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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 919 records · Page 51
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

The Influence of Pressure on Flame-Flow Characteristics of a Reacting Jet in Crossflow

This work experimentally investigates the effects of elevated combustor pressures on the characteristics of a lean premixed reacting methane/air jet injected into a lean vitiated crossflow using a 12.7 mm axial jet. Experiments were conducted in an axially staged combustor, which implements a reacting jet in crossflow (RJIC) configuration and operates over a pressure range of 1–5 atmospheres. Simultaneous CH* chemiluminescence and particle image velocimetry (PIV) are used to study the flow field and flame behavior. The results show that the reacting jet trajectory exhibits greater penetration with elevated pressure, which is a novel finding compared to available data in the literature. However, the flame liftoff point and ignition delay time both decreased with elevated pressure, which was attributed to decreased vorticity along the flame boundary which corresponds to increased Damköhler numbers (Da). Emissions measurements confirm the NOx increase with pressure as reported in the literature for single-stage gas turbine combustors. Concurrently, emission measurements for the staged configuration show the strong NOx benefit of the RJIC system: the data prove a reduction of global outlet emission levels at elevated pressure with the axially staged configuration. Here, the axial emission reduction was attributed to the decreasing liftoff at elevated pressure levels. Hence, the research emphasizes that the flame and emission characteristics are coupled; they are not only dependent on the geometric parameters and momentum flux ratios but are also a function of pressure.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Resolving Hysteresis in Perovskite Solar Cells with Rapid Flame-Processed Cobalt-Doped TiO 2

To further increase the open–circuit voltage ( V oc ) of perovskite solar cells (PSCs), many efforts have been devoted to doping the TiO 2 electron transport/selective layers by using metal dopants with higher electronegativity than Ti. However, those dopants can introduce undesired charge traps that hinder charge transport through TiO 2 , so the improvement in the V oc is often accompanied by an undesired photocurrent density–voltage ( J–V ) hysteresis problem. Herein, it is demonstrated that the use of a rapid flame doping process (40 s) to introduce cobalt dopant into TiO 2 not only solves the J–V hysteresis problem but also increases the V oc and power conversion efficiency of both mesoscopic and planar PSCs. The reasons for the simultaneous improvements are two fold. First, the flame–doped Co–TiO 2 film forms Co–O v (cobalt dopant–oxygen vacancy) pairs and hence reduces the number density of Ti 3+ trap states. Second, Co doping upshifts the band structure of TiO 2 , facilitating efficient charge extraction. As a result, for planar PSCs, the flame doping of Co increases the efficiency from 17.1% to 18.0% while reducing the hysteresis from 16.0% to 1.7%. Here, for mesoscopic PSCs, the flame doping of Co increases the efficiency from 18.5% to 20.0% while reducing the hysteresis from 7.0% to 0.1%.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Flame aerosol synthesis of hollow alumina nanoshells for application in thermal insulation

Commercial implementation of hollow nanoshell materials is often limited by difficult scale-up and high cost. Here we present a scalable, continuous, and potentially low-cost route to hollow nanostructured materials using a High Temperature Reducing Jet flame aerosol reactor. The key advantage of this process over traditional flame aerosol synthesis methods is separation of flame chemistry and particle formation, which allows production of hollow nanoshells from an aqueous salt solution without any template or surfactant. We produced amorphous hollow alumina with an average diameter of 181 nm and shell thickness below 10 nm, and demonstrated the generality of the method by also producing hollow SiO 2 , ZrO 2 , Ga 2 O 3 , and Co 2 O 3 . We characterized the morphology, phase transition, thermal stability, and thermal conductivity of the flame-made hollow alumina by electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, and thermal analysis methods. As a prototypical application, we incorporated hollow alumina into thermal insulation, combining it with common fiberglass insulation to reduce the thermal conductivity by 30% relative to pure fiberglass, to 0.028 W m -1 K -1 while maintaining robust fire-resistance and elasticity.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2010

Demonstration of a burner for the investigation of partially premixed low-temperature flames

A burner, which stabilizes near-one-dimensional low-temperature flames at atmospheric pressure, was designed to access the combustion regime near 1500 K for quantitative species diagnostics. Combustion temperatures between 1300 and 1800 K in argon-diluted methane-oxygen flames were achieved by preheating the burner and adapting the inert gas flow. Mass spectrometry with electron ionization was used to determine mole fractions profiles of reactants, products, and intermediates. Combustion parameters were varied including stoichiometry, diluent mole fraction and preheat temperature. Mole fraction profiles resemble those taken in regular premixed flat flames. A number of C{sub 1}- and C{sub 2}-intermediates as well as some oxygenated species were identified. Higher-mass species (m/z > 42) were not detected in the low-temperature methane-oxygen flames which contain 90% argon in the cold gases. (author)

