Soot Volume Fraction Distributions Research Articles

Soot volume fraction measurements in aero-engine model combustor outlet using two-color laser-induced incandescence

Quantitative measurement of Soot Volume Fraction (SVF) is an essential prerequisite for controlling soot particle emissions from aero-engine combustors. As an in-situ and non-intrusive optical diagnostic technique, Laser-Induced Incandescence (LII) has been increasingly applied for soot concentration quantification in various combustion environments such as laminar flame, vehicle exhaust, internal combustion chamber as well as aero-engine combustor. In this work, we experimentally measured the spatial and temporal distribution of SVF using two-color LII technique at the outlet of a single-sector dual-swirl aero-engine model combustor. The effect of inlet pressure and air preheat temperature on the SVF distribution was separately investigated within a pressure range of 241–425 kPa and a temperature range of 292–500 K. The results show that soot production increases with the inlet pressure but generally decreases with the air preheat temperature. Qualitative analysis was provided to explain the above results of parametric studies. The LII experiments were also conducted under 3 designed conditions to evaluate soot emission under practical operations. Particularly, weak soot emission was detected at the outlet under the idle condition. Our experimental results provide a valuable benchmark for evaluating soot emission in the exhaust plume of this aero-engine combustor during practical operations.

Experimental and numerical investigations of soot formation in propane laminar coflow flames in O2/N2 and O2/CO2 atmospheres

Oxygen-rich combustion is a new type of clean combustion technology with important application prospects. At present, there are few detailed analyses on the mechanism changes of soot formation under oxygen enrichment of propane. In this paper, the effects of oxygen-rich (O2/N2, O2/CO2) combustion on soot formation in the propane laminar flow coaxial jet diffusion flame were investigated by using the experiment and numerical simulation. The flame image was taken by a color (CCD) camera in the visible band, and the two-dimensional distribution of temperature and soot volume fraction in the flame was reconstructed. In numerical simulation, the soot production model considers a detailed description of nucleation via collisions among heavy polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, particle aggregation, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons condensation, surface growth and oxidation through the hydrogen abstraction acetylene addition mechanism. The results show that the experimental results were compared with the numerical simulation results, and the numerical simulation results predict the temperature and soot change of oxygen-rich flame well. With the increase in oxygen concentration, the peaks of soot and temperature in the two oxygen-rich atmospheres gradually increased. With the increase in oxygen concentration, the peaks of soot and temperature in the two oxygen-rich atmospheres gradually increased. Comparing the combustion mechanism changes of the two oxygen-rich combustion systems, it was found that the hydrogen abstraction acetylene addition mechanism was the main cause of soot generation. The OH oxidation is dominated near the fuel nozzle side, and O2 oxidation is dominant downstream. With the substitution of CO2 for N2, the chemical effect of CO2 reduces the flame temperature and inhibits the formation mechanism and oxidation mechanism of soot to some extent. This in turn leaded to a reduction in the amount of soot produced.

A Combustion Kinetic Model Based on the Fast Chemistry Assumption: Application to Non-Sooty and Sooty Laminar Diffusion Flames

ABSTRACT In this article, a combustion kinetic model based on the fast chemistry (FC) assumption is proposed to compute the finite reaction rate of gaseous species in laminar diffusion flames. The algorithm developed for this purpose is numerically robust and relies on the adiabatic flame temperature to limit the fuel consumption rate. While there is no FC model specifically developed for laminar flames, the Eddy Dissipation Model (EDM) correction scheme for laminar regimes is taken as the reference model. The proposed model addresses the shortcomings of the reference model, i.e. the sensitivity to the transport time scale and the cell size and the need to calibrate a numerical constant repeatedly. The new model formulation does not rely on any numerical constant and completely removes the dependency on the cell size and the species transport time scale, as shown for multiple counterflow and axisymmetric laminar diffusion flames. Furthermore, the proposed model provides consistent temperature and species mass fraction predictions across the mentioned flames. Finally, a sooty axisymmetric flame is simulated using the mentioned models to investigate the numerical interaction between combustion and soot chemistry. The results show that the reference model requires recalibration to capture the temperature and soot volume fraction distributions while the proposed model yields reasonably accurate temperature and soot predictions.

