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Successful imaging of the preheat zone of a lean (ϕ < 0.6) flame: the potential capability of acetone-OH simultaneous PLIF to diagnose flames at the near-extinction limit

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Abstract

A strategy to image the preheat zone of a very lean, laminar premixed flame (whose equivalence ratio, ϕ, is <0.6) is proposed using acetone-OH simultaneous PLIF. A combination of excitation at 283 and 266 nm is accomplished by a YAG-Dye laser and fluorescence signals from the acetone seeded into the fuel flow and the combustion-generated OH together detected by a single ICCD camera. Clear “non-signal zone” between these sources is successfully imaged even under very lean conditions, where the flame is blown off without a flame holder. 1-D numerical simulations with detailed chemistry, including seven-step acetone-decomposition reactions are performed for comparison with measured 1-D fluorescence signal distributions. These comparisons clearly indicate that the thickness of the observable “non-signal zone” is much wider than the zone where neither the predicted acetone nor the OH exists. It is found that this deviation is caused by the strong temperature dependence of the acetone fluorescence signal. This feature suggests that the observable “non-signal zone” should correspond to the region with the spatial variation of temperature in the unburned zone; namely, the preheat zone. In fact, it is shown that the observable “non-signal zone” agrees well with the preheat zone obtained by numerically simulated temperature profiles over a range of imposed very lean condition (ϕ > 0.54). Therefore, acetone-OH simultaneous PLIF presents itself as a promising technique capable of visualizing the preheat zone without knowledge of the temperature distribution, even at the near-extinction limit.

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Notes

  1. In this study, the averaged flow rate is 0.5 m/s, so that it takes about 20 ms for the mixture gas to reach the temperature-measured location (10 mm above the surface). If the diffusion rate of the fuel to air is roughly estimated as 0.22 cm2/s and the diffusion length scale is 8.0 mm (corresponding to the burner width), then the characteristic time for diffusion transport is estimated to be 2.9 s. This is several orders of magnitude larger than 20 ms (i.e., fuel residence time), therefore, the flame structure obtained at a height of 10 mm should be comparable to the theoretical 1-D flame structure (with negligible dilution effects to the surroundings due to diffusion).

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by year 2008 General Sekiyu Research and Development Encouragement and Assistance Foundation, year 2008–2009 TEPCO Research Foundation, year 2009–2010 Steel Industry Foundation for the Advancement of Environmental Protection Technology, year 2009 The Iwatani Naoji Foundation’s Research Grant, year 2009 Research Foundation for the Electrotechnology of Chubu (RFEC); all operated by YN as PI. The authors would like to thank Mr. Ito and Mr. Tsuji (MIT) for their assistance in conducting experiments and Dr. Gollner at UCSD for fruitful discussions and kindly polishing the entire manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Mechanical and Space Engineering, Hokkaido University, N 13 W 8, Kita-ku, Sapporo, 060-8628, Japan

    Yuji Nakamura & Yuichiro Yamada

  2. Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Materials Engineering, Muroran Institute of Technology, 27-1 Mizumoto-cho, Muroran, 050-8585, Japan

    Mitsutomo Hirota & Tsutomu Saito

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  1. Yuji Nakamura
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  2. Yuichiro Yamada
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  3. Mitsutomo Hirota
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  4. Tsutomu Saito
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Correspondence to Yuji Nakamura.

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Nakamura, Y., Yamada, Y., Hirota, M. et al. Successful imaging of the preheat zone of a lean (ϕ < 0.6) flame: the potential capability of acetone-OH simultaneous PLIF to diagnose flames at the near-extinction limit. J Vis 15, 281–291 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12650-012-0134-1

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