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2010

Characterization of diffusion flames for synthesis of single-walled carbon nanotubes

Recent studies have shown that Fe/Si/O catalysts on the fuel side of an oxygen-enriched inverse diffusion flame produce micron-length single-walled carbon nanotubes at rapid rates (>100{mu}m/s). Despite the favorable catalyst/flame interaction for nanotube nucleation and growth, the catalyst lifetimes are only a few milliseconds. To increase catalyst lifetime and hence, carbon nanotube length, it is necessary to know how the local environment changes as the catalyst moves through the flame. A 2-D computational fluid dynamics model with detailed chemistry is employed to investigate the nature of the flame environment along various catalyst trajectories. The results indicate that temperature and species concentrations do not change significantly along individual catalyst trajectories, although not all trajectories experience the same environment due to the steep gradients in the radial direction. On the other hand, analysis of catalyst particle composition before and after nanotube growth shows that catalyst oxygen content decreases significantly during nanotube growth. This change in catalyst composition could affect the relative rates of carbon supply versus removal from the catalyst surface, such that carbon encapsulation and thus poisoning of the catalyst is favored after sufficient time. The results of this work indicate that catalyst deactivation, not a changing catalyst environment, is responsible for rapid encapsulation of the catalyst by amorphous carbon and thus, the short catalyst lifetimes observed in oxygen-enriched diffusion flames. (author)

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2011

Mixing and stabilization study of a partially premixed swirling flame using laser induced fluorescence

A laboratory-scale swirling burner, presenting many similarities with gas turbines combustors, has been studied experimentally using planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) on OH radical and acetone vapor in order to characterize the flame stabilization process. These diagnostics show that the stabilization point rotates in the combustion chamber and that air and fuel mixing is not complete at the end of the mixing tube. Fuel mass fraction decays exponentially along the mixing tube axis and transverse profiles show a gaussian shape. However, radial pressure gradients tend to trap the fuel in the core of the vortex that propagates axially in the mixing tube. As the mixing tube vortex enters the combustion chamber, vortex breakdown occurs through a precessing vortex core (PVC). The axially propagating vortex shows a helicoidal trajectory in the combustion chamber which trace is observed with transverse acetone PLIF. As a consequence, the stabilizing point of the flame in the combustion chamber rotates with the PVC structure. This phenomenon has been observed in the present study with a high speed camera recording spontaneous emission of the flame. The stabilization point rotation frequency tends to increase with mass flow rates. It was also shown that the coupling between the PVC and the flame stabilization occurs via mixing, explaining one possible coupling mechanism between acoustic waves in the flow and the reaction rate. This path may also be envisaged for flashback, an issue that will be more completely treated in a near future. (author)

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2015

Numerical investigation of spontaneous flame propagation under RCCI conditions

This paper presents results from one and two-dimensional direct numerical simulations under Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI) conditions of a primary reference fuel (PRF) mixture consisting of n-heptane and iso-octane. RCCI uses in-cylinder blending of two fuels with different autoignition characteristics to control combustion phasing and the rate of heat release. These simulations employ an improved model of compression heating through mass source/sink terms developed in a previous work by Bhagatwala et al. (2014), which incorporates feedback from the flow to follow a predetermined experimental pressure trace. Two-dimensional simulations explored parametric variations with respect to temperature stratification, pressure profiles and n-heptane concentration. Furthermore, statistics derived from analysis of diffusion/reaction balances locally normal to the flame surface were used to elucidate combustion characteristics for the different cases. Both deflagration and spontaneous ignition fronts were observed to co-exist, however it was found that higher n-heptane concentration provided a greater degree of flame propagation, whereas lower n-heptane concentration (higher fraction of iso-octane) resulted in more spontaneous ignition fronts. A significant finding was that simulations initialized with a uniform initial temperature and a stratified n-heptane concentration field, resulted in a large fraction of combustion occurring through flame propagation. The proportion of spontaneous ignition fronts increased at higher pressures due to shorter ignition delay when other factors were held constant. For the same pressure and fuel concentration, the contribution of flame propagation to the overall combustion was found to depend on the level of thermal stratification, with higher initial temperature gradients resulting in more deflagration and lower gradients generating more ignition fronts. Statistics of ignition delay are computed to assess the Zel’dovich (1980) theory for the mode of combustion propagation based on ignition delay gradients.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2018

