A review of spray ignition phenomena: Present status and future research

Theoretical and experimental studies dealing with the spray ignition phenomena are reviewed. Two major topics covered are external-source ignition of liquid fuel sprays and spontaneous spray ignition. Experimental and theoretical investigations of external-source ignition of sprays employing different configurations are discussed first. Three major topics included here are: (i) ignition of quiescent and flowing fuel sprays; (ii) ignition of monodisperse and polydisperse sprays; and (iii) ignition of single-component and multicomponent fuel sprays. Then, experimental studies of autoignition of sprays employing constant-volume enclosures, injection in a uniform air flow, and shock tube techniques, are discussed. Theoretical investigations dealing with spray autoignition phenomena range from phenomenological models to one-dimensional numerical models using global one-step as well as detailed multistep chemistry, and to multidimensional simulations with reduced mechanisms. These models are also discussed in the review. Finally, some advanced topics which are common to both external-source ignition and spontaneous ignition are identified and discussed. An attempt is made to provide a common link between the three dominant ignition modes in sprays, namely individual droplet ignition, droplet cluster ignition, and spray ignition. In a similar manner, common features of external-source ignition and spontaneous ignition of sprays are identified. A general spray ignition model along with important numerical and physical issues are presented. The effect of pressure on spray ignition processes is also discussed. Potential topics for further research are suggested.     

The internal structure of igniting turbulent sprays as revealed by complex chemistry DNS

A parametric study of spark ignition in a uniform monodisperse turbulent spray is performed with complex chemistry three-dimensional Direct Numerical Simulations in order to improve the understanding of the structure of the ignition kernel. The heat produced by the kernel increases with the amount of fuel evaporated inside the spark volume. Moreover, the heat sink by evaporation is initially higher than the heat release and can have a negative effect on ignition. With the sprays investigated, heat release occurs over a large range of mixture fractions, being high within the nominal flammability limits and finite but low below the lean flammability limit. The burning of very lean regions is attributed to the diffusion of heat and species from regions of high heat release, and from the spark, to lean regions. Two modes of spray ignition are reported. With a relatively dilute spray, nominally flammable material exists only near the droplets. Reaction zones are created locally near the droplets and have a non-premixed character. They spread from droplet to droplet through a very lean interdroplet spacing. With a dense spray, the hot spark region is rich due to substantial evaporation but the cold region remains lean. In between, a large surface of flammable material is generated by evaporation. Ignition occurs there and a large reaction zone propagates from the rich burned region to the cold lean region. This flame is wrinkled due to the stratified mixture fraction field and evaporative cooling. In the dilute spray, the reaction front curvature pdf contains high values associated with single droplet combustion, while in the dense spray, the curvature is lower and closer to the curvature associated with gaseous fuel ignition kernels.     

Characteristics of flamelets in spray flames formed in a laminar counterflow

A two-dimensional numerical simulation of a spray flame formed in a laminar counterflow is presented, and the flamelet characteristics are studied in detail. The effects of strain rate, equivalence ratio, and droplet size are examined in terms of mixture fraction and scalar dissipation rate. n-Decane (C₁₀H₂₂) is used as a liquid spray fuel, and the droplet motion is calculated by the Lagrangian method without the parcel model. A one-step global reaction is employed for the combustion reaction model. The results show that there appear large differences in the trends of gaseous temperature and mass fractions of chemical species in the mixture fraction space between the spray flame and the gaseous diffusion flame. The gas temperature in the spray flame is much higher than that in the gaseous diffusion flame. This is due to the much lower scalar dissipation rate and the coexistence of premixed and diffusion-limited combustion in the spray flame. For the spray flames, gas temperature and mass fractions of chemical species are not unique functions of the mixture fraction scalar dissipation rate. This is because the production rate of the mixture fraction, namely evaporation rate of the droplets, in the upstream region is not in proportion to its transport-diffusion rate in the downstream region. The behavior shows marked differences as the strain rate decreases, the equivalence ratio increases, or the droplet size decreases.     

