dusts.An unexpected behavior has been found in relation to the explosion behavior and the reactivity. When mixing Lycopodium and Nicotinic acid or Ascorbic acid, the rate of pressure rise of the mixture is much higher than the rate of pressure rise obtained by linearly averaging the values of the pure dusts (according to their weight proportions), thus suggesting that strong synergistic effects arise; but it is comparable to that of the most reactive dust in the mixture.The observed behavior seems to be linked to the presence of minerals in the Lycopodium particles which catalyze oxidation reactions of Nicotinic acid and Ascorbic acid, as suggested by TG analysis.In the case of mixtures of three dusts, a similar behavior is observed when the concentration of Lycopodium is twice that of the other two dusts.

An Analytical Model for Flame Propagation through Moist Lycopodium Particles with Non-unity Lewis Number

In this investigation, the structure of one-dimensional flame propagation in uniform cloud of volatile organic particles has been analyzed in which the structure of flame is divided into three zones. The first zone is preheat zone which is divided into three subzones itself. In the first subzone (heating), particle cloud is heated until the moist particles reach to vaporization temperature (water vapor). In the next subzone (drying), particle moisture comes out, and in the final subzone the pyrolysis phenomenon takes place. The second zone is the reaction zone, and the last one is the post-flame zone. In this research, an analytical method is used in order to solve the governing equations of particle cloud combustion in aforementione d zones. The overall investigation of this study leads to a non-linear burning velocity correlation. Consequently, the results show that a decrease in particle moisture content or an increase in equivalence ratio ( u ϕ ) or Lewis number causes to increase in moisture evaporation and devolatization rates, and consequently both flame temperature and burning velocity increase

Plasma treatment allows water suspending of the natural hydrophobic powder (lycopodium)

Lycopodium particles which are spores of the plant Lycopodium clavatum were exposed to cold oxygen and nitrogen plasma irradiation. Wetting properties of the particles changed dramatically from hydrophobic to hydrophilic. Plasma treatment allowed obtaining stable water suspensions of lycopodium. Plasma treatment did not affect the morphology of lycopodium particles. The reported results open the way for surfactants-free manufacturing suspensions of hydrophobic particles.

Drying dissipative structures of lycopodium spore particles in aqueous dispersion

Drying dissipative structures of aqueous dispersions of lycopodium particles (31 μm in average diameter) from the spores of Lycopodium clavatum were studied as a function of the particle concentrations in the presence and the absence of sodium chloride. The drying patterns formed on a cover glass, a watch glass and a Petri glass dish were observed macroscopically and microscopically. Lycopodium particles were the combination of hemisphere and tetrahedron in their shape and possessed the weakly acidic groups on their surfaces. The vague broad ring structure was observed even for the very large colloidal particles, and their size on a cover glass decreased as particle concentration decreased. Microscopic drying patterns almost disappeared except the short chain-like patterns. These observations support that the convectional contribution on the dissipative drying pattern formation is still effective in the lycopodium suspensions, though the convectional forces in the suspension are very weak compared with the sedimentation forces.

Modeling combustion of lycopodium particles by considering the temperature difference between the gas and the particles

The effect of the temperature difference between the gas and the particles on propagation of premixed flames in a combustible mixture containing volatile fuel particles uniformly distributed in an oxidizing gas mixture is analyzed in this paper. It is presumed that the fuel particles vaporize first to yield a gaseous fuel, which is oxidized in the gas phase. The analysis is performed in the asymptotic limit, where the value of the characteristic Zel’dovich number is large, which implies that the reaction term in the preheating zone is negligible. Required relations between the gas and the particles are derived from equations for premixed flames of organic dust. Subsequently, the governing equations are solved by an analytical method. Finally, the variation of the dimensionless temperatures of the gas and the particles, the mass fraction of the particles, the equivalence ratio ϕ g as a function of ϕ u , the flame temperature, and the burning velocities of the gas and the particles are obtained. The analysis shows that the calculated value of ϕ g is smaller than unity for certain cases, even though ϕ u ⩾1.

