Numerical investigations on flashback dynamics of premixed methane-hydrogen-air laminar flames

Injecting hydrogen into the natural gas network to reduce CO₂ emissions in the EU residential sector is considered a critical element of the zero CO₂ emissions target for 2050. Burning natural gas and hydrogen mixtures has potential risks, the main one being the flame flashback phenomenon that could occur in home appliances using premixed laminar burners. In the present study, two-dimensional transient computations of laminar CH₄ + air and CH₄ + H₂ + air flames are performed with the open-source CFD code OpenFOAM. A finite rate chemistry based solver is used to compute reaction rates and the laminar reacting flow. Starting from a flame stabilized at the rim of a cylindrical tube burner, the inlet bulk velocity of the premixture is gradually reduced to observe flashback. The results of the present work concern the effects of wall temperature and hydrogen addition on the flashback propensity of laminar premixed methane-hydrogen-air flames. Complete sequences of flame dynamics with gradual increases of premixture velocity are investigated. At the flame flashback velocities, strong oscillations at the flame leading edge emerge, causing broken flame symmetry and finally flame flashback. The numerical results reveal that flashback tendency increase with increasing wall temperature and hydrogen addition rate.     

Numerical study on laminar burning velocity of ammonia flame with methanol addition

The combustion characteristics of ammonia/methanol mixtures were investigated numerically in this study. Methanol has a dramatic promotive effect on the laminar burning velocity (LBV) of ammonia. Three mechanisms from literature and another four self-developed mechanisms constructed in this study were evaluated using the measured laminar burning velocities of ammonia/methanol mixtures from Wang et al. (Combust.Flame. 2021). Generally, none of the selected mechanisms can precisely predict the measured laminar burning velocities at all conditions. Aiming to develop a simplified and reliable mechanism for ammonia/methanol mixtures, the constructed mechanism utilized NUI Galway mechanism (Combust.Flame. 2016) as methanol sub-mechanism and the Otomo mechanism (Int. J. Hydrogen. Energy. 2018) as ammonia sub-mechanism was optimized and reduced. The reduced mechanism entitled ‘DNO-NH3’, can accurately reproduce the measured laminar burning velocities of ammonia/methanol mixtures under all conditions. A reaction path analysis of the ammonia/methanol mixtures based on the DNO-NH3 mechanism shows that methanol is not directly involved in ammonia oxidation, instead, the produced methyl radicals from methanol oxidization contribute to the dehydrogenation of ammonia. Besides, NO_x emission analysis demonstrates that 60% methanol addition results in the highest NO_x emissions. The most important reactions dominating the NO_x consumption and production are identified in this study.     

Enhanced graphitic domains of unreduced graphene oxide and the interplay of hydration behaviour and catalytic activity

Previous studies indicate that the properties of graphene oxide (GO) can be significantly improved by enhancing its graphitic domain size through thermal diffusion and clustering of functional groups. Remarkably, this transition takes place below the decomposition temperature of the functional groups and thus allows fine tuning of graphitic domains without compromising with the functionality of GO. By studying the transformation of GO under mild thermal treatment, we directly observe this size enhancement of graphitic domains from originally ≤40 nm² to >200 nm² through an extensive transmission electron microscopy (TEM) study. Additionally, we confirm the integrity of the functional groups during this process by a comprehensive chemical analysis. A closer look into the process confirms the theoretical predicted relevance for the room temperature stability of GO and the development of the composition of functional groups is explained with reaction pathways from theoretical calculations. We further investigate the influence of enlarged graphitic domains on the hydration behaviour of GO and the catalytic performance of single atom catalysts supported by GO. Additionally, we show that the sheet resistance of GO is reduced by several orders of magnitude during the mild thermal annealing process.     