DNS of spark ignition and edge flame propagation in turbulent droplet-laden mixing layers

A parametric study of forced ignition at the mixing layer between air and air carrying fine monosized fuel droplets is done through one-step chemistry direct numerical simulations to determine the influence of the size and volatility of the droplets, the spark location, the droplet-air mixing layer initial thickness and the turbulence intensity on the ignition success and the subsequent flame propagation. The propagation is analyzed in terms of edge flame displacement speed, which has not been studied before for turbulent edge spray flames. Spark ignition successfully resulted in a tribrachial flame if enough fuel vapour was available at the spark location, which occurred when the local droplet number density was high. Ignition was achieved even when the spark was offset from the spray, on the air side, due to the diffusion of heat from the spark, provided droplets evaporated rapidly. Large kernels were obtained by sparking close to the spray, since fuel was more readily available. At long times after the spark, for all flames studied, the probability density function of the displacement speed was wide, with a mean value in the range 0.55-0.75S_L, with S_L the laminar burning velocity of a stoichiometric gaseous premixed flame. This value is close to the mean displacement speed in turbulent edge flames with gaseous fuel. The displacement speed was negatively correlated with curvature. The detrimental effect of curvature was attenuated with a large initial kernel and by increasing the thickness of the mixing layer. The mixing layer was thicker when evaporation was slow and the turbulence intensity higher. However, high turbulence intensity also distorted the kernel which could lead to high values of curvature. The edge flame reaction component increased when the maximum temperature coincided with the stoichiometric contour. The results are consistent with the limited available experimental evidence and provide insights into the processes associated with ignition of practical spray flames.     

Flame structure in fuel rich mono-dispersed sprays

The flame structure and the mechanism of the flame propagation in fuel sprays is studied through a one-dimensional, laminar, monodispersed spray of n-octane fuel. A hybrid Eulerian-Lagrangian method is used in this analyses. The results show that for sprays with small initial droplet radii (e.g., γ_κ = 29.6 μm), the flame structure resembles that of a premixed gaseous combustion. However, as the droplet size is increased, the flame becomes more heterogeneous. When droplet interaction is added to the model the heterogeneity of the flame is enhanced and large fluctuations both in the flame temperature and fuel vapor concentrations are observed.     

Interactive combustion of two-dimensionally arranged quasi-droplet clusters under microgravity

To investigate the mutual interactions between droplets in the spray combustion, combustion of 2-dimensionally arranged quasi-droplet clusters is studied under microgravity. Quasi-droplet samples, which are solid in room temperature and change into liquid just after the ignition, consist of alcohol (propanol, butanol, pentanol, or hexanol) and polyethylene glycol with a volumetric ratio of 2:1. Seven samples sustained by glass rods form a 2-dimensional quasi-droplet cluster. Electrically heated nichrome wires ignite all samples in the cluster simultaneously. Single envelope flames that surround the clusters appeared. The results show that the sample spacing has a strong effect on the shape and movement of the flame. Sample clusters with large sample spacings come to the external group combustion through the scavenging combustion mode, whereas the small spacing clusters start directly with the external group combustion. At large sample spacings, the distance from the edge of the sample cluster to the flame (flame distance) increases to a maximum value and then decreases with time. The period of flame growth is prolonged with decreasing sample spacing and finally, at a small enough sample spacing, the flame distance keeps increasing until the flame disappears. This flame movement is attributed to the fuel vapor accumulation effect, which becomes more dominant with decreasing sample spacing. The burning lifetime decreases monotonically and approaches the value of the single flame with increasing sample spacing. The flame distance decreases monotonically and approaches the single flame radius with increasing sample spacing also. These results render important confirmations of the external group combustion phenomena and prove the importance of the two kinds of unsteadiness, that is, the scavenging combustion with large droplet interval and the fuel vapor accumulation effect with small droplet interval, in group combustion.     

Hot-wire ignition of ethanol–oxygen hydrothermal flames

The forced ignition experiments conducted in a novel high pressure hydrothermal spallation drilling pilot plant with a Ni/Cr-60/15 coiled wire are presented here. A water–ethanol mixture is used as fuel and gaseous oxygen as oxidation agent. The ignition characteristics of the combustible mixture are analyzed at 260 bar and for temperatures crossing its pseudo-critical point. The influence of the bulk temperature, the fuel composition and the flow conditions on the forced ignition is shown.     

