Single droplet ignition: Theoretical analyses and experimental findings

Spray ignition represents a critical process in numerous propulsion and energy conversion devices. Compared to a gaseous mixture, ignition in a spray is significantly more complex, as the state of ignition in the latter case can be defined by three distinct ignition modes namely, droplet ignition, droplet cluster ignition, and spray ignition. Ignition for an individual droplet represents the appearance of a flame surrounding the droplet or in the wake region, with a dimension on the order of droplet diameter. The cluster or group ignition refers to the ignition around or inside a droplet cloud, while the spray ignition implies the appearance of a global flame with a characteristic dimension few orders of magnitude larger than a droplet. In all three modes, ignition is preceded by the evaporation of fuel droplets, formation of a combustible gaseous fuel–air mixture, and initiation of chemical reactions producing sufficient radical species. The identification of the dominant ignition mode for given two-phase properties represents a problem of significant fundamental and practical importance. Research dealing with laminar and turbulent spray ignition has been reviewed by Aggarwal [1] and Mastorakos [2], respectively, while Annamalai and Ryan [3] have provided a review of droplet group combustion/ignition. In the present review, we discuss experimental, theoretical, and computational research dealing with individual droplet ignition. Topics include the quasi-steady and unsteady models for the ignition of a fuel droplet in a stagnant environment, the droplet ignition in a high-pressure environment, the convective effects on droplet ignition, and multicomponent fuel droplet ignition. Studies dealing with the two-stage and NTC ignition behavior for a droplet are also discussed. Finally, relationship between the droplet ignition mode to droplet cluster and spray ignition modes is briefly described. Potential topics for further research are outlined.     

Modeling of n-Hexane and n-Octane liquid fuel jets in gaseous crossflow for evaporation,combustion and breakup evaluation

This paper investigates the phenomena of liquid fuel jets in gaseous crossflow for two types of fuels, namely n-Hexane and n-Octane. In this regard, a numerical model is developed to predict a droplet behavior including trajectory, velocity, evaporation and combustion, size degradation, breakup time and radius of produced child droplets. Therefore, the mass, concentration, energy and momentum conversation equations are derived to evaluate the droplet acceleration from initial conditions. The velocity distribution is then obtained through a numerical integration of the acceleration over time. A further integration is made to determine the droplet position. In addition, evaporation and combustion and Taylor Analogy Breakup (TAB) models are integrated to assess droplet evaporation, combustion rate, and breakup behavior during the injection process. The professional version of the Engineering Equation Solver (EES) software is used to solve the model which has the advantage of providing the thermodynamic properties of the different fluids involved through predefined functions. The behaviors of droplets are investigated for two injection cases: evaporation only and evaporation and combustion. The results obtained are presented in the variations in trajectories, velocities, droplet size and surface temperature corresponding to each case and type of fuel.     

HCCI experiments with gasoline surrogate fuels modeled by a semidetailed chemical kinetic model

Experiments in a homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine have been conducted with four gasoline surrogate fuel blends. The pure components in the surrogate fuels consisted of n-heptane, isooctane, toluene, ethanol and diisobutylene and fuel sensitivities (RON-MON) in the fuel blends ranged from two to nine. The operating conditions for the engine were pin=0.1 and 0.2 MPa, Tin=80 and 250 °C, ?=0.25 in air and engine speed 1200 rpm. A semidetailed chemical kinetic model (142 species and 672 reactions) for gasoline surrogate fuels, validated against ignition data from experiments conducted in shock tubes for gasoline surrogate fuel blends at 1.0?p?5.0 MPa, 700?T?1200 K and ?=1.0, was successfully used to qualitatively predict the HCCI experiments using a single zone modeling approach. The fuel blends that had higher fuel sensitivity were more resistant to autoignition for low intake temperature and high intake pressure and less resistant to autoignition for high intake temperature and low intake pressure. A sensitivity analysis shows that at high intake temperature the chemistry of the fuels ethanol, toluene and diisobutylene helps to advance ignition. This is consistent with the trend that fuels with the least Negative Temperature Coefficient (NTC) behavior show the highest octane sensitivity, and become less resistant to autoignition at high intake temperatures. For high intake pressure the sensitivity analysis shows that fuels in the fuel blend with no NTC behavior consume OH radicals and acts as a radical scavenger for the fuels with NTC behavior. This is consistent with the observed trend of an increase in RON and fuel sensitivity. With data from shock tube experiments in the literature and HCCI modeling in this work, a correlation between the reciprocal pressure exponent on the ignition delay to the fuel sensitivity and volume percentage of single-stage ignition fuel in the fuel blend was found. Higher fuel sensitivity and single-stage fuel content generally gives a lower value of the pressure exponent. This helps to explain the results obtained while boosting the intake pressure in the HCCI engine.     