On the intricacies of soot volume fraction measurements in counterflow diffusion flames with light extinction: Effects of curtain flow

Counterflow diffusion flame is an attractive platform for fundamental research on kinetics of soot formation. Accurate determination of soot volume fraction in the flame is a prerequisite for in-depth analysis of the sooting characteristics and assessment of predictive soot models. Light extinction has been proven to be an efficient technique for measuring soot volume fraction thanks to its non-intrusiveness and its simple optical setup. Nevertheless, tomographic inversion needs to be performed if spatially resolved soot volume fraction is to be obtained from the measured light extinction data which is essentially a projection along the line-of-sight. In this regard, radial distribution of soot volume fraction would affect the accuracy of the measurement through its influences on the inversion processes. In this work, we show that the curtain flow, which is necessary to avoid the formation of the undesired secondary diffusion flame and to keep the core counterflow from ambient disturbances, has notable effects on spatially resolved soot volume fraction measurements with line-of-sight measurements. In particular, different flow rate settings of the curtain flow can result in different soot distributions at the edges of soot fields: upwards curved, outwards extended, and downwards curved, which may influence the measurement of centerline soot volume fraction distribution. The necessity of tomographic inversion, the minimal region of the projection image necessary for tomographic inversion (when necessary), the quasi-one-dimensional feature of soot distribution, and the sensitivity of measurement to slight flame asymmetry were investigated where possible to determine the most suitable curtain flow configuration for soot volume fraction measurements by light extinction. Recommendations on curtain flow setting are finally made.

Reconstructing soot fields in acoustically forced laminar sooting flames using physics-informed machine learning models

This work reports an application of physics-informed machine learning models on reconstructing key parameters of acoustically forced, time-varying laminar sooting flames, highlighting the potential of the machine learning methods as a complementary tool to conventional laser diagnostics. First, a physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) model was developed to reconstruct the fields of velocity and temperature in the region where is inaccessible with laser-based diagnosing methods due to soot scattering. The PINNs model was trained using experimental data from planar laser diagnostics and constrained with the momentum and energy conservations. The model shows effective capability of fulfilling the velocity and temperature fields. Second, an Autoencoder (AE)-based Deep Operator Network (DeepONet), also as a physics-informed model, was developed to predict the planar distribution of soot volume fraction in the flames. The AE-DeepONet framework was trained using planar images of temperature and hydroxyl radical (OH) with a hybrid way by combining physics-informed and data-driven approaches. The AE-DeepONet model outperforms the conventional data-driven-only machine learning models. The results show that, constrained by physical laws, machine learning based models can properly predict soot distribution, velocity and temperature in unsteady laminar flames, shedding light on the physics-informed machine learning methods as a complement to laser diagnostics.

LES of a pressurized sooting aero-engine model burner using a computationally efficient discrete sectional method coupled to tabulated chemistry

This work is focused on the modeling and analysis of soot formation and oxidation in the pressurized ethylene-based model burner investigated at DLR. This burner features a dual swirler configuration for the primary air supply and includes secondary dilution jets inside the combustion chamber, showing reacting flow characteristics representative of the RQL combustor technology. Large-eddy simulations (LES) of the DLR burner are conduced here to assess a coupling approach between flamelet generated manifold (FGM) chemistry and discrete sectional method (DSM) based soot model with clustering method. First, a validation of the numerical results is conducted for the gas velocity and temperature fields, and good agreement is obtained for both mean and fluctuating quantities. The Soot Volume Fraction (SVF) computed from LES shows a satisfactory agreement with the experimental data in both SVF distribution and magnitude. The analysis also includes a numerical investigation of the soot production and the Particle Size Distributions (PSD). Finally, the configuration without secondary air is evaluated and an accurate prediction of the SVF field is also obtained. In this case, the absence of dilution air strongly influences the central region of the combustion chamber, and soot distribution and PSD are mainly affected by transport and dilution, not oxidation. It is finally concluded the proposed modeling framework is capable of predicting the soot field and particle size distributions inside the combustor for both operating conditions.

