Numerical study on premixed hydrogen/air combustion characteristics in micro–combustor with slits on both sides of the bluff body

An approach to improve premixed hydrogen/air combustion in micro combustor is numerically studied in this paper. The micro–combustor with slits on both sides of the bluff body shows better combustion efficiency and uniformity of temperature distribution. The effects of the controllable flow ratio (γ) and the angle of bluff body (θ) on combustion characteristics are investigated by using a two–dimensional model with the H₂/O₂ reaction mechanism. The results show that the increase of controllable flow ratio and angle of bluff body can improve combustion efficiency and decrease velocity extinction limit. However, at higher θ, increasing γ do not play an important role in improving combustion efficiency. In addition, at higher inlet velocity, combustion efficiency do not increase dramatically with the increase of θ. Moreover, at high inlet velocity, a special phenomenon of temperature ‘waist’ is observed in the micro–combustor with slits on both sides of the bluff body, which has a huge impact on combustion characteristics. Therefore, controllable flow ratio and angle of bluff body should be reasonably chosen to improve combustion characteristics.     

Numerical study on combustion characteristics of hydrogen addition into methane–air mixture

Understanding of the chemical kinetics and heat transfer mechanism within micro-combustors is essential for the development of stable-combustion technology. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) based numerical simulation has been proven to be an effective approach to analyze the performance of combustion under various conditions. The objective of this paper is to study hydrogen-assisted catalytic combustion of methane. It is proved that methane conversion rate decreases as the inlet velocity increases. The most suitable inlet velocity was 0.2 m/s, while the inlet temperature was 900 K. The ignition temperature will decrease considerably when hydrogen content of the fuel was increased with a fixed value of equivalent ratio, meanwhile, the moment of the ignition temperature advances and methane conversion rate also rises accordingly. This is useful for optimization micro combustion fuel.     

Influence of controllable slit width and angle of controllable flow on hydrogen/air premixed combustion characteristics in micro combustor with both sides–slitted bluff body

To improve the combustion stability of micro combustor, both sides-slitted bluff body is applied to the micro combustor. The H₂/O₂ reaction mechanism is used to study the influence of controllable slit width (d) and angle of controllable flow (β) on combustion characteristics of the micro-combustor. The result shows that the reduction of d can significantly improve the combustion efficiency. Under the same controllable flow ratio (γ), the reduction of d can effectively expand the recirculation region. However, the blow-off limit will be reduced if d is too large or too small. With the same γ, the recirculation region and low-velocity zone expand when β decreases, which can entrain more high-temperature gas and increase the residence time of fuel in the low-velocity zone, thus improving the combustion efficiency. The residence time of fuel in the combustor will be reduced when β is too large or small, resulting in lower combustion efficiency and blow-off limit. Therefore, it is significant to choose the parameter of d and β.     

Numerical study of the effect of hydrogen addition on methane–air mixtures combustion

The stoichiometric methane–hydrogen–air freely propagated laminar premixed flames at normal temperature and pressure were calculated by using PREMIX code of CHEMKIN II program with GRI-Mech 3.0 mechanism. The mole fraction profiles and the rate of production of the dominant reactions contributing to the major species and some selected intermediate species in the flames of methane–hydrogen–air were obtained. The rate of production analysis was conducted and the effect of hydrogen addition on the reactions of methane–air mixtures combustion was analyzed by the dominant elementary reactions for specific species. The results showed that the mole fractions of major species CH₄, CO and CO₂ were decreased while their normalized values were increased as hydrogen is added. The rate of production of the dominant reactions contributing to CH₄, CO and CO₂ shows a remarkable increase as hydrogen is added. The role of H₂ in the flame will change from an intermediate species to a reactant when hydrogen fraction in the blends exceeds 20%. The enhancement of combustion with hydrogen addition can be ascribed to the significant increase of H, O and OH in the flame as hydrogen is presented. The decrease of the mole fractions of CH₂O and CH₃CHO with hydrogen addition suggests a potential in the reduction of aldehydes emissions of methane combustion as hydrogen is added. The methane oxidation reaction pathways will move toward the lower carbon reaction pathways when hydrogen is available and this has the potential in reducing the soot formation. Chemical kinetics effect of hydrogen addition has a little influence on NO formation for methane combustion with hydrogen addition.     