The autoignition in air of some binary fuel mixtures containing hydrogen

A predictive model for the autoignition and combustion of fuel–air mixtures employing detailed full chemical schemes was used to examine the autoignition and combustion characteristics in air of hydrogen in the presence of a range of common fuels. These included the gaseous fuels: methane, carbon monoxide and the higher hydrocarbon fuel n-heptane. A wide range of relative concentrations of the fuel components in the binary mixtures with hydrogen for different values of initial mixture temperature and pressure were considered under constant volume adiabatic conditions. It is shown that the presence of hydrogen in turn with these fuels can bring about complex changes to the autoignition behaviour of the fuel mixtures that show hydrogen may behave as an accelerant or retardant depending on the fuel, initial temperature, pressure and equivalence ratio considered.     

双燃料内燃机引燃油混合气形成与燃烧过程模型研究

对于双燃料发动机，引燃油蒸发、混合与燃烧是在天然气与空气混合物为介质的情况下，通过采用离散液滴模型，模拟了引燃油的蒸发与混合过程；采用经过修正的Shell模型，对引燃油的着火过程进行了数值模拟；以阿伦纽斯公式为基础，综合湍流对化学动力学的影响，提出了一个新的燃烧模型．经过模拟计算与实验对比，验证了该数值模型的模拟效果．     

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.     

Investigation of heat and mass transfer between the two phases of an evaporating droplet stream using laser-induced fluorescence techniques: Comparison with modeling

Heat and mass exchanges between the two phases of a spray is a key point for the understanding of physical phenomena occurring during spray evaporation in a combustion chamber. Development and validation of physical models and computational tools dealing with spray evaporation requires experimental databases on both liquid and gas phases. This paper reports an experimental study of evaporating acetone droplets streaming linearly at moderate ambient temperatures up to 75 °C. Two-color laser-induced fluorescence is used to characterize the temporal evolution of droplet mean temperature. Simultaneously, fuel vapor distribution in the gas phase surrounding the droplet stream is investigated using acetone planar laser-induced fluorescence.Temperature measurements are compared to simplified heat and mass transfer model taking into account variable physical properties, droplet-to-droplet interactions and internal fluid circulation within the droplets. The droplet surface temperature, calculated with the model, is used to initiate the numerical simulation of fuel vapor diffusion and transport in the gas phase, assuming thermodynamic equilibrium at the droplet surface. Influence of droplet diameter and droplet spacing on the fuel vapor concentration field is investigated and numerical results are compared with experiments.     

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.     