Reconstructing temperature fields from OH distribution and soot volume fraction in turbulent flames using an artificial neural network

We present a methodology based on artificial neural networks for reconstructing flame temperature fields from planar distributions of hydroxyl (OH) radicals and soot volume fraction in turbulent jet flames. A convolutional neural network was trained using planar images of flame temperature, soot volume fraction and OH simultaneously recorded with laser-based experimental methods. Then, the capacity and accuracy of the neural network on reconstructing flame temperatures were assessed for the flame conditions not only within the training domain but also out of it. The results showed that the supervised neural network can reconstruct instantaneous temperature fields to within ± 60 K for the flame conditions within the training domain, and to within ± 150 K for the flame conditions outside of the training domain. Probability density functions (PDF) of reconstructed temperature and the joint PDFs with OH signals and soot volume fractions also show good statistical agreement with experiments. This work has application in extending measurement techniques into regimes that are presently difficult to achieve, such as by obtaining the training data for temperature with established low-speed imaging methods and using the neural network method to predict temperature from high-speed imaging of the other two scalars.

Maturity characterization of soot in laminar coflow diffusion flames of methane/anisole under different oxygen indices

Anisole fuel has gained increased attention, since it is considered a biofuel, and its addition to gasoline increases the octane number, improving the engine performance. This study focuses on the comprehensive characterization of soot maturity and sooting propensity of a well-controlled laminar coflow diffusion flame fueled with anisole and using methane as the carrier gas. Four laminar non-premixed flames were established below the smoke point. The oxidizer composition ranged from a molar fraction of oxygen (oxygen index, OI) of 21% to 35% (doped with pure oxygen), while keeping constant the total volumetric flow rate of oxidizer stream. Multi-wavelength line-of-sight attenuation experiments were performed from visible to infrared wavelengths, and the measurements of the extinction coefficient and flame temperature were used to retrieve two dimensional fields of soot temperature, volume fraction, radiative intensity and degree of soot maturity. In general, the sooting propensity and radiative behavior of the anisole flames follows a similar trend than typical hydrocarbon fuels when increasing the OI. However, the spatial distribution of soot volume fraction is enhanced, particularly near the flame centerline. In contrast, the soot production is promoted by the OI, near the flame wings. The same effect can be observed for the soot temperature. Indeed, temperature increases, promoting formation and oxidation processes, specially at the locations near the maximum soot volume fraction. In general, the maturity of soot particles is affected as the OI is changed. Also, it is observed that the degree of maturity is enhanced by flame temperature. In order to support these local observations, a statistical analysis was carried out. Finally, the results obtained yield a curated database for validating detailed soot production models of oxygenated fuels, and to gain further insights on the evolution of soot maturity and propensity of these particular fuels under different oxidizer conditions.

Quantitative investigation of sooting dynamics in droplet combustion using an automated image analysis algorithm

This paper reports an image analysis approach using a newly-developed open-source program to extract quantitative measurements of soot volume fraction (SVF) from digital video images of burning n-heptane droplets. The automated program developed in this work can analyze images of fixed and untethered droplets to quantify sooting dynamics. The images analyzed in the program were taken from experiments carried out in the Multi-user Droplet Combustion Apparatus (MDCA) onboard the International Space Station (ISS). In these experiments, video imaging of burning droplets was obtained using backlighting by a laser diode with a wavelength of 653 nm. The light was collimated before it passed through the droplet and soot-containing region, after which the light was then attenuated and projected onto the camera’s sensors. This technique facilitates the measurements of SVF based on the principles of the full field light extinction method (FFLEM). The measurements provide quantitative data that reveal the sooting dynamics of liquid fuels during droplet combustion processes.The analyses of a soot-attenuating image (ISS n-heptane, untethered droplet) at an instant during the burning show that the SVF distribution has a peak at the soot shell location. It then decreases due to soot oxidation when the location is further away from the burning droplet. Regarding temporal effects on the maximum SVF (SVFmax), results show that SVFmax first increases after the burning is initiated until a peak value is reached, after which SVFmax decreases. The SVFmax values identified in this study for n-heptane are quantitatively consistent with previously reported values for fiber-supported droplets and are reached relatively early in the burning history. n-Heptane images are also analyzed to show the effects of initial droplet sizes on the maximum soot volume fraction. Results show that SVFmax decreases with increasing initial droplet size, which is consistent with visual observations of less soot formed and dimmer flame brightness as Do increases.