Numerical analysis of reaction–diffusion effects on species mixing rates in turbulent premixed methane–air combustion

The scalar mixing time scale, a key quantity in many turbulent combustion models, is investigated for reactive scalars in premixed combustion. Direct numerical simulations (DNS) of three-dimensional, turbulent Bunsen flames with reduced methane–air chemistry have been analyzed in the thin reaction zones regime. Previous conclusions from single step chemistry DNS studies are confirmed regarding the role of dilatation and turbulence–chemistry interactions on the progress variable dissipation rate. Compared to the progress variable, the mixing rates of intermediate species is found to be several times greater. The variation of species mixing rates are explained with reference to the structure of one-dimensional premixed laminar flames. According to this analysis, mixing rates are governed by the strong gradients which are imposed by flamelet structures at high Damköhler numbers. This suggests a modeling approach to estimate the mixing rate of individual species which can be applied, for example, in transported probability density function simulations. Flame–turbulence interactions which modify the flamelet based representation are analyzed.     

Numerical investigation on heat transfer characteristics of high-pressure syngas in the membrane helical-coil cooler of a 2,000 t/d gasifier

In this article, the heat transfer performance of a syngas cooler with membrane helical-coil heat exchanger was numerically studied. A method of combining piecewise simulation and full-scale simulation was proposed, and the influence of fly ash was considered. The models and the proposed method were validated by comparing simulation results with data from industrial test. The simulation results show that radiation accounts for 10–20% of the total heat transfer in the syngas cooler. The surface of inner channel is characterized with high convective heat-transfer coefficient and heat flux. In addition, the quality of produced steam could be significantly enhanced as the heat exchanger of upper group was changed from evaporating surface to superheating surface, and the cooling performance for syngas was hardly affected.     

Influence of pentanol and dimethyl ether blending with diesel on the combustion performance and emission characteristics in a compression ignition engine under low temperature combustion mode

Dimethyl ether (DME) and n-pentanol can be derived from non-food based biomass feedstock without unsettling food supplies and thus attract increasing attention as promising alternative fuels, yet some of their unique fuel properties different from diesel may significantly affect engine operation and thus limit their direct usage in diesel engines. In this study, the influence of n-pentanol, DME and diesel blends on the combustion performance and emission characteristics of a diesel engine under low-temperature combustion (LTC) mode was evaluated at various engine loads (0.2–0.8 MPa BMEP) and two Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) levels (15% and 30%). Three test blends were prepared by adding different proportions of DME and n-pentanol in baseline diesel and termed as D85DM15, D65P35, and D60DM20P20 respectively. The results showed that particulate matter (PM) mass and size-resolved PM number concentration were lower for D85DM15 and D65P35 and the least for D60DM20P20 compared with neat diesel. D60DM20P20 turned out to generate the lowest NO_x emissions among the test blends at high engine load, and it further reduced by approximately 56% and 32% at low and medium loads respectively. It was found that the combination of medium EGR (15%) level and D60DM20P20 blend could generate the lowest NO_x and PM emissions among the tested oxygenated blends with a slight decrease in engine performance. THC and CO emissions were higher for oxygenated blends than baseline diesel and the addition of EGR further exacerbated these gaseous emissions. This study demonstrated a great potential of n-pentanol, DME and diesel (D60DM20P20) blend in compression ignition engines with optimum combustion and emission characteristics under low temperature combustion mode, yet long term durability and commercial viability have not been considered.     

Analysis of entropy generation in hydrogen-enriched ultra-lean counter-flow methane–air non-premixed combustion

In this paper, entropy generation in hydrogen-enriched ultra-lean counter-flow methane–air non-premixed combustion confined by planar opposing jets is investigated for the first time. The effects of the effective equivalence ratio and the volume percentage of hydrogen in fuel blends on entropy generation are studied by numerically evaluating the entropy generation equation. The lattice Boltzmann model proposed in our previous work, instead of traditional numerical methods, is used to solve the governing equations for combustion process. Through the present study, five interesting features of this kind of combustion, which are quite different from that reported in previous literature on entropy generation analysis for hydrogen-enriched methane–air combustion, are revealed. The total entropy generation number can be approximated as a linear increasing function of the volume percentage of hydrogen in fuel mixture and the effective equivalence ratio for all the cases under the present study.     