Comparison of iso-octane burning rates between single-phase and two-phase combustion for small droplets

Two-phase combustion is a widespread mechanism of energy conversion that is of practical importance in gas turbines, diesel and spark ignition engines, furnaces, and hazardous environments. However, the exploration of important parameters in combustion systems of practical application is difficult, due to the multiplicity of dependent variables. In the present work, combustion rates of well-defined droplet suspensions of iso-octane have been measured using techniques employed for gaseous combustion. This required a full characterization of the aerosols produced in the combustion apparatus, which determined that the maximum droplet size produced was around 30 μm. Comparisons of two-phase with single-phase laminar mixtures suggest that there were negligible differences in the burning velocity of an aerosol and a gaseous mixture at the same overall equivalence ratio and similar conditions for iso-octane. At high stretch rates, flames remained smooth and droplet enhancement was negligible. However, at lower rates of stretch, both gaseous and aerosol flames became unstable and cellular, and this cellularity, in some cases, increased the burning rate. The values of Markstein length measured for aerosol flames had trends similar to those for gaseous-phase mixtures (Markstein length decreased with equivalence ratio), but were lower than in gaseous combustion. The values of Markstein length in aerosol flames also decreased with liquid equivalence ratio and/or Sauter mean diameter. All this indicates a higher tendency to instabilities in aerosol flames compared to gaseous combustion. A qualitative explanation for the lower values of Markstein length in aerosol combustion is given. It is suggested in the present work that aerosol flames became unstable, and hence had faster burning rates, under conditions that would not result in unstable gaseous flames. Comparisons, qualitative and in terms of dimensionless groups, of two-phase with single-phase turbulent combustion also suggest no enhancement.     

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.     

半封闭狭窄通道内甲烷/空气预混火焰传播不稳定性实验研究

针对贫油预混预蒸发燃烧室主燃级中横喷液雾现象进行研究,综合考虑RP-3航空煤油横喷液雾的雾化、蒸发和自燃过程构建自燃预测模型,基于CH基团随时间的变化规律对自燃延迟时间进行预测。结合试验测试结果对模型进行校验,并进一步分析温度、压力、流速、射流动量比等变量对自燃延迟时间的影响规律。结果表明：对于直射式喷嘴形成的横喷液雾,其下游的油气分布主要受射流动量比和流动速度的影响,射流动量比决定了液雾的总体油气比,流动速度则主要影响液滴的粒径及其蒸发时间;随着压力、射流动量比及气流速度的增加,自燃延迟时间均会缩短,相比于预混燃料液雾的自燃延迟时间受负温度效应的影响较弱。     

燃气轮机燃烧室液雾自燃延迟时间预测方法

为减少一体化加力燃烧室内支板火焰稳定器高度与进口试验参数较高所导致的昂贵基础试验成本,采用经试验数据验证的数值计算方法,对不同高度的一体化模型加力燃烧室燃烧性能进行数值模拟,分析模型加力燃烧室高度变化和侧壁边界层效应对一体化加力燃烧室回流区、总压恢复系数以及燃烧效率的影响。在保持空间油雾场分布均匀与阻塞比一致的前提下,简化扇形加力燃烧室模型为矩形加力燃烧室模型,其中模型加力燃烧室高度H分别为200,150和100 mm,总长L=1 480 mm,宽B=125 mm。结果表明：模型加力燃烧室高度的降低对燃烧性能影响较小,其中回流率最大降幅为0.16%,总压恢复系数最大降幅为0.15%,燃烧效率的最大降幅为1.9%;模型加力燃烧室侧壁面边界的引入对燃烧性能影响较小,回流率、总压恢复系数最大降幅均小于1%,燃烧效率的最大降幅仅为0.7%;可以采用单支板火焰稳定装置降低高度的方法简化试验件设计。     

Semi-empirical correlations for gas turbine emissions, ignition, and flame stabilization

For operating conditions where the fuel evaporation rate is fast compared to the fuel vapor/air mixing rate, a characteristic time model has been formulated to predict gaseous emissions and efficiency in terms of combustor inlet conditions and geometry. The model, which involves kinetic and fluid mechanic times, has been used to design low NO_x burners, and study of several different conventional engine combustors suggests that the correlation may be universal. A related model, which includes a fuel droplet evaporation time, is being validated with data from laboratory combustors for spark ignition and lean flame stabilization. The preliminary application of this latter model to engine situations is described.     