Comparative study of soot properties and pressure sensitivity in n-dodecane and decalin laminar flames

The main objective of this study is to compare the soot properties and pressure sensitivity of the high-carbon-number n-alkane and cycloalkane in laminar diffusion flames at elevated pressures. As typical high-carbon-number components of aviation kerosene, n-dodecane and decalin have been used in surrogate fuel kinetic models for aviation kerosene such as Jet-A and Chinese RP-3. In this study, quantitative experiments on soot properties are conducted in nitrogen-diluted n-dodecane and decalin laminar diffusion flames at up to 5.0 atm, which has scarcely been reported in the literature. Soot morphology and detailed soot volume fraction distribution are studied by transmission electron microscopy analysis and laser extinction method. Based on the soot volume fraction results, the soot yield is evaluated to compare the pressure sensitivity of the soot propensity between the two fuels. The results show that from 1.0 to 5.0 atm, the primary soot particle diameter, maximum soot volume fraction and soot yield in decalin flames are higher than those in n-dodecane flames. However, with increasing pressure, the growth rates of these soot properties are higher for n-dodecane flames than for decalin flames. The ratio of maximum soot yield of decalin to n-dodecane decreases from 2.2 at 1.0 atm to approximately 1.2 at 5.0 atm. The quantitative results indicate that the pressure sensitivity of soot properties of n-dodecane is stronger than that of decalin. The quantitative experimental results of this work are helpful in understanding the relevant fuel kinetic mechanisms suitable for simulating soot formation at elevated pressures.

Simultaneously retrieving of soot temperature and volume fraction in participating media and laminar diffusion flame using multi-spectral light field imaging

The inner distribution of the flame properties can be retrieved by solving the intractably ill-posed inverse problem from spectral radiation imaging. This study presents a simultaneous retrieving method of the three-dimensional temperature and soot volume fraction distribution in the small-scaled flame by proposing a multi-spectral light field imaging process. The results show that the temperature and soot volume fraction of the participating media and laminar diffusion flame can be reliably retrieved. Specifically, the reconstructed properties of the inner region of lower flame height are moderately affected by the selection of the visible wavelength group. The ray number slightly affects the retrieve, while the deviation is susceptible to measurement error, which is better to be less than 52 dB. The proposed approach can be used for the flame spectral diagnostic and the radiative properties calculation.

Quantitative assessment method of muzzle flash and smoke at high noise level on field environment

It is quite a challenge to obtain the temperature and species concentration fields of muzzle flash at high noise level. In this numerical study, radiation intensity of muzzle flash received by the high-speed Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) camera was simulated based on the line-of-sight method in the direct radiative transfer problem. The inverse radiative transfer problem of reconstructing distributions of temperature and soot volume fraction from the knowledge of flame radiation intensity was transformed into a minimization optimization problem and a meta-heuristic algorithm was used to solve the problem. The effects of the number of detection lines, optical thickness and measurement errors on the reconstruction results were discussed in details. A method to estimate the noise level of radiation intensity was developed, experimental results showed that the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of radiation intensity can be successfully inferred when the SNR is greater than 20 dB. Subsequently, prior knowledge of the noise level was introduced in the regularization to achieve a meaningful approximation of the exact value. The reconstruction of the soot volume fraction filed with SNR greater than 40 dB is considered successful with the inclusion of an appropriate regularization term in the objective function, and the reconstruction of the temperature field is feasible even with SNR as low as 15 dB. The high tolerance to the noise level of the radiation intensity gives the reconstruction algorithm the potential to be used in practical experiments of muzzle flash.

Experimental study of the effect of CO2 on temperature and soot volume fraction in C2H4/air co-flow laminar diffusion flame.