Effects of combustible dust clouds on premixed flame extinction in normal- and micro-gravity

An experimental and numerical study was carried out on the effects of combustible solid particles on the extinction of atmospheric, strained, laminar premixed methane/air, and propane/air flames in normal- and micro-gravity. The study was conducted in the opposed-jet configuration in which single flames were stabilized either below or above the gas stagnation plane by counter-flowing a reacting mixture against ambient-temperature air. Spherical 50-μm glassy-carbon and 32-μm Lycopodium particles were injected from either the mixture or the air sides, and the flame extinction states were experimentally determined. The results provided insight into the effects of fuel type, gas-phase composition, strain rate, gravity, as well as particle type, number density, and injection orientation. The combustible particles could have a negative or positive effect on the gas-phase reactivity, depending on the prevailing strain rate and the orientation of injection. The effect of combustible particles on flame extinction was found to reverse when the orientation of the particle seeding is reversed. Experiments and simulations revealed that particle reactions that are not possible in upstream seeding become possible in downstream seeding due to differences in particle residence times and prevailing temperature fields. The effects of gravity on the particle–gas interactions were identified and explained. Gravity could notably modify the chemical response of reacting particles, which, in turn, affects the extinction behavior of the gas phase.

Behavior of flames propagating through lycopodium dust clouds in a vertical duct

Abstract The structure of flame propagating through lycopodium dust clouds has been investigated experimentally. Upward propagating laminar flames in a vertical duct of 1800 mm height and 150×150 mm square cross-section are observed, and the leading flame front is also visualized using by a high-speed video camera. Although the dust concentration decreases slightly along the height of duct, the leading flame edge propagates upwards at a constant velocity. The maximum upward propagating velocity is 0.50 m/s at a dust concentration of 170 g/m 3 . Behind the upward propagating flame, some downward propagating flames are also observed. Despite the employment of nearly equal sized particles and its good dispersability and flowability, the reaction zone in lycopodium particles cloud shows the double flame structure in which isolated individual burning particles (0.5–1.0 mm in diameter) and the ball-shaped flames (2–4 mm in diameter; the combustion time of 4–6 ms) surrounding several particles are included. The ball-shaped flame appears as a faint flame in which several luminous spots are distributed, and then it turns into a luminous flame before disappearance. In order to distinguish these ball-shaped flames from others with some exceptions for merged flames, they are defined as independent flames in this study. The flame thickness in a lycopodium dust flame is observed to be 20 mm, about several orders of magnitude higher than that of a premixed gaseous flame. From the microscopic visualization, it was found that the flame front propagating through lycopodium particles is discontinuous and not smooth.

Dust suspensions accelerated by shock waves

The motion of dust suspensions accelerated by shock waves has been experimentally investigated in a vertical shock tube, in which a completely developed plane shock wave of moderate strength propagates into a homogeneously distributed dust suspension with a planar interface. Trajectories of the accelerated interfaces as well as transmitted and reflected shock waves are recorded by using a shadowgraph system with a Cranz-Schardin camera. Two kinds of particle samples, i.e. porous lycopodium particles 30 μm in diameter and corn starch particles with a mean diameter of 10 μm, are employed. The effects of shock wave strength and particle loading ratio are also examined. Experimental data are compared with theoretical results, and the agreement is good.

Three-phase velocity distribution of Lycopodium particles on the Masuda panel

This study follows up earlier work by the author that measured the velocity of Lycopodium particles on a two-phase Masuda panel. The velocity of particles in a three-phase electric field, as measured with a Laser Doppler Anemometer, approximately 0.5 m/s, is nearly the same for all Masuda panels over a wide range of operating conditions, including voltage,frequency, and phase. The results show good agreement with computer simulations. Aerodynamic drag appears to be the predominating factor that determines the particle velocity.

Particle cloud flames in acoustic fields

Results are presented on a study of flames supported by clouds of particles suspended in air, at pressures about 100 times lower than normal. In the experiment, an acoustic driver (4-in speaker) placed at one end of a closed tube, 0.75-m long and 0.05 m in diameter, disperses a cloud of lycopodium particles during a 0.5-sec powerful acoustic burst. Properties of the particle cloud and the flame were recorded by high-speed motion pictures and optical transmission detectors. Novel flame structures were observed, which owe their features to partial confinement, which encourages flame-acoustic interactions, segregation of particle clouds into laminae, and penetration of the flame's radiative flux density into the unburned particle-cloud regimes. Results of these experiments imply that, for particles in confined spaces, uncontrolled fire and explosion may be a threat even if the Phi(0) values are below some apparent lean limit.