生物燃料液滴蒸发和燃烧试验研究进展

液体燃料液滴的蒸发和燃烧过程是发动机实现高效清洁燃烧的重要环节。本文通过对比飞滴法、悬浮法、依附法和悬挂法4种常用液滴蒸发和燃烧试验研究方法,阐述和分析了每种方法的优缺点。从液滴蒸发和燃烧特性两个方面展开综述,详细介绍了发动机替代燃料液滴的蒸发和燃烧研究进展及存在的主要问题。最后对液滴蒸发和燃烧试验研究的未来发展方向进行了展望,期望为发动机清洁高效燃烧的研究提供借鉴和参考     

Advances in rapid compression machine studies of low- and intermediate-temperature autoignition phenomena

Rapid compression machines (RCMs) are widely used to acquire experimental insights into fuel autoignition and pollutant formation chemistry, especially at conditions relevant to current and future combustion technologies. RCM studies emphasize important experimental regimes, characterized by low- to intermediate-temperatures (600–1200 K) and moderate to high pressures (5–80 bar). At these conditions, which are directly relevant to modern combustion schemes including low temperature combustion (LTC) for internal combustion engines and dry low emissions (DLE) for gas turbine engines, combustion chemistry exhibits complex and experimentally challenging behaviors such as the chemistry attributed to cool flame behavior and the negative temperature coefficient regime. Challenges for studying this regime include that experimental observations can be more sensitive to coupled physical-chemical processes leading to phenomena such as mixed deflagrative/autoignitive combustion. Experimental strategies which leverage the strengths of RCMs have been developed in recent years to make RCMs particularly well suited for elucidating LTC and DLE chemistry, as well as convolved physical-chemical processes.Specifically, this work presents a review of experimental and computational efforts applying RCMs to study autoignition phenomena, and the insights gained through these efforts. A brief history of RCM development is presented towards the steady improvement in design, characterization, instrumentation and data analysis. Novel experimental approaches and measurement techniques, coordinated with computational methods are described which have expanded the utility of RCMs beyond empirical studies of explosion limits to increasingly detailed understanding of autoignition chemistry and the role of physical-chemical interactions. Fundamental insight into the autoignition chemistry of specific fuels is described, demonstrating the extent of knowledge of low-temperature chemistry derived from RCM studies, from simple hydrocarbons to multi-component blends and full-boiling range fuels. Emerging needs and further opportunities are suggested, including investigations of under-explored fuels and the implementation of increasingly higher fidelity diagnostics.     

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.     

Coupled transport and kinetics in the mixing region for hydrocarbon autothermal reforming applications

To ensure the proper performance of a hydrocarbon reformer, the fuel and reforming agents should be mixed properly within a short time to suppress gas-phase ethylene production, a well-known deposit precursor that could lead downstream catalyst failure. To examine potential interactions between reactant mixing and gas-phase reaction kinetics in the mixing region, coupled computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-kinetics simulations are performed for autothermal reforming. n-heptane is selected as a representative hydrocarbon fuel. The simulations show clear Negative Temperature Coefficient (NTC) behavior within the temperature range of 450–625 °C. At temperatures below the NTC region, the gas-phase reactions are rapid and highly exothermic, making the impact of mixing substantial. Ethylene is produced via a partial oxidation mechanism and is enhanced when the local O/C ratio exceeds the global value. Above the NTC region, ethylene is primarily produced from slower pyrolysis reactions, and then efficient mixing slightly suppresses the ethylene yield. The results suggest the counterintuitive conclusion that mixing at higher temperatures actually suppresses the undesirable reactions.     