The threat of global warming caused by greenhouse gases such as CO2 to the environment is one of the most intractable challenges. The capture and utilization of CO2 are essential to reduce its emission and achieve the goal of being carbon neutral, in which CO2-diluted combustion is an efficient carbon capture technology. In this research, the effects of CO2 addition in the fuel side (CO2-F), oxidizer side (CO2-O) and both sides (CO2-F/O) on temperature and soot formation in C2H4/air laminar co-flow diffusion flames were researched. The flame images were measured by a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) imaging equipment. The two-dimensional distributions of temperature and soot volume fraction in C2H4/air laminar co-flow diffusion flames were measured employing the inverse Abel transform. The results demonstrated that the effect of amount variation of CO2-F on the decrease of flame temperature was enhanced by the CO2-O. The reduction in peak flame temperature was 4 K in the CO2-F cases, while the reduction in peak flame temperature was 83 K in the CO2-F/O cases. The soot formation was suppressed significantly by the effects of CO2-F/O. Compared with the CO2-F cases, the reductions in peak soot volume fraction were 22.5% and 23.5% in the CO2-F/O cases. The suppression effect of amount variation of the CO2-F on soot formation became more significant with the increase of flame height. The reductions in peak soot volume fractions were 0.3%, 3.07% and 6.38% at the flame heights of 20 mm, 30 mm and 40 mm in the CO2-F cases, and the corresponding reductions were 4.92%, 5.2% and 16% in the CO2-F/O cases, respectively.

Soot volume fraction and size measurements over laminar pool flames and pre-vaporised non-premixed flames of biofuels, methyl esters and blends with diesel

Previous studies have demonstrated that methyl ester-based biodiesels produce significantly less soot compared to petroleum diesel in standard diffusion flames. However, the roles of the oxygen content and the degrees of unsaturation (DoU) of the biodiesels on their sooting propensity have not been independently analysed. In the present study, the relationship between soot yield of biodiesels and the DoU of the fuel is systematically analysed in laminar pool flames and pre-vaporised diffusion flames. The spatial distribution of soot volume fraction of the flames fuelled with four biodiesel fuels, two methyl esters and their blends with diesel are quantitatively measured using laser induced incandescence. All six biofuels have different DoU but similar oxygen mass fractions, so that the effect of the DoU on soot formation could be separately considered. The soot yield using biodiesels was measured to be lower than that of diesel fuel by a factor up to 7.5 in pool flames and by a factor of 4.0 in vapour flames. In both flame setups, the soot reduction effect of biodiesels ranks in order of DoU. The more saturated the fuel molecule is, the lower the soot yield. The soot reduction effect of the blending ratio with biodiesel was found to be non-linear, and different in pool and vapour flames. The morphology, size, and number density of soot particles were analysed using scanning electronic microscopy. The results suggest that the shape of primary soot particles is close to spherical and the structure of the point-contact aggregates is similar in all cases. Biofuels not only produce smaller particle sizes, but also fewer particles compared to diesel. Chemical kinetic simulations suggest that blending of biodiesels reduces the soot yield primarily by slowing the soot surface growth process, and secondarily by prohibiting the soot nucleation and inception. Both the nucleation (C3H3 and benzene) and growth species (C2H2) for soot formation take place more quickly and intensely for the combustion of more unsaturated fuels, which results in the correspondingly larger soot yield.

A simultaneous measurement technique for soot temperature and volume fraction of sooting flames considering self-absorption through hyperspectral imaging

Due to the complex optical properties of sooting flames, the accuracy of flame emission-based measurement techniques depends on an appropriate self-absorption correction strategy. Thus, this paper presents a novel iterative procedure to retrieve the soot temperature and volume fraction of sooting flames along with a self-absorption correction strategy through hyperspectral imaging. Numerical simulations were carried out on suppositional flames to investigate the performance of the proposed technique. Relative errors obtained from the simulations are below 1.5%, indicating a better accuracy can be achieved by the proposed reconstruction technique. A hybrid camera hyperspectral video imaging technique is designed and implemented with the concept of compressed sensing. A significant improvement in flame spectrum acquisition has been observed. Experiments were carried out under ethylene-air diffusion flames to validate the technique. The reconstructed flame soot temperature and volume fraction distributions demonstrated that the proposed hyperspectral video imaging technique improves the soot temperature and volume fraction reconstruction accuracy.