Direct numerical simulation of a high Ka CH 4 /air stratified premixed jet flame

Here, direct numerical simulation (DNS) of a high Karlovitz number (Ka) CH 4 /air stratified premixed jet flame was performed and used to provide insights into fundamentals of turbulent stratified premixed flames and their modelling implications. The flame exhibits significant stratification where the central jet has an equivalence ratio of 0.4, which is surrounded by a pilot flame with an equivalence ratio of 0.9. A reduced chemical mechanism for CH 4 /air combustion based on GRI-Mech3.0 was used, including 268 elementary reactions and 28 transported species.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2018

Five kHz thermometry in turbulent spray flames using chirped-probe pulse femtosecond CARS, part I: Processing and interference analysis

We have applied chirped-probe-pulse (CPP) femtosecond (fs) coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering for 5 kHz temperature measurements in turbulent spray flames. The CPP fs CARS technique has previously been used to perform spectroscopic temperature measurements in highly turbulent laboratory burners with excellent accuracy, precision, temporal resolution, and spatial resolution. In this paper, ultrafast CARS measurements in spray flames are presented as part of a larger effort to provide spatially and temporally resolved temperature fields in harsh spray environments. The Sydney Needle Spray Burner (SYNSBURN TM ) was used to stabilize turbulent spray flames of acetone and ethanol. The burner features a retractable fuel injector so that the droplet density at the nozzle exit could be systematically varied. Results from selected regions of the turbulent spray flames are discussed in detail to highlight the challenges of CPP fs CARS temperature measurements. Sources of spectral distortion due to interaction with droplets are discussed along with an uncertainty analysis. The passage of fuel through the probe volume caused varying levels of signal degradation and resulted in complete signal loss on approximately 10% of the laser shots for dense spray conditions. The interferences are attributed to two separate phenomena and are categorized based on the probable phase of the fuel – liquid or gas. Interference caused by liquid fuel was unavoidable in certain regions at certain operating conditions, but easily identified and removed. Interference from vapor fuel was more problematic as the nitrogen signal was only moderately corrupted in the high-frequency portion of the spectrum, and the temperature was generally biased to higher values. Rejecting individual signal spectra, based on a fitting error threshold, was shown to be effective in excluding shots with significant interference from fuel droplets, but shots with only minor interference require a more-advanced rejection criterion. Analysis of the temperature fields for a few selected conditions is presented showing trends with the atomization quality of the liquid fuel. Fourier analysis revealed hydrodynamic instabilities in the shear layer and relatively weak thermoacoustic instabilities in the reaction zone.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Theoretical estimates of flammability bounds for thin condensed fuel diffusion flames in microgravity using detailed models of chemistry and radiation

Recently, U-shape flammability maps have been constructed showing minimal oxygen vs. flame strain for opposed flame spread in micro-gravity by Olson and Ferkul. The U-shape defines the limiting flammability bounds from radiative extinction and flame blow-off. Here, the minimum of the U corresponds to the minimum possible oxidizer concentration where burning can occur, and is an important quantity of interest for fire safety. While high strain extinction bounds have been well analyzed, low strain radiative extinction has not. To estimate low strain extinction, in this study an analytical theory is developed based on thin flame theory coupled with a heat and mass transfer model for solid fuels. A reaction progress variable based on the Damköhler number is adapted in the theory to account for incomplete combustion at high strain rates and enable the capturing of the full flammability map. The analytical model is compared to a one dimensional numerical model w/ detailed chemical kinetics and coupled radiation heat transfer in planar and spherical geometries. The flammability maps are then qualitatively compared to experimental extinguishment data compiled by Olson and Ferkul for cylindrical rods of PMMA showing similar trends. The results show the newly developed analytics capture the radiative extinction bound compared to the numerical model and qualitatively agrees with microgravity data.