Low-speed pre-ignition and super-knock in boosted spark-ignition engines: A review

The introduction of downsized, turbocharged Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) engines in the automotive market has led to a rapid increase in research on Low-speed Pre-ignition (LSPI) and super-knock as abnormal combustion phenomena within the last decade. The former is characterized as an early ignition of the fuel–air mixture, primarily initiated by an oil–fuel droplet or detached deposit. Meanwhile, super-knock is an occasional development from pre-ignition to high intensity knocking through detonation, which is either initiated by a shock wave interacting with a propagating reaction and cylinder surfaces or inside a hotspot with a suitable heat release and reactivity gradient. The phenomenon can be divided into four stages, including LSPI precursor initiation, establishment and propagation of a pre-ignited flame, autoignition of end-gases and development to a detonation. LSPI and super-knock are rare phenomena, difficult to observe optically in engines, and differences in methodologies and setups between steady-state experiments can lead to discrepancies in results. Experimental research has included more detailed approaches using glow plug-equipped engines, constant volume combustion chambers and rapid compression machines. In addition, the improved availability of mechanisms for fuel and lubricant surrogates has allowed researchers to model the oil–fuel interaction at the cylinder walls, evaporation and autoignition of oil–fuel droplets and regimes for different propagation modes of an autoignition reaction wave. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the underlying phenomena behind LSPI and its development to super-knock. Furthermore, it presents the methodology in experimental research and draws conclusions for mitigating strategies based on studies involving fuel, oil and engine parameters. Finally, it discusses the prerequisites for LSPI from oil–fuel droplets and the future needs of research as original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and lubricant industry have already adopted some proven solutions to their products.     

A non-premixed combustion model based on flame structure analysis at supercritical pressures

This work presents a study of non-premixed flames at supercritical-pressure conditions. Emphasis is placed on flame stability in liquid rocket engines fueled with liquid oxygen and gaseous hydrogen. The flame structure sensitivity to strain, pressure, temperature and real-fluid effects was investigated in detailed opposed-jet flames calculations. It is shown that the flame is very robust to strain, that the flamelet assumption is valid for the conditions of interest, and that real-fluid phenomena can have a significant impact on flame topology. At high-pressure supercritical conditions, small pressure or temperature variations can induce strong changes of thermodynamic properties across the flame. A substantial finding was also that the presence of water from combustion significantly increases the critical pressure of the mixture, but this does not lead to a saturated state where two-phase flow may be observed. The present study then shows that a single-phase real-fluid approach is relevant for supercritical hydrogen–oxygen combustion. Resultant observations are used to develop a flamelet model framework that combines detailed real-fluid thermodynamics with a tabulated chemistry approach. The governing equation for energy contains a compressible source term that models the flame. Through this approach, the solver is capable of capturing compressibility and strain-rate effects. Good agreements have been obtained with respect to detailed computations. Heat release sensitivity to strain and pressure variations is also recovered. Consequently, this approach can be used to study combustion stability in actual burners. The approach preserves the density gradient in the high-shear region between the liquid-oxygen jet and product rich flame region. The latter is a key requirement to properly simulate dense-fluid jet destabilization and mixing in practical devices.     

NTC-affected ignition in nonpremixed counterflow

Using n-heptane as the model fuel, the role of the Negative Temperature Coefficient (NTC) chemistry on ignition is computationally studied for both homogeneous mixtures and nonpremixed counterflow. For homogeneous mixtures, results show that ignition occurs in two-stages within the NTC temperature regime, with the duration and temperature increment decreasing with increasing initial temperature for the first ignition stage, leading to increased duration of the second ignition stage and thereby the observed NTC-behavior. For the nonpremixed counterflow, results show that a secondary S-curve is developed on the lower branch of the conventional, primary S-curve for sufficiently low strain rates and/or sufficiently high pressures, with its own distinct ignition–extinction turning points. Sensitivity analysis and Chemical Explosive Mode Analysis (CEMA) show that this secondary S-curve is controlled by the low-temperature NTC-chemistry, with heat release negligible for states on its lower branch and discernable for states on its upper branch and hence assuming the characteristics of a weakly-burning flame. The possible existence of one- and two-staged ignition in the counterflow is observed, and its dependence on the flow strain rate and system pressure are identified.