Effects of prenol and isoprenol addition on soot and PAH formation in ethylene/methane counterflow diffusion flames

Prenol has attracted much attention due to its high heating value and novel octane hyperboosting phenomenon; while its soot formation behavior is not studied yet. In this study, experimental and numerical analysis of the effects of prenol and isoprenol addition on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and soot formation in non-premixed ethylene/methane flames is performed. Distribution of soot volume fraction and PAHs in the flames is measured via laser induced incandescence and laser induced fluorescence, respectively. The results show that both prenol and isoprenol addition enhances soot and PAH formation in ethylene/methane flames, and the prenol shows a stronger enhancing effect. Modeling of the sooting behavior is performed with a constructed gas-phase chemistry and a sectional method. The numerical results well capture the experimental observations and reveal that the increased concentrations of C2H2, C3H3 or C4H6 after prenol or isoprenol blending chemically promote benzene ring formation, subsequent PAH growth and soot formation processes. ROP (rate of production) analysis is performed to investigate the effect of prenol and isoprenol addition on rate-limiting ring formation process. In methane and ethylene flame, prenol or isoprenol blending promotes benzene formation in different ways, due to the discrepancies on the radical pool in two flames. Moreover, prenol also shows stronger effect on both of soot inception rate and surface growth rate than isoprenol, which is due to more PAHs and C2H2 formed in the prenol-doping flames. Reaction pathway analysis shows that decomposition of prenol generates C2H2 and C3H3 while isoprenol mainly generate C3H3 and almost no C2H2, the distinctive decomposition pathways of prenol results in its higher formation propensity of PAHs and soot.

Effects of ammonia addition on soot formation in ethylene laminar diffusion flames. Part 2. Further insights into soot inception, growth and oxidation

Ammonia, as an alternative fuel, is attracting unprecedented attention due to the absence of CO2 emission during its combustion. Effects of ammonia co-firing on soot formation in ethylene laminar diffusion flames have been studied in the first part of this series of papers, addressing the soot volume fraction change and reaction kinetics of gaseous soot precursors. This paper further investigates the effect of ammonia on evolution behaviors of soot particle, namely soot inception, growth and oxidation in the ethylene co-flow diffusion flame. The soot volume fraction (SVF) and spatial distribution in flames without/with ammonia addition (5 and 20 vol%) were measured using laser-induced incandescence (LII) method. A newly constructed C2H4/NH3/PAHs kinetic model consisting of 163 components and 1018 reactions and the CoFlame codes dedicated to simulating laminar co-flow diffusion flame coupled with fixed sectional soot particle model were used to model the flames and soot inception, surface growth, and oxidation processes in them. Numerical results well captured the experimental observation on both peak SVF and flame height, and confirmed that ammonia inhibited the soot formation in the flame, showing a peak SVF decrease of 2–4 % per 1 % ammonia addition. The numerical results revealed that the ammonia addition inhibited all soot inception, surface growth via HACA (hydrogen-abstraction-acetylene-addition) and PAH condensation, and oxidation via OH/O2 processes. Most importantly, inhibition of HACA reactions induced by ammonia was identified as the main reason for reducing soot formation. Kinetic analysis revealed that adding ammonia created a new pathway to consume H radical while decreasing the rate of H radical-generating reactions, leading to a decrease in H radical and ultimately a reduction in the HACA reaction rate.

Effect of CO2/H2O addition on laminar diffusion flame structure and soot formation of oxygen-enriched ethylene

Oxygen-enriched combustion technology has an important application prospect, in which Oxy-steam combustion is a new generation of potential carbon capture technology. In this paper, the effects of O2/CO2 and O2/H2O atmosphere on soot formation in laminar diffusion flame were studied. The flame image was taken by a color (CCD) camera in the visible band, the directional emission power in R and G bands was calibrated, and the two-dimensional distribution of temperature and soot volume fraction in the flame was reconstructed. The experimental results are compared with the numerical results, and the numerical results well predict the temperature of oxygen-enriched flame in O2/N2/CO2 atmosphere, but overestimate the soot volume fraction. The laminar diffusion flame of ethylene in two kinds of oxygen-rich atmosphere was numerically studied by using a step-by-step decoupling method to separate the density, transport, thermal and chemical effects of the diluent by introducing four virtual substances. The calculation results show that combustion in O2/H2O and O2/CO2 atmosphere reduces the flame peak temperature, but the effect on the flame centerline temperature distribution is different. The addition of H2O enhanced the concentration of OH through the reverse reaction rate of OH + H2=H + H2O, while the addition of CO2 decreased the concentration of OH.O2/CO2 combustion leads to the increase of flame height and radius, while in O2/H2O atmosphere, the flame height is shortened. Both CO2 and H2O have a good inhibitory effect on soot formation. CO2 in the oxidant affects soot nucleation and surface growth rate mainly by reducing flame temperature and H mole fraction, but not by promoting soot oxidation process. Water vapor also inhibits soot formation by increasing OH concentration through chemical effect.