Controlled auto-ignition characteristics of methane–air mixture in a rapid intake compression and expansion machine

The characteristics of controlled auto-ignition (CAI) were investigated with a methane–air mixture and simulated residual gas, that represents internal exhaust gas recirculation (IEGR). Supply systems were additionally installed on the conventional rapid compression machine (RCM), and this modified machine—a rapid intake compression and expansion machine (RICEM)—was able to simulate an intake stroke for the evaluation of controlled auto-ignition with fuel–air mixture. The fuel–air mixture and the simulated residual gas were introduced separately into the combustion chamber through the spool valves. Various IEGR rates and temperatures of the IEGR gas were tested. The initial reaction and the development in controlled auto-ignition combustion were compared with spark-ignited combustion by visualization with a high-speed digital camera. Under the controlled auto-ignition operation, multi-point ignition and faster combustion were observed. With increasing the temperature of IEGR gas, the auto-ignition timing was advanced and burning duration was shortened. The higher rate of IEGR had the same effects on the combustion of the controlled auto-ignition. However, this trend was reversed with more than 47 per cent of IEGR.     

Experimental study of combustion of hydrogen–syngas/methane fuel mixtures in a porous burner

Lean premixed combustion of hydrogen–syngas/methane fuel mixtures was investigated experimentally to demonstrate fuel flexibility of a two-section porous burner. The un-insulated burner was operated at atmospheric pressure. Combustion was stabilized at the interface of silicon-carbide coated carbon foam of 26 pores per centimeter (ppcm) and 4 ppcm. Methane (CH₄) content in the fuel was decreased from 100% to 0% (by volume), with the remaining amount split equally between carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H₂), the two reactive components of the syngas. Experiments for different fuel mixtures were conducted at a fixed air flow rate, while the fuel flow rate was varied to obtain a range of adiabatic flame temperatures. The CO and nitric oxide (_NOx${\mathrm{NO}}_x$) emissions were measured downstream of the porous burner, in the axial direction to identify the post-combustion zone and in the transverse direction to quantify combustion uniformity. For a given adiabatic flame temperature, increasing H₂/CO content in the fuel mixture decreased both the CO and _NOx${\mathrm{NO}}_x$ emissions. Presence of H₂/CO in the fuel mixture also decreased temperature near the lean blow-off limit, especially for higher percentages of CO and H₂ in the fuel.     

Parametric study on combustion characteristics of virtual HCCI engine fueled with methane–hydrogen blends under low load conditions

Homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) is an alternative combustion strategy employed for automotive systems. It has a higher thermal efficiency with lower nitric oxides and particulate matter emissions that are below current emission requirements. However, owing to difficulties associated with combustion control, HCCI engines have disadvantages in terms of combustion instability, such as low-speed-low-load or high-speed-high-load conditions.This study investigates the effects of different parameters on HCCI engine combustion using numerical methods. The parametric study is carried out at low loads (25% part load), and a reference intake temperature of 550 K is used to preheat the air–fuel mixture. The GRI-3.0 chemical reaction mechanism involving 53 species and 325 reactions is used for 1-D simulations describing the combustion process fueled with methane and hydrogen added methane. By changing the variables, including compression ratio, excess air ratio, and hydrogen content, the combustion behavior is investigated and discussed. The results show that an increase in compression ratio resulted in a faster start of combustion and caused higher in cylinder pressure and heat-release rate. When the excess air ratio was increased, the start of combustion was delayed and lower in-cylinder pressure and heat release rate were observed. The results were similar for varying compression ratios.     

Combustion characteristics and flame-kernel development of a laser ignited hydrogen–air mixture in a constant volume combustion chamber

Laser ignition of hydrogen–air mixture was carried out in a constant volume combustion chamber (CVCC) at 10 bar initial chamber filling pressure and 373 K chamber temperature. A Q-switched Nd:YAG laser at 1064 nm with a pulse duration of 6–9 ns was used for plasma generation and ignition of combustible hydrogen–air mixture. Pressure–time history of different hydrogen–air mixtures was measured in the CVCC and flammability limits of hydrogen–air mixture were measured. Flame kernel development was investigated for different air–fuel mixtures using Shawdowgraphy and flame propagation distances were calculated. Minimum ignition energy was measured for hydrogen–air mixtures of different air–fuel ratios and effect laser pulse energy on pressure–time history in the CVCC was experimentally measured. Upon increasing the laser pulse energy, time taken to attain peak cylinder pressure reduced which resulted in faster combustion in hydrogen–air mixtures however the peak cylinder pressure remained similar.     