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEA↗
DOE OSTI2011

Emissions from ethanol-blended fossil fuel flames

A fundamental study to investigate the emission characteristics of ethanol-blended fossil fuels is presented. Employing a heterogeneous experimental setup, emissions are measured from diffusion flames around spherical porous particles. Using an infusion pump, ethanol-fossil fuel blend is transpired into a porous sphere kept in an upward flowing air stream. A typical probe of portable digital exhaust gas analyzer is placed in and around the flame with the help of a multi-direction traversing mechanism to measure emissions such as un-burnt hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Since ethanol readily mixes with water, emission characteristics of ethanol-water blends are also studied. For comparison purpose, emissions from pure ethanol diffusion flames are also presented. A simplified theoretical analysis has been carried out to determine equilibrium surface temperature, composition of the fuel components in vapor-phase and heat of reaction of each blend. These theoretical predictions are used in explaining the emission characteristics of flames from ethanol blends. (author) This paper presents the results of an experimental study of flow structure in horizontal equilateral triangular ducts having double rows of half delta-wing type vortex generators mounted on the duct's slant surfaces. The test ducts have the same axial length and hydraulic diameter of 4 m and 58.3 mm, respectively. Each duct consists of double rows of half delta wing pairs arranged either in common flow-up or common flow-down configurations. Flow field measurements were performed using a Particle Image Velocimetry Technique for hydraulic diameter based Reynolds numbers in the range of 1000-8000. The secondary flow field differences generated by two different vortex generator configurations were examined in detail. The secondary flow is found stronger behind the second vortex generator pair than behind the first pair but becomes weaker far from the second pair in the case of Duct1. However, the strength of the secondary flow is found nearly the same behind the first and the second vortex generator pair as well as far from the second vortex generator pair in the case of Duct2. Both ducts are able to create a counter-rotating and a second set of twin foci. Duct2 is able to create the second set of twin foci in an earlier streamwise location than Duct1, as these foci are well-known to their heat transfer augmentation. A larger vortex formation area and a greater induced vorticity field between vortex pairs are observed for Duct2 compared with Duct1. As the induced flow field between the vortex pairs increases the heat transfer, and as the flow field between the vortex cores is found larger in the case of Duct2, therefore, it is expected to obtain better heat transfer characteristics for Duct2 compared with Duct1. (author)

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2011

Non-uniform velocity profile mechanism for flame stabilization in a porous radiant burner

Industrial processes where the heating of large surfaces is required lead to the possibility of using large surface porous radiant burners. This causes additional temperature uniformity problems, since it is increasingly difficult to evenly distribute the reactant mixture over a large burner surface while retaining its stability and keeping low pollutant emissions. In order to allow for larger surface area burners, a non-uniform velocity profile mechanism for flame stabilization in a porous radiant burner using a single large injection hole is proposed and analyzed for a double-layered burner operating in open and closed hot (laboratory-scale furnace, with temperature-controlled, isothermal walls) environments. In both environments, local mean temperatures within the porous medium have been measured. For lower reactant flow rate and ambient temperature the flame shape is conical and anchored at the rim of the injection hole. As the volumetric flow rate or furnace temperature is raised, the flame undergoes a transition to a plane flame stabilized near the external burner surface. However, the stability range envelope remains the same in both regimes. (author)

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2012

A counterflow diffusion flame study of branched octane isomers

Conventional petroleum, Fischer–Tropsch (FT), and other alternative hydrocarbon fuels typically contain a high concentration of lightly methylated iso-alkanes. However, until recently little work has been done on this important class of hydrocarbon components. In order to better understand the combustion characteristics of real fuels, this study presents new experimental data for 3-methylheptane and 2,5-dimethylhexane in counterflow diffusion flames. This new dataset includes flame ignition, extinction, and speciation profiles. The high temperature oxidation of these fuels has been modeled using an extended transport database and a high temperature skeletal chemical kinetic model. The skeletal model is generated from a detailed model reduced using the directed relation graph with expert knowledge (DRG-X) methodology. The proposed skeletal model contains sufficient chemical fidelity to accurately predict the experimental speciation data in flames. The predictions are compared to elucidate the effects of number and location of the methyl substitutions. The location is found to have little effect on ignition and extinction in these counterflow diffusion flames. However, increasing the number of methyl substitutions was found to inhibit ignition and promote extinction. Chemical kinetic modelling simulations were used to correlate a fuel’s extinction propensity with its ability to populate the H radical concentration. In conclusion, species composition measurements indicate that the location and number of methyl substitutions was found to particularly affect the amount and type of alkenes observed.

2,5-dimethylhexane↗
DOE OSTI2016

Multiparameter spatio-thermochemical probing of flame–wall interactions advanced with coherent Raman imaging

Ultrabroadband coherent anti-Stokes Ra man spectroscopy (CARS) has been developed for one -dimensional imaging of temperature and major species distributions simultaneously in the near-wall region of a methane/air flame supported on a side-wall-quenching (SWQ) burner. Automatic temporal and spatial overlap of the ~7 femtosecond pump and Stokes pulses is achieved utilizing a two-beam CARS phase-matching scheme, and the crossed ~75 picosecond probe beam provide s excellent spatial sectioning of the probed location. Concurrent detection of N 2 , O 2 , H 2 , CO, CO 2 , and CH 4 is demonstrated while high-fidelity flame thermometry is assessed from the N 2 pure rotational S-branch in a one-dimensional -CARS imaging configuration. A methane/air premixed flame at lean, stoichiometric, and rich conditions ( Φ = 0.83, 1.0 , and 1.2) and Reynolds number = 5,000 is probed as it quenches against a cooled steel side- wall parallel to the flow providing a persistent flame-wall interaction. Here, an imaging resolution of better than 40 μm is achieved across the field -of-view, thus allowing thermochemical states (temperature and major species) of the thermal boundary layer to be resolved to within ~30 μm of the interface.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2018