Experimental investigation of unconfined spherical and cylindrical flame propagation in hydrogen-air mixtures

This paper presents results of experimental investigations on spherical and cylindrical flame propagation in pre-mixed H₂/air-mixtures in unconfined and semi-confined geometries. The experiments were performed in a facility consisting of two transparent solid walls with 1 m² area and four weak side walls made from thin plastic film. The gap size between the solid walls was varied stepwise from thin layer geometry (6 mm) to cube geometry (1 m). A wide range of H₂/air-mixtures with volumetric hydrogen concentrations from 10% to 45% H₂ was ignited between the transparent solid walls. The propagating flame front and its structure was observed with a large scale high speed shadow system. Results of spherical and cylindrical flame propagation up to a radius of 0.5 m were analyzed. The presented spherical burning velocity model is used to discuss the self-acceleration phenomena in unconfined and unobstructed pre-mixed H₂/air flames.     

Theoretical analysis of heat transfer in laminar pulsating flow

Pulsation effect on heat transfer in laminar incompressible flow, which led to contradictory results in previous studies, is theoretically investigated in this work starting from basic principles in an attempt to eliminate existing confusion at various levels. First, the analytical solution of the fully developed thermal and hydraulic profiles under constant wall heat flux is obtained. It eliminates the confusion resulting from a previously published erroneous solution. The physical implications of the solution are discussed. Also, a new time average heat transfer coefficient for pulsating flow is carefully defined such as to produce results that are both useful from the engineering point of view, and compliant with the energy balance. This rationally derived average is compared with intuitive averages used in the literature. New results are numerically obtained for the thermally developing region with a fully developed velocity profile. Different types of thermal boundary conditions are considered, including the effect of wall thermal inertia. The effects of Reynold and Prandtl numbers, as well as pulsation amplitude and frequency on heat transfer are investigated. The mechanism by which pulsation affects the developing region, by creating damped oscillations along the tube length of the time average Nusselt number, is explained.     

Structure and dynamics of dipolar fluids under strong shear

Molecular dynamical simulation has been carried out to investigate the structure and dynamics of a dipolar fluid under strong shear. Dipolar fluid consists of polarizable particles, which have an induced dipole moment in the applied field direction. Shear stress is perpendicular to the field direction. When shear stress is small, the flow has a flowing-chain structure. If shear stress increases to pass a critical value, flowing-chain structure changes to flowing layer structure. Each layer is parallel to the flow direction and shear direction. Within one layer, particles form strings in the flow direction.     

白云石化作用及黔桂地区泥盆系——石炭系层（块）状白云岩的成因

介绍了20世纪60年代以来国际上提出的9种主要的白云石化作用模式及机理，在此基础上对黔桂地区泥盆系—石炭系层（块）状白云岩的成因进行研究，建立了研究区研究层位中的层状白云岩储层概念模式，包括同生成岩环境中的潮坪潮汐泵汲白云石化模式，潮下海水泵汲白云石化模式，调整白云石化模式，埋藏成岩环境中的调整-压实排挤流白云石化模式，有机质参与的压实排挤流白云石化模式，以埋藏热水为主的混合白云石化模式，以埋藏热盐水为主的混合白云石化模式．以及与区域构造断裂有关的构造热液白云石化模式。     

Heat transfer of a row of three butane/air flame jets impinging on a flat plate

Experiments were performed to investigate the heat transfer characteristics of a row of three premixed, laminar, butane/air flame jets impinging on a water-cooled flat plate. The between-jet interference was found to reduce the heat transfer rate in the jet-to-jet interacting zone due to the depressed combustion. The interference became stronger when the jet-to-jet spacing and/or the nozzle-to-plate distance were/was small. The positive pressure existed in the between-jet interacting zone caused the asymmetric flame and heat transfer distribution of the side jet. The meeting point of the spreading wall jets of the central and the side jets did not occur at the midpoint of the neighboring jets, but at a location shifted slightly outwards. The maximum local heat flux and the maximum area-averaged heat flux occurred at a moderate nozzle-to-plate distance of 5d with a moderate jet-to-jet spacing of 5d. The lowest area-averaged heat flux was produced when both the jet-to-jet spacing and the nozzle-to-plate distance were small. Comparing with a single jet under the same experimental conditions, the heat transfer rates in both the stagnation point and the maximum heat transfer point were shown to be enhanced in a row of three-jet-impingement system. The present study provided detailed information on the heat transfer characteristics of a row of three in-line impinging flame jets, which had rarely been reported in previous study.