Current status of droplet and liquid combustion

The present understanding of spray combustion in rocket engine, gas turbine, Diesel engine and industrial furnace applications is reviewed. In some cases, spray combustion can be modeled by ignoring the details of spray evaporation and treating the system as a gaseous diffusion flame; however, in many circumstances, this simplification is not adequate and turbulent two-phase flow must be considered. The behavior of individual droplets is a necessary component of two-phase models and recent work on transient droplet evaporation, ignition and combustion is considered, along with a discussion of important simplifying assumptions involved with modeling these processes. Methods of modeling spray evaporation and combustion processes are also discussed including: one-dimensional models for rocket engine and prevaporized combustion systems, lumped zone models (utilizing well-stirred reactor and plug flow regions) for gas turbine and furnace systems, locally homogeneous turbulent models, and two-phase models. The review highlights the need for improved injector characterization methods, more information of droplet transport characteristics in turbulent flow and continued development of more complete two-phase turbulent models.     

On the suppression of negative temperature coefficient (NTC) in autoignition of n-heptane droplets

Autoignition of n-heptane droplets under microgravity is investigated numerically. The comprehensive model, considering the transience in both the gas and liquid phases and non-ideal thermophysical properties, includes the 116-step reaction mechanism of Griffiths. Two-stage ignition manifests for ambient temperature less than 900 K at elevated pressures of 0.5 and 1.0 MPa. The predicted first delays and total delays agree well with the experimental data in the literature. The second delay decreases greatly with increasing pressure because a stronger Stefan flow supplies more fuel vapor for reaction as the cool flame shifts closer to the droplet to enhance evaporation. The Stefan flow effect, in combination with the inhomogeneous temperature and fuel vapor distributions, explains why the NTC (negative temperature coefficient) present in homogeneous mixtures is not observed in droplet ignition experiments. Near the minimum ignition diameter, the ignition delay increases for smaller droplets at T_∞ = 700 K, P_∞ = 1.0 MPa. For a droplet smaller than the minimum ignition diameter, only first ignition with cool flame is reached. The absence of ZTC (zero temperature coefficient) in our simulations may be attributed to the weaker inverse temperature dependence of the reaction mechanism adopted.     

Spray flames in a one-dimensional duct of varying cross-sectional area

The influences of flame stretch, preferential diffusion and internal heat transfer on the extinction of dilute spray flames propagating in a duct with varying cross-sectional area are analyzed using activation energy asymptotics. A completely prevaporized mode and a partially prevaporized mode of flame are identified. The results show that the internal heat transfer, which is associated with the liquid fuel loading and the initial droplet size of the spray, provides internal heat loss for rich sprays but heat gain for lean sprays. The burning intensities of a lean (rich) spray is enhanced (further reduced) with increasing liquid fuel loading and decreasing initial droplet size. The positive stretch weakens a lean methanol-spray flame and rich ethanol-spray flame (Le > 1) but intensifies a rich methanol-spray flame (Le < 1). The flame stretch is found to dominate strongly the tendency towards flame extinction characterized by a C-shaped curve. However, for a rich methanol spray flame (Le < 1), an S-shaped extinction curve can be obtained if it experiences positive stretch and endures a partially prevaporized spray of a large enough fuel loading and a sufficiently large droplet size. The S-shaped curve, which differs greatly from the C-shaped one, shows that the flame extinction is governed by the internal heat loss.     

