Quantitative measurement of soot particle size distribution in premixed flames – The burner-stabilized stagnation flame approach

• Published in: Combustion and flame Vol. 156; no. 10; pp. 1862 - 1870
• Main Authors: Abid, Aamir D., Camacho, Joaquin, Sheen, David A., Wang, Hai
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Inc 01.10.2009; Elsevier
• Subjects: Applied sciences; ARGON; ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE; BOUNDARY CONDITIONS; BURNERS; Combustion of gaseous fuels; COMBUSTION PROPERTIES; Combustion. Flame; DISTANCE; DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS; Energy; Energy. Thermal use of fuels; ETHYLENE; Exact sciences and technology; FLAMES; INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; ONE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS; OXYGEN; PARTICLE SIZE; Particle size distribution function; PLATES; Premixed flame; Premixed flames; Probe sampling; PROBES; SAMPLING; SIMULATION; SOOT; STAGNATION; SURFACES; TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION; TEMPERATURE RANGE 1000-4000 K; Theoretical studies. Data and constants. Metering; Premixed flame; Particle size distribution function; Probe sampling; Soot; Measurement; Particle size distribution; Ethylene; Numerical simulation; Combustion; Boundary condition; Comparative study; Gas burner
• ISSN: 0010-2180; 1556-2921
• DOI: 10.1016/j.combustflame.2009.05.010

A burner-stabilized, stagnation flame technique is introduced. In this technique, a previously developed sampling probe is combined with a water-cooled circular plate such that the combination simultaneously acts as a flow stagnation surface and soot sample probe for mobility particle sizing. The technique allows for a rigorous definition of the boundary conditions of the flame with probe intrusion and enables less ambiguous comparison between experiment and model. Tests on a 16.3% ethylene–23.7% oxygen–argon flame at atmospheric pressure show that with the boundary temperatures of the burner and stagnation surfaces accurately determined, the entire temperature field may be reproduced by pseudo one-dimensional stagnation reacting flow simulation using these temperature values as the input boundary conditions. Soot particle size distribution functions were determined for the burner-stabilized, stagnation flame at several burner-to-stagnation surface separations. It was found that the tubular probe developed earlier perturbs the flow and flame temperature in a way which is better described by a one-dimensional stagnation reacting flow than by a burner-stabilized flame free of probe intrusion.