Engineering topics

Hegde, U.

Publications and source records attributed to Hegde, U..

25 records · Page 2

NASA NTRS2001

Spherical Ethylene/Air Diffusion Flames Subject to Concentric DC Electric Field in Microgravity

It is well known that microgravity conditions, by eliminating buoyant flow, enable many combustion phenomena to be observed that are not possible to observe at normal gravity. One example is the spherical diffusion flame surrounding a porous spherical burner. The present paper demonstrates that by superimposing a spherical electrical field on such a flame, the flame remains spherical so that we can study the interaction between the electric field and flame in a one-dimensional fashion. Flames are susceptible to electric fields that are much weaker than the breakdown field of the flame gases owing to the presence of ions generated in the high temperature flame reaction zone. These ions and the electric current of the moving ions, in turn, significantly change the distribution of the electric field. Thus, to understand the interplay between the electric field and the flame is challenging. Numerous experimental studies of the effect of electric fields on flames have been reported. Unfortunately, they were all involved in complex geometries of both the flow field and the electric field, which hinders detailed study of the phenomena. In a one-dimensional domain, however, the electric field, the flow field, the thermal field and the chemical species field are all co-linear. Thus the problem is greatly simplified and becomes more tractable.

Yuan, Z. -G.↗

NASA NTRS1999

Vortex/Flame Interactions in Microgravity Pulsed Jet Diffusion Flames

The problem of vortex/flame interaction is of fundamental importance to turbulent combustion. These interactions have been studied in normal gravity. It was found that due to the interactions between the imposed disturbances and buoyancy induced instabilities, several overall length scales dominated the flame. The problem of multiple scales does not exist in microgravity for a pulsed laminar flame, since there are no buoyancy induced instabilities. The absence of buoyant convection therefore provides an environment to study the role of vortices interacting with flames in a controlled manner. There are strong similarities between imposed and naturally occurring perturbations, since both can be described by the same spatial instability theory. Hence, imposing a harmonic disturbance on a microgravity laminar flame creates effects similar to those occurring naturally in transitional/turbulent diffusion flames observed in microgravity. In this study, controlled, large-scale, axisymmetric vortices are imposed on a microgravity laminar diffusion flame. The experimental results and predictions from a numerical model of transient jet diffusion flames are presented and the characteristics of pulsed flame are described.

Bahadori, M. Y.↗

NASA NTRS1999

Characteristics of Non-Premixed Turbulent Flames in Microgravity

The momentum of the fuel (and/or air) jet is important in classifying gas-jet diffusion flame behavior. Normal-gravity data on gas-jet flames show that the flame height (non-dimensionalized with respect to an effective diameter) can be correlated to a density weighted Froude number in the buoyancy-dominated limit. In the momentum-dominated limit this non-dimensional flame height asymptotes to a constant value. The momentum-dominated limit under normal gravity conditions is usually obtained for very high injection velocities which in turn results in high values of the injection Reynolds number. This results in a complicated flame structure because of the large number of turbulence scales involved. In order to gain better insight into the structure of these flames it would be useful to reduce the injection Reynolds number while still maintaining turbulent conditions. This can be done in microgravity where momentum-dominated turbulent flames are obtained at much smaller velocities than in normal gravity. In this paper, experimental results on the effects of nozzle diameter and fuel dilution on flame height are discussed. The experimental values are compared with predictions from a numerical procedure utilizing the standard k-epsilon turbulence model. Flame height scaling with nozzle size and dilution is established. Differences between model predictions and measurements are presented. In order to explain these differences, evolutions of turbulent spectra and Taylor microscale along the flame axis are considered.

Hegde, U.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Heat release effects on the instability of parallel shear layers

The influence of time-dependent heat addition on the linear instablity of shear layers is of considerable interest in understanding the dynamic behavior of reacting flows and combustion-turbulence interactions. The approach is based upon the Bernoulli enthalpy aeroacoustics theory, which utilizes the specific enthalpy and specific entropy as the primary thermodynamic variables. In addition, velocity oscillations are split into Helmoholtz decomposition theorem.

Hegde, U.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Imposed Radiation Effects on Flame Spread over Black PMMA in Low Gravity

The objective of this work is to determine the effect of varying imposed radiation levels on the flame spread and burning characteristics of PMMA in low gravity. The NASA Learjet is used for these experiments; it provides an environment of 10(exp -2) g's for approximately 20 seconds. Flame spread rates are found to increase non-linearly with increased external radiant flux over the range studied. This range of imposed flux values is believed to be sufficient to compensate for the radiative loss from the flame and the surface.

Olson, S. L.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Effects of Gravity on the Transition to Turbulence of Gas Jet Diffusion Flames

An ongoing study of the transition to turbulence of gas jet diffusion flames conducted in a reduced microgravity environment at the NASA Lewis 2.2 second drop tower is described. The experiments were based on propane injected into quiescent air. Several differences with the corresponding normal gravity process were observed. In particular, large scale structures appeared intermittently in microgravity which are manifested at the flame base and convected down stream. As the Reynolds number increased, a continuous train of structures was observed along the flame front. These observations are explained by instability of the shear layer associated with injection of flow into quiescent surroundings.

Bahadori, M. Y.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Gravitational influences on the behavior of confined diffusion flames

Closed form, mathematical representations for the shapes of laminar diffusion flames stabilized on two-dimensional slot burners are derived for arbitrary gravitational levels. The solution technique employs the Schvab-Zeldovich conserved species variable. Effects of gravity on the velocity field are incorporated through the momentum equation; these effects, in turn, influence the species field. The results reduce smoothly to the classical Burke-Schumann solution as gravity approaches zero. It is shown that both flame height and width increase with decreasing gravity levels. Several interesting cases are considered explicitly; these include effects of negative and extremely high values of gravity. In the latter case, it is shown that the flame collapses onto the burner surface. The analysis finds application in the modeling of steady and unsteady gas and solid propellant diffusion flames.

Hegde, U.↗