Effects of NH3 addition on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and soot formation in C2H4 co-flow diffusion flames

As a promising carbon-free alternative fuel, ammonia (NH3) cofiring with hydrocarbon fuels can improve its own combustion properties and suppress the soot emission. In this work, the chemical effects of NH3 on soot volume fraction (SVF) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) spatial distributions and the soot morphological evolution were experimentally investigated in five C2H4 diffusion flames with and without NH3/Ar addition using nonintrusive and intrusive methods (planar laser induced incandescence, PLII, planar laser induced fluorescence, PLIF and thermophoretic sampling particle diagnostic method combined with transmission electron microscope, TSPD-TEM). In order to highlight the chemical effects of ammonia on soot and PAHs formation, taking argon-doping flame as reference, the chemical effects are defined as the disparity of soot reduction between the flames with doping Ar and NH3. Meanwhile, a numerical study was carried out to reveal the chemical effects of NH3 on the PAHs formation and its main pathways. Both the experimental and numerical results showed that NH3 delays and suppresses the formation of PAHs and NH3 has greater reduction influence than Ar. In addition, NH3 and Ar decrease the flame temperature at the early stage of flame and increase the temperature at the post stage. The soot distribution in pure C2H4 and C2H4NH3 flames revealed that as NH3 content increases, the region of maximum SVF is transformed from the flame wings to flame centerline. Moreover, with NH3 addition, the soot loading zone is shrunk and shifted to the downstream due to the lift-off of flame height and decrease of flame temperature. Sensitivity and reaction pathways analysis of A1 formation indicate that NH3 addition provides new pathways for C2H4 and NH3 through the nitrogen-hydrocarbon interactions. The existence of NH3 suppresses the key formation intermediates (C2H2, C3H3, PC3H4 and C4H4) responsible for the first aromatic benzene ring formation and larger PAH growth. In conclusion, the chemical effects of ammonia not only reduce the formation of soot and PAHs precursors, but significantly affect the evolution of soot morphology. The underlying mechanism of NH3 on the whole soot generation and oxidation process will be further revealed in the future work.

How do the oxygenated functional groups in ether, carbonate and alcohol affect soot formation in Jet A2 diffusion flames?

Four oxygenated fuels: ethanol (EtOH), dimethyl carbonate (DMC), dimethoxymethane (DMM) and polyoxymethylene dimethyl ether (PODE3) were blended with Jet A2 to investigate the sooting behaviour of the fuel mixtures. The smoke point was measured using wick-fed laminar diffusion flames as per the ASTM D1322 standard. The oxygen extended sooting index (OESI) was calculated to determine the sooting tendency of each mixture. Colour-ratio pyrometry and differential mobility spectrometry were used to measure the soot volume fraction (fv) and particle size distribution (PSD). The addition of oxygenated fuels caused a strong reduction in sooting tendency (i.e. OESI) at low blend strengths (5%) and a weaker linear reduction at higher blend strengths (10% and 20%). Each mixture showed a similar reduction at a given mole fraction of oxygenated fuel. The OESI broadly correlated with the soot volume fraction and particle size measurements. Increasing blend strengths resulted in smaller particles at the tip of the flame. The average particle size at the tip was influenced by the oxygen content but not the molecular structure of the oxygenated fuels, whereas the soot volume fraction in the wings was influenced by both the molecular structure of the oxygenated fuels and the oxygen/carbon ratio of the mixture. For the first time, fv and PSD have been reported for flames produced using Jet A2 blends in an ASTM D1322 lamp. The ability to relate data gathered using the ASTM D1322 standard for the sooting behaviour of different mixtures is going to be increasingly important as the aviation industry seeks to switch to sustainable fuels.