Numerical investigation of soot formation mechanisms in partially-premixed ethylene–air co-flow flames

Recently, an improved chemical mechanism of PAH growth was developed and tested in soot computations for a laminar co-flow non-premixed ethylene–air diffusion flame [Dworkin et al., Combust. Flame 158(9) (2011) 1682–1695]. With the intention of testing the robustness of the solution methodology on partially-premixed systems, this work used the same algorithm as that in the study of Dworkin et al. for computations of two sets of sooting partially-premixed co-flow laminar ethylene–air flames. The results show very good qualitative and good quantitative agreement with the experimental results for soot volume fractions and soot precursors, without any changes to the parameters of the model. The soot yield was found to initially increase with decreasing primary equivalence ratios, and then to decrease for Φ < 24, reaching levels lower than the non-premixed case for Φ < 10. On the flame centerline, both PAH and acetylene-related processes were found to be important for soot growth. The initial increase in the soot yield was linked to higher inception rates. On the wings of the flame the dominant soot growth process was found to be HACA growth. The initial increase in the soot yield was mostly due to higher acetylene yield leading to faster surface growth. The primary air was also found to influence the soot oxidation process by increasing OH radicals in both the centerline and the wings region.     

Characterisation of laser ignition in hydrogen–air mixtures in a combustion bomb

Laser-induced spark ignition of lean hydrogen–air mixtures was experimentally investigated using nanosecond pulses generated by Q-switched Nd:YAG laser (wavelength 1064 nm) at initial pressure of 3 MPa and temperature 323 K in a constant volume combustion chamber. Laser ignition has several advantages over conventional ignition systems especially in internal combustion engines, hence it is necessary to characterise the combustion phenomena from start of plasma formation to end of combustion. In the present experimental investigation, the formation of laser plasma by spontaneous emission technique and subsequently developing flame kernel was measured. Initially, the plasma propagates towards the incoming laser. This backward moving plasma (towards the focusing lens) grows much faster than the forward moving plasma (along the direction of laser). A piezoelectric pressure transducer was used to measure the pressure rise in the combustion chamber. Hydrogen–air mixtures were also ignited using a spark plug under identical experimental conditions and results are compared with the laser ignition ones.     

Experimental investigation on the effect of intake air temperature and air–fuel ratio on cycle-to-cycle variations of HCCI combustion and performance parameters

Combustion in HCCI engines is a controlled auto ignition of well-mixed fuel, air and residual gas. Since onset of HCCI combustion depends on the auto ignition of fuel/air mixture, there is no direct control on the start of combustion process. Therefore, HCCI combustion becomes unstable rather easily, especially at lower and higher engine loads. In this study, cycle-to-cycle variations of a HCCI combustion engine fuelled with ethanol were investigated on a modified two-cylinder engine. Port injection technique is used for preparing homogeneous charge for HCCI combustion. The experiments were conducted at varying intake air temperatures and air–fuel ratios at constant engine speed of 1500 rpm and P-θ diagram of 100 consecutive combustion cycles for each test conditions at steady state operation were recorded. Consequently, cycle-to-cycle variations of the main combustion parameters and performance parameters were analyzed. To evaluate the cycle-to-cycle variations of HCCI combustion parameters, coefficient of variation (COV) of every parameter were calculated for every engine operating condition. The critical optimum parameters that can be used to define HCCI operating ranges are ‘maximum rate of pressure rise’ and ‘COV of indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP)’.     

Experimental investigations on flame stabilization behavior in a diverging micro channel with premixed methane–air mixtures

In the present paper, experimental investigations on the characterization of flame stabilization behavior in a 2.0 mm wide diverging channel are carried out with premixed methane–air mixtures. The effect of mixture equivalence ratio (Ф) and flow rate on flame shape, position, stability and emissions are reported in this work. The diverging portion of channel is preheated from the bottom side with a sintered metal burner to provide a positive temperature gradient along the direction of fluid flow which helps in stabilizing a flame in the channel. For a range of velocities and equivalence ratios, different types of stable and partially stable flame propagation modes were observed. Flames obtained for rich mixtures exhibited more stable nature as compared to lean mixtures. The flame stability limits were observed to vary between 0.2 m/s and 1.9 m/s for a range of mixture equivalence ratios.     