Direct numerical simulation of flame stabilization assisted by autoignition in a reheat gas turbine combustor

A three-dimensional direct numerical simulation (DNS) is performed for a turbulent hydrogen-air flame, represented with detailed chemistry, stabilized in a model gas-turbine combustor. The combustor geometry consists of a mixing duct followed by a sudden expansion and a combustion chamber, which represents a geometrically simplified version of Ansaldo Energia’s GT26/GT36 sequential combustor design. In this configuration, a very lean blend of hydrogen and vitiated air is prepared in the mixing duct and convected into the combustion chamber, where the residence time from the inlet of the mixing duct to the combustion chamber is designed to coincide with the ignition delay time of the mixture. The results show that when the flame is stabilized at its design position, combustion occurs due to both autoignition and flame propagation (deflagration) modes at different locations within the combustion chamber. A chemical explosive mode analysis (CEMA) reveals that most of the fuel is consumed due to autoignition in the bulk-flow along the centerline of the combustor, and lower amounts of fuel are consumed by flame propagation near the corners of the sudden expansion, where the unburnt temperature is reduced by the thermal wall boundary layers. An unstable operating condition is also identified, wherein periodic auto-ignition events occur within the mixing duct. These events appear upstream of the intended stabilization position, due to positive temperature fluctuations induced by pressure waves originating from within the combustion chamber. This DNS investigation represents the initial step of a comprehensive research effort aimed at gaining detailed physical insight into the rate-limiting processes that govern the sequential combustor behavior and avoid the insurgence of the off-design auto-ignition events.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Identification of the molecular-weight growth reaction network in counterflow flames of the C 3 H 4 isomers allene and propyne

The reaction networks responsible for aromatics formation in counterflow flames of the C 3 H 4 isomers allene and propyne are identified through a combined experimental and modeling study. Mole fraction profiles of near-atmospheric pressure (933 mbar) diffusion flames fueled by the C 3 H 4 isomers are analyzed by means of a newly assembled, chemically detailed kinetic mechanism. The experiment consists of a counterflow burner system that is coupled to a high-resolution time-of-flight molecular-beam mass spectrometer with single-photon ionization via synchrotron-generated vacuum-ultraviolet photons. Flame-sampled, mass-specific photoionization efficiency curves are used to identify the presence of aliphatically substituted aromatic species in addition to the commonly considered pericondensed ring structures. The new mechanism describes the formation and growth of aromatics through repetitive sequences of radical–radical and radical–molecule reactions that include C 1 6 intermediates. Higher concentrations of aromatic species are observed in the allene flame and the new mechanism captures the observed experimental trends very accurately. The results indicate the importance of the aliphatically substituted aromatics and of ring-enlargement reactions for the growth reactions. According to the model simulations, radical+radical recombination and PAH-radical+molecule reactions play an important role in PAH growth.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2016

Examination of ionic wind and cathode sheath effects in a E-field premixed flame with ion density measurements

The effect of the ionic wind on a premixed methane-air flame under a DC electric field is studied via mapping of the ion density with Langmuir probes. Ion densities were observed to increase near the burner with increasing electrode voltage up to 6 kV. Past this electrode supply voltage, ion densities ceased increasing and began to decline in some locations within the premixed flame. The increased ion density is caused by an increase in ionic wind force and cathode sheath thickness. The plateau in density is due to the cathode sheath fully encompassing the flame front which is the ion source, thereby collecting all ions in the flame. The spatial density data support the ionic wind hypothesis and provide further explanation of its limits based on the plasma sheath.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Propagation of intense laser radiation through a diffusion flame of burning oil

We report the results of measuring the absorption coefficient of radiation from a cw ytterbium fibre single-mode laser with the power up to 1.5 kW by a diffusion flame of oil, burning in the atmosphere air at normal pressure on a free surface. For the constant length (30 mm) and width (30 mm) of the flame and the distance 10 mm between the laser beam axis and the oil surface the dependence of the absorption coefficient, averaged over the flame length, on the mean radiation intensity (varied from 4.5 × 10{sup 3} to 1.2 × 10{sup 6} W cm{sup -2}) entering the flame is obtained. The qualitative explanation of nonmonotonic behaviour of the absorption coefficient versus the intensity is presented. (laser applications and other topics in quantum electronics)

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