Secondary aspiration of aerosol particles into thin-walled nozzles facing the wind

Problems of sampling aerosols from the turbulent atmosphere have been studied experimentally. The research was carried out with such particle sizes, type of samplers and sampling conditions that relate to those encountered in practical occupational hygiene and environmental monitoring. Distortion of the aerosol initial concentration was measured in a wind tunnel by a comparison method. Such distortions were caused by the external aspiration from a turbulent down flow using a vertical thin-walled cylindrical sampler. In addition, inertial errors themselves were determined by the limiting trajectory method. The difference between the results obtained with the help of the above methods showed the presence of secondary aspiration after the particles rebound from the outer nozzle surface for anisokinetical sampling. This fact was established by means of a set of special experiments with nozzles of various properties of the outer surface. Values of the rebound coefficient for Lycopodium particles aspirated into copper samplers over a range of diameters of 0.5–1 cm and anisokinetical coefficients (velocity ratio) of 1–40 were obtained. The conditions under which the efficiency of secondary aspiration is small were also defined.

PARTICLE CONCENTRATION MEASUREMENTS BY LASER IMAGING FOR A TURBULENT DISPERSION

ABSTRACT A laser imaging system has been developed which can be used for investigating the particle concentration variation in explosive test apparatus such as the Ciba-Geigi and Hartmann Bomb during turbulent dispersions of air-particle mixtures. The pulsed UV (337 nm) laser imaging system using a 500X optical and electronic magnification system has a measurement volume of 900 µm by 675 µm and an in-focus depth of field of 780 µm for a 32 µm diameter particle. Particles in the measurement control volume are imaged every 33 ms during the dispersion process and viewed in real time but stored for later analysis on a video tape system. This paper presents the results of investigating the lycopodium particle concentration variations during the dispersion process of 0.200 grams of lycopodium particles in the Hartmann Bomb explosive test apparatus. Data were taken at the center line and at a radius ratio of 0.5 at a height of 0.102 m (4 inches) above the base of the Hartmann lucite tube. Twenty-five separate di...

Acoustic Streaming in a Guided Traveling Wave

A study has been made of the streaming caused when a guided traveling wave is sent through a closed, gas-filled tube. Starting with an approximate expression for the acoustic particle velocity in such a tube, it is shown that the observed streaming can be ascribed to the surface sources of vorticity which are generated in the acoustic boundary layer next to the side walls of the tube. The volume source of vorticity described by C. Eckart [Phys. Rev. 73, 68 (1948)] and H. Medwin and I. Rodnick [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 25, 538 (1953)] is negligible in this ease. The 2-in. i.d. closed steel tube used for the experiment was approximately 20 ft in length, with the last 10 ft acoustically terminated by a slowly tapering wedge of glass wool. An 8-in. long Lucite section in the tube allowed binocular microscope observation of suspended tobacco smoke or Lycopodium particles, used as tracers to determine the gas motion. Comparison of theoretical predictions and experimental observations will be made. This work was partially supported by the U. S. Office of Naval Research, Contract N6onr 27507.

Dust explosions in breweries

In the work presented in this paper, the explosion and flammability behavior of combustible dust mixtures was studied. Lycopodium, Nicotinic acid and Ascorbic acid were used as sample dusts.In the case of mixtures of two dusts, the minimum explosive concentration is reproduced well by a Le Chatelier's rule-like formula, whereas the minimum ignition energy is a linear combination of the ignition energies of the pure dusts.An unexpected behavior has been found in relation to the explosion behavior and the reactivity. When mixing Lycopodium and Nicotinic acid or Ascorbic acid, the rate of pressure rise of the mixture is much higher than the rate of pressure rise obtained by linearly averaging the values of the pure dusts (according to their weight proportions), thus suggesting that strong synergistic effects arise; but it is comparable to that of the most reactive dust in the mixture.The observed behavior seems to be linked to the presence of minerals in the Lycopodium particles which catalyze oxidation reactions of Nicotinic acid and Ascorbic acid, as suggested by TG analysis.In the case of mixtures of three dusts, a similar behavior is observed when the concentration of Lycopodium is twice that of the other two dusts.