不同喷油压力RP-3航空煤油、柴油碰壁喷雾着火和燃烧特性的对比研究

利用直径0.22mm的单孔喷嘴高压共轨喷油器,以喷油器油量标定数据及控制参数为基础,采用高速相机成像技术在定容燃烧室内在等喷油量变喷油压力的前提下测量了着火点、着火滞燃期、燃烧持续期、火焰面积(AF)和火焰自然发光强度(SINL)的变化规律,对比研究了RP-3航空煤油、柴油碰壁喷雾的着火和燃烧特性。结果表明:在低喷油压力下着火点分布在离壁面较远的区域,在较高喷油压力下着火点位于壁面上,距喷油器中心线的距离随喷油压力的增加而增加,且RP-3航空煤油着火点距喷油器的距离比柴油更远。随着喷油压力的增加,RP-3航空煤油碰壁喷雾火焰的着火滞燃期先降低后增加,柴油碰壁喷雾火焰的着火滞燃期不断降低,且RP-3航空煤油具有更短的着火滞燃期。燃烧持续期随喷油压力的增加而降低,RP-3航空煤油的燃烧持续期比柴油短。喷油压力越高,火焰面积(AF)和自然发光强度(SINL)的变化速率越高,而AF和SINL的最大值及达到最大值所需的时间越小。与柴油相比,RP-3航空煤油的AF、SINL具有更高的变化速率,且AF、SINL的峰值更高,达到峰值的时间更短。     

Ignition of turbulent swirling n-heptane spray flames using single and multiple sparks

This paper examines ignition processes of an n-heptane spray in a flow typical of a liquid-fuelled burner. The spray is created by a hollow-cone pressure atomiser placed in the centre of a bluff body, around which swirling air induces a strong recirculation zone. Ignition was achieved by single small sparks of short duration (2 mm; 0.5 ms), located at various places inside the flow so as to identify the most ignitable regions, or larger sparks of longer duration (5 mm; 8 ms) repeated at 100 Hz, located close to the combustion chamber enclosure so as to mimic the placement and characteristics of a gas turbine combustor surface igniter. The air and droplet velocities, the droplet diameter, and the total (i.e. liquid plus vapour) equivalence ratio were measured in inert flow by phase Doppler anemometry and sampling respectively. Fast camera imaging suggested that successful ignition events were associated with flamelets that propagated back towards the spray nozzle. Measurements of ignition probability with the single spark showed that localised ignition inside the spray is more likely to result in successful flame establishment when the spark is located in a region of negative velocity, relatively small droplet Sauter mean diameter, and mean equivalence ratio within the flammability limits. Ignition with the single spark was not possible at the location where the multiple spark experiments were performed. For those, the multiple spark sequence lasted approximately 1 to 5 s. It was found that a long spark sequence increases the ignition efficiency, which reached a maximum of 100% at the axial distance where the recirculation zone had maximum width. Ignition was not feasible with the spark downstream of about two burner diameters. Visualisation showed that small flame kernels emanate very often from the spark, which can be stretched as far as 20 mm from the electrodes by the turbulent velocity fluctuations. These kernels survive very little time. Successful overall ignition occurs at a random time from the spark initiation and, as in the case of the single spark, success is associated with kernels that move without getting extinguished towards the bluff body. The results demonstrate that the energy deposited by multiple sparks and spark stretching in a turbulent flow can have a spatially far-reaching effect to initiate combustion.     

Effect of flow field for colorless distributed combustion (CDC) for gas turbine combustion

Colorless distributed combustion (CDC) investigated here is focused on gas turbine combustion applications due to its significant benefits for, much reduced NOx emissions and noise reduction, and significantly improved pattern factor. CDC is characterized by distributed reaction zone of combustion which leads to uniform thermal field and avoidance of hot spot regions to provide significant improvement in pattern factor, lower sound levels and reduced NOx emission. Mixing between the combustion air and product gases to form hot and diluted oxidant prior to its mixing with the fuel is critical so that one must determine the most suitable mixing conditions to minimize the ignition delay. Spontaneous ignition of the fuel occurs to provide distributed reaction combustion conditions. The above requirements can be met with different configuration of fuel and air injections with carefully characterized flow field distribution within the combustion zone. This study examines four different sample configurations to achieve colorless distributed combustion conditions that reveal no visible color of the flame. They include a baseline diffusion flame configuration and three other configurations that provide conditions close to distributed combustion conditions. For all four modes same fuel and air injection diameters are used to examine the effect of flow field configuration on combustion characteristics. The results are compared from the four different configurations on flow field and fuel/air mixing using numerical simulations and with experiments using global flame signatures, exhaust emissions, acoustic signatures, and thermal field. Both numerical simulations and experiments are performed at a constant heat load of 25 kW, using methane as the fuel at atmospheric pressure using normal temperature air and fuel. Lower NOx and CO emissions, better thermal field uniformity, and lower acoustic levels have been observed when the flame approached CDC mode as compared to the baseline case of a diffusion flame. The reaction zone is observed to be uniformly distributed over the entire combustor volume when the visible flame signatures approached CDC mode.     

