• Energy Research

Abstract Preferential species diffusion is known to have important effects on local flame structure in turbulent premixed flames, and differential diffusion of heat and mass can have significant effects on both local flame structure and global flame parameters, such as turbulent flame speed. However, models for turbulent premixed combustion normally assume that atomic mass fractions are conserved from reactants to fully burnt products. Experiments reported here indicate that this basic assumption may be incorrect for an important class of turbulent flames. Measurements of major species and temperature in the near field of turbulent, bluff-body stabilized, lean premixed methane–air flames (Le = 0.98) reveal significant departures from expected conditional mean compositional structure in the combustion products as well as within the flame. Net increases exceeding 10% in the equivalence ratio and the carbon-to-hydrogen atom ratio are observed across the turbulent flame brush. Corresponding measurements across an unstrained laminar flame at similar equivalence ratio are in close agreement with calculations performed using Chemkin with the GRI 3.0 mechanism and multi-component transport, confirming accuracy of experimental techniques. Results suggest that the large effects observed in the turbulent bluff-body burner are cause by preferential transport of H 2 and H 2 O through the preheat zone ahead of CO 2 and CO, followed by convective transport downstream and away from the local flame brush. This preferential transport effect increases with increasing velocity of reactants past the bluff body and is apparently amplified by the presence of a strong recirculation zone where excess CO 2 is accumulated.

A method to suppress the piston corner vortex generated in compressing gas mixtures in rapid compression machines has been developed. A piston crevice was designed to swallow the thermal boundary layer along the wall, allowing better definition of core conditions in the reacting mixtures by confining the cold gases to the wall. Axisymmetric calculations of the flow and temperature fields show that the proposed design indeed suppresses the vortex formation, keeping the core reacting cases intact. A simple thermodynamic model based on the piston displacement history was formulated, incorporating the predicted heat transfer to the walls and mass transfer to the crevices. The model predictions agree very well with experimental pressure history under a range of initial pressures and types of different gases. The new experimental device and model allows the incorporation of complex chemical kinetics with early heat release without the need for experimental approximations for the heat transfer terms.

Abstract This paper presents flow field measurements for the turbulent stratified burner introduced in two previous publications in which high resolution scalar measurements were made by Sweeney et al. [1] , [2] for model validation. The flow fields of the series of premixed and stratified methane/air flames are investigated under turbulent, globally lean conditions (ϕg = 0.75). Velocity data acquired with laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) and particle image velocimetry (PIV) are presented and discussed. Pairwise 2-component LDA measurements provide profiles of axial velocity, radial velocity, tangential velocity and corresponding fluctuating velocities. The LDA measurements of axial and tangential velocities enable the swirl number to be evaluated and the degree of swirl characterized. Power spectral density and autocorrelation functions derived from the LDA data acquired at 10 kHz are optimized to calculate the integral time scales. Flow patterns are obtained using a 2-component PIV system operated at 7 Hz. Velocity profiles and spatial correlations derived from the PIV and LDA measurements are shown to be in very good agreement, thus offering 3D mapping of the velocities. A strong correlation was observed between the shape of the recirculation zones above the central bluff body and the effects of heat release, stoichiometry and swirl. Detailed analyses of the LDA data further demonstrate that the flow behavior changes significantly with the levels of swirl and stratification, which combines the contributions of dilatation, recirculation and swirl. Key turbulence parameters are derived from the total velocity components, combining axial, radial and tangential velocities.

Measurements of unsteady pressure and chemiluminescence during flow forced operation of aeroengine lean direct injection fuel spray nozzles were made, with a goal to determine the response of the flame, subject to a range of air fuel ratios, fuel flow splits between pilot and mains injectors, and cooling flows. A rotating shutter installed at the downstream choked nozzle provided the excitation for forcing the mass flow rate between 100 to 600 Hz, at normalized intensities of 0.1 to 0.7 relative to the mean velocity at the injector. The experiments were performed at inlet conditions of 800 K and 5.7 bar. Self-excitation created by the coupling between the flame and the combustor cavity was observed, in the form of a broad peak around 275 Hz. Numerical studies indicate that the peak is associated with an entropy spot (a region of non-uniform temperature) travelling from the flame to the choked nozzle, followed by the ensuing expansion wave towards the injector and amplification of the excitation. Investigation of previous studies suggests that similar phenomena may have been present in other studies at high pressure. The main impact of the self-excitation is the significant amplification of the velocity fluctuations from 0.1 of the mean velocity away from the self-excitation frequency to around 0.7 at the peak. The flame response, represented by the ratio of the fractional fluctuations in OH* chemiluminescence to the fractional velocity fluctuations at the injector, can be determined under conditions where the self-excitation heat release contributes only a small portion of the forced heat release, based on the measured background. The flame response shows a significant dependence on both air fuel ratio and fuel splits, with a decreasing gain towards higher frequency. The results show that it is possible to generate high amplitude fluctuations on the flow using this method, and demonstrate the role of entropy spots during normal operation in lean direct injection systems. Finally, the results suggest that there is an interaction between the forcing frequency and the self-excitation, which may behave in a non-linear manner, and which deserves further investigation.