Effects of hydrogen addition on oblique detonations in methane–air mixtures

As a low-carbon fuel, methane has been used in various engines; however, the studies on its application in hypersonic propulsion are few. Here, oblique detonation waves (ODWs) in methane–air mixtures have been simulated to facilitate methane applications in shock-induced combustion ramjets. The shortcoming of using methane in hypersonic air-breathing propulsions has been presented via examining initiation distance of ODWs. Results demonstrate that ODWs are difficult to be initiated in the methane–air mixture, and similar to normal detonations studies before, this leads to a long initiation length; therefore, methane-fueled ODW is only applicable for high flight Mach number (M₀). To broaden the M₀ regime, hydrogen has been added to methane to decrease the initiation length. An increasing in the hydrogen percentage leads to the nonlinear decrease of the initiation length, and the initiation structures also vary simultaneously. To elaborate the physical mechanism of the initiation length variation, a theoretical model of the initiation length for fuel blends has been proposed. Meanwhile, the advantages of methane fuel in ODW-based propulsion have been discussed by analyzing on the effects of hydrogen addition on the total pressure.     

An experimental study of fuel–air mixing section on unstable combustion in a dump combustor

The main objective of this study is effect of the various fuel–air mixing section geometries on the unstable combustion. For the purpose of observing the combustion pressure oscillation and phase difference at each of the dynamic pressure results, the multi-channel dynamic pressure transducers were located on the combustor and inlet mixing section. By using an optically accessible quartz-type combustor, we were able to OH* measurements to characterize the flame structure and heat release oscillation with the use of a high-speed ICCD camera. In this study, we observed two dominant instability frequencies. Lower frequencies were measured around 240–380 Hz, which were associated with a fundamental longitudinal mode of combustor length. Higher frequencies were measured around 410–830 Hz. These were related to the secondary longitudinal mode in the combustion chamber and the secondary quarter-wave mode in the inlet mixing section. These second instability mode characteristics are coupled with the conditions of the combustor and inlet mixing section acoustic geometry. Also, these higher combustion instability characteristics include dynamic pressure oscillation of the inlet mixing section part, which was larger than the combustor section. As a result, combustion instability was strongly affected by the acoustically coupling of the combustor and inlet mixing section geometry.     

Experimental study on combustion characteristics of a spark-ignition engine fueled with natural gas–hydrogen blends combining with EGR

An experimental study on the effect of hydrogen fraction and EGR rate on the combustion characteristics of a spark-ignition engine fueled with natural gas–hydrogen blends was investigated. The results show that flame development duration, rapid combustion duration and total combustion duration are increased with the increase of EGR rate and decreased with the increase of hydrogen fraction in the blends. Hydrogen addition shows larger influence on flame development duration than that on rapid combustion duration. The coefficient of variation of the indicated mean effective pressure increases with the increase of EGR rate. And hydrogen addition into natural gas decreases the coefficient of variation of the indicated mean effective pressure, and this effectiveness becomes more obviously at high EGR rate. Engine fueled with natural gas–hydrogen blends combining with proper EGR rate can realize the stable low temperature combustion in gas engine.     

Numerical study of the effects of non-equilibrium plasma on the ignition delay of a methane–air mixture using detailed ion chemical kinetics

Researches on non-equilibrium plasmas in ignition and combustion processes have drawn attention of many scientists, because a non-equilibrium plasma-assisted approach provides a useful method to ignite a combustible mixture and stabilize the combustion process. The ignition delay times of methane–air mixtures have been investigated experimentally and numerically; however, the influence of non-equilibrium plasma on the ignition of argon-free methane–air mixtures has seen relatively little discussion. Here, we investigate the ignition delay time of methane–air mixtures via numerical analysis using detailed chemical kinetics. Discharge process and following ignition process are simulated separately, because of significant differences in their time scales and mechanisms. Data on the concentration of atoms and radicals produced in the discharge processes were used as the initial input data to determine the subsequent ignition process because they play an important role in the subsequent ignition process. We focus on the effects of the strength of the reduced electric field, the discharge duration, and the initial temperature on the ignition delay time for zero-dimensional and axisymmetric one-dimensional models. The simulation results showed that the reduced electric field was important in promoting chemical reactions for both the one-dimensional model and the zero-dimensional model; for a constant reduced electric field, longer discharge durations provided more energy to excite the nitrogen, leading to a larger mole fraction of excited nitrogen species during discharge; the gaps between ignition delay times for E/N = 0 and E/N ? 50 Td were very small at high initial temperatures; however they became very large at low initial temperatures.