Percolation theory for flame propagation in non- or less-volatile fuel spray: A conceptual analysis to group combustion excitation mechanism

A percolation theory for flame propagation in non- or less-volatile fuel spray is developed based on a cubic lattice model representing a local spray state. The interdroplet flame propagation characteristics found from microgravity experiments on flame spread along a linear droplet array are applicable to describing interdroplet flame propagation between neighboring droplets in any distribution of droplets because the effect of heat conduction from the flame front is shielded by the nearest unburned droplet, which acts as a heat sink. Thus, once the method by which the unburned droplet nearest to the flame front is ignited is identified and formulated into a simple algorithm rule, we can examine by computer simulation the statistical flame propagation behavior in a non- or less-volatile fuel spray in the framework of the percolation theory. In non- or less-volatile fuel, an unburned droplet swallowed by an envelope diffusion flame of other droplets is heated and becomes a new supplier of fuel vapor to the flame front, allowing the flame front to advance. For randomly distributed droplets, the flame front selects the path that minimizes its propagation time. These two phenomena occur when the grid spacing of the cubic lattice model is equal to the maximum flame radius of an isolated droplet immersed in the same air conditions as the local spray state. Furthermore, physical considerations reveal that the lattice size that leads to statistically meaningful information can be rather small, i.e., 20×20×20 vertices. Therefore, the proposed percolation theory is tractable and useful in finding the probability that a flame front propagates across a spray element and for exploring the mechanism of the excitation of group combustion for non- or less-volatile fuel sprays.     

氢发动机性能的改进

本文论述了氢发动机的最新研究成果，着重描述了氢的储存和混合气形成及点火等技术问题，并提出了相应的措施。试验表明，采用氢的高压喷射、火花点火，并调整最佳点火正时，就能获得良好的经济和动力性能     

Study on electrical ignition and micro-explosion properties of HAN-based monopropellant droplet

In order to study the electrical ignition characteristics of hydroxylammonium nitrate (HAN)-based liquid propellant, an experimental device for the electrical heating ignition of a liquid propellant droplet was designed. By using a high speed camera system, the ignition properties of the LP1846 single droplet were observed at different electrical heating speeds. The results show that when the LP1846 droplet is electrified, it mainly goes through an evaporization process, a periodic expansion and contraction process, a stronger thermal decomposition process, and an ignition and combustion process. The periodic expansion and contraction process accompanies the droplet micro-explosion phenomenon, and the micro-explosion mechanism is formed mainly due to the overheated water component in LP1846. When peak load voltage is from 80 to 140V/s, the ignition delay of the LP1846 droplet is linearly shortened from 0.82 to 0.62s, but the flame is lighter. Based on the above experiments, a simplified model of the electrical heating ignition of the LP1846 single droplet is established.     

An approach of droplet ignition delay time

When a droplet is suddenly injected into a high‐temperature environment, the droplet self‐ignition phenomenon occurs. A simple model, based on the temperature history of target gas mixture of which the equivalent ratio is equal to 1, was proposed to predict the droplet ignition delay time in this paper. This approach clearly divides the droplet self‐ignition delay into two parts, the physical delay and the chemical delay. The predicted droplet ignition times agree well with the experimental data and numerical simulation results. In addition, the influence of droplet diameter on the droplet ignition delay was discussed in detail using this approach. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.20240     

Fuel design and management for the control of advanced compression-ignition combustion modes