One of the key elements in the prediction of thermoacoustic oscillations is the determination of the acoustic response of flames as an element in an acoustic network, in the form of a flame describing function (FDF). In order to obtain a response, flames often have to be confined into a system with its own acoustic response. Separating the pure flame response and that of the system can be complicated by the non-linear effects that the flame can have on the overall system response. In this paper, we investigate whether it is possible to obtain a flame response via the usual methods of dynamic chemiluminescence and pressure measurements, starting from an unforced system with incipient self-excitations at a given frequency fs, in the form of a stabilized flame at atmospheric pressure with a 700 mm tube as a combustor. The flame is forced at discrete frequencies from 20 to 400 Hz, away from the self-excitation, and the response of the flame is measured using OH* chemiluminescence. This response was compared to a flame response measured in a short tube with no other excitations. The results show that both the gain and phase can be entirely dominated by the behavior of the self-excitation, so that in general it is not possible to extract reliable gain and phase information as if the forced and self-excited modes acted independently and linearly. Although the gain in this particular case was not significantly affected, the phase information of the original flame became dominated by the triggered self-excitation. Boundary conditions and systems used for flame acoustic forcing therefore need to be carefully controlled whenever there is a possibility of self-excitation.

Abstract This paper analyzes the forced response of swirl-stabilized lean-premixed flames to high-amplitude acoustic forcing in a laboratory-scale stratified burner operated with CH 4 and air at atmospheric pressure. The double-swirler, double-channel annular burner was specially designed to generate high-amplitude acoustic velocity oscillations and a radial equivalence ratio gradient at the inlet of the combustion chamber. Temporal oscillations of equivalence ratio along the axial direction are dissipated over a long distance, and therefore the effects of time-varying fuel/air ratio on the response are not considered in the present investigation. Simultaneous measurements of inlet velocity and heat release rate oscillations were made using a constant temperature anemometer and photomultiplier tubes with narrow-band OH ∗ /CH ∗ interference filters. Time-averaged and phase-synchronized CH ∗ chemiluminescence intensities were measured using an intensified CCD camera. The measurements show that flame stabilization mechanisms vary depending on equivalence ratio gradients for a constant global equivalence ratio ( ϕ g = 0.60). Under uniformly premixed conditions, an enveloped M-shaped flame is observed. In contrast, under stratified conditions, a dihedral V-flame and a toroidal detached flame develop in the outer stream and inner stream fuel enrichment cases, respectively. The modification of the stabilization mechanism has a significant impact on the nonlinear response of stratified flames to high-amplitude acoustic forcing ( u ′/ U ∼ 0.45 and f = 60, 160 Hz). Outer stream enrichment tends to improve the flame’s stiffness with respect to incident acoustic/vortical disturbances, whereas inner stream stratification tends to enhance the nonlinear flame dynamics, as manifested by the complex interaction between the swirl flame and large-scale coherent vortices with different length scales and shedding points. It was found that the behavior of the measured flame describing functions (FDF), which depend on radial fuel stratification, are well correlated with previous measurements of the intensity of self-excited combustion instabilities in the stratified swirl burner. The results presented in this paper provide insight into the impact of nonuniform reactant stoichiometry on combustion instabilities, its effect on flame location and the interaction with unsteady flow structures.

AbstractThe OxyCAP-UK (Oxyfuel Combustion - Academic Programme for the UK) programme was a £2M collaboration involving researchers from seven UK universities, supported by E.On and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. The programme, which ran from November 2009 to July 2014, has successfully completed a broad range of activities related to development of oxyfuel power plants. This paper provides an overview of key findings arising from the programme. It covers development of UK research pilot test facilities for oxyfuel applications; 2-D and 3-D flame imaging systems for monitoring, analysis and diagnostics; fuel characterisation of biomass and coal for oxyfuel combustion applications; ash transformation/deposition in oxyfuel combustion systems; materials and corrosion in oxyfuel combustion systems; and development of advanced simulation based on CFD modelling.

Indirect noise generated by the acceleration of entropy or vorticity perturbations through a nozzle is of interest both as an additional source of transmitted noise, but also as a source of combustion instabilities via backward propagating waves. There is a lack of experimental data, mostly due to difficulties in separating direct and indirect noise. Previous experiments attempted to isolate indirect noise by generating thermoacoustic hot spots electrically and measuring the transmitted acoustic waves, yet there is no data on the reflected or backward propagating acoustic waves. In this work, synthetic hot spots are generated by unsteady electrical heating of thin wires. These hot spots are accelerated through an orifice plate, producing a strong acoustic signature upstream of the orifice plate. Using a time separation argument, we identify the indirect noise signal, showing that its contribution to the overall noise is not negligible in either in subsonic or sonic throat conditions. However, the amplitude of direct noise is larger, making indirect noise difficult to identify if the two contributions are merged. We demonstrate the importance of appropriate pressure transducer instrumentation and accounting for the respective transfer functions in order to account for low frequency effects in the determination of pressure.