Due to concerns regarding the greenhouse effect and limitations on carbon dioxide emissions, the possibility of a next-generation combustion mode for internal combustion engines that can simultaneously reduce exhaust emissions and substantially improve thermal efficiency has drawn increasing attention. The most prominent characteristic of new combustion modes, such as Homogenous-Charge Compression-Ignition (HCCI), Stratified-Charge Compression-Ignition (SCCI), and Low-Temperature Combustion (LTC), is the requirement of creating a homogenous mixture or controllable stratified mixture prior to ignition. To this end, a lean fuel/air mixture and/or a controllable high level of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) are employed to prolong the timescale of the ignition chemistry and port fuel injection or early in-cylinder injection is used to lengthen the mixing period. The mixture then undergoes controlled self-ignition near the top dead center (TDC) position due to the compression effect of the piston’s upward movement. It is worth noting that the entire combustion process lacks a direct method for the control of ignition timing and combustion rate, which are instead controlled primarily by chemical kinetics and, to a lesser extent, by turbulence and mixing. Because of the significant impacts of fuel physical–chemical properties on the ignition and combustion process, fuel design and management has become the most common approach for the control of ignition timing and combustion rate in such advanced combustion modes.This paper summarizes the concepts and methods of fuel design and management and provides an overview of the effects of these strategies on ignition, combustion, and emissions for HCCI, LTC, and SCCI engines, respectively. From part 2 to part 4, the paper focuses on the effect of fuel design on HCCI combustion. A fuel index suitable for describing ignition characteristic under HCCI operating conditions is first introduced. Next, the proposed fuel design concept is described, including principles and main methodologies. Strategies based on the fuel design concept (including fuel additives, fuel blending, and dual-fuel technology) are discussed for primary reference fuels (PRF), alternative fuels, and practical gasoline and diesel fuels. Additionally, the effects of real-time fuel design on HCCI combustion fueled with PRFs and dimethyl ether/liquefied petroleum gas (DME–LPG) are evaluated. Diesel HCCI combustion has suffered from difficulties in homogenous mixture formation and an excessively high combustion rate. Therefore, LTC, which concentrates on local combustion temperature and a balance of mixture formation timescale and ignition timescale, has been proposed by many researchers. In Part 5, this paper provides an overview of the major points and research progress of LTC, with a preliminary discussion of the fundamental importance of fuel properties and fuel design strategy on the LTC process and emissions. Due to the stratification strategy has the capable of extending the HCCI operation range to higher loads, SCCI combustion, which incorporates HCCI combustion into a traditional combustion mode, has the potential to be used in commercial engines. Thus, this paper discusses the principles and control strategies of fuel design and management and also summarizes recent progress and future trends. The effect of fuel design and management on SCCI combustion is assessed for high cetane number fuels and high octane number fuels as well as the in SCCI combustion of gasoline–diesel dual-fuel and blends.     

缸内直接喷射式汽油机点火稳定性的数值分析

缸内直接喷射式汽油机的一个显著特点是依靠火花塞点燃喷入缸内的汽油油束。由于缸内混合气浓度极不均匀，所以其点火及火焰传播过程与普通均质燃烧式发动机有很大的不同。火焰核心的稳定形成及初始火焰发展对缸内的整个燃烧过程有极其重要的影响。本文利用二维两相混合模型模拟喷雾过程，利用一个详细的准维模型模拟火花塞的点火过程，并采用特殊处理方法使两个子模型相匹配，计算了缸内直接喷射式汽油机从喷雾到形成稳定火核的全过程，分析了多种因素对点火稳定性的影响，尤其是对涡流比、点火时刻和喷油定时之间的适当配合进行了模拟分析。计算结果对优化实验有明显的指导作用。     

Synthesized evaluation of various injection regimens on hydrogen propelled homogeneous charge compression ignition and dual fuel modes for an automotive application

The present work aimed to perform a comparative study between the hydrogen diesel homogeneous charge compression ignition (HDHCCI) and hydrogen diesel dual fuel (HDDF) modes with multiple injection regimens. The results showed that the maximum feasible hydrogen energy shares (HES) were 73.99% and 27.46% for the HDDF and HDHCCI modes in a single pulse injection. The level of efficiency increased while increasing HES in the HDHCCI mode for any injection regimen. Conversely, the level of efficiency decreased on increasing HES for the HDDF mode, however it yields higher efficiency than the HDHCCI mode at a steady HES operation. The extremely low NO emission was attained using single pulse and twin pulse HDHCCI modes as compared with HDDF mode, and vice versa for smoke and HC emissions, since the existence of cool flame due to too early injection timings drastically altered the combustion characteristics of HDHCCI mode.