Flame front/turbulence interaction for syngas fuels in the thin reaction zones regime: turbulent and stretched laminar flame speeds at elevated pressures and temperatures

Experiments were performed in dump-stabilized axisymmetric flames to assess turbulent flame speeds ( ${S}_{T}$ ) and mean flamelets speeds (stretched laminar flame speeds, ${S}_{L, k}$ ). Fuels with significantly different thermodiffusive properties have been investigated, ranging from pure methane to syngas ( {\mathrm{H} }_{2} \text{{\ndash}} \mathrm{CO} blends) and pure hydrogen, while the pressure was varied from 0.1 to 1.25MPa. Flame front corrugation was measured with planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) of the OH radical, while turbulence quantities were determined with particle image velocimetry (PIV). Two different analyses based on mass balance were performed on the acquired flame images. The first method assessed absolute values of turbulent flame speeds and the second method, by means of an improved fractal methodology, provided normalized turbulent flame speeds ( ${S}_{T} / {S}_{L, k}$ ). Deduced average Markstein numbers exhibited a strong dependence on pressure and hydrogen content of the reactive mixture. It was shown that preferential-diffusive-thermal (PDT) effects acted primarily on enhancing the stretched laminar flame speeds rather than on increasing the flame front corrugations. Interaction between flame front and turbulent eddies measured by the fractal dimension was shown to correlate with the eddy temporal activit

Three-dimensional simulations of premixed hydrogen/air flames in microtubes

The dynamics of fuel-lean (equivalence ratio φ = 0.5) premixed hydrogen/air atmospheric pressure flames are investigated in open cylindrical tubes with diameters of d = 1.0 and 1.5 mm using three-dimensional numerical simulations with detailed chemistry and transport. In both cases, the inflow velocity is varied over the range where the flames can be stabilized inside the computational domain. Three axisymmetric combustion modes are observed in the narrow tube: steady mild combustion, oscillatory ignition/extinction and steady flames as the inflow velocity is varied in the range 0.5 ≤ UIN ≤ 500 cm s−1. In the wider tube, richer flame dynamics are observed in the form of steady mild combustion, oscillatory ignition/extinction, steady closed and open axisymmetric flames, steady non-axisymmetric flames and azimuthally spinning flames (0.5 ≤ UIN ≤ 600 cm s−1). Coexistence of the spinning and the axisymmetric modes is obtained over relatively wide ranges of UIN. Axisymmetric simulations are also performed in order to better understand the nature of the observed transitions in the wider tube. Fourier analysis during the transitions from the steady axisymmetric to the three-dimensional spinning mode and to the steady non-axisymmetric modes reveals that the m = 1 azimuthal mode plays a dominant role in the transition

Simulation of 3D Porous Media Flows with Application to Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells

A 3D lattice Boltzmann (LB) model with twenty-seven discrete velocities is presented and used for the simulation of three-dimensional porous media flows. Its accuracy in combination with the half-way bounce back boundary condition is assessed. Characteristic properties of the gas diffusion layers that are used in polymer electrolyte fuel cells can be determined with this model. Simulation in samples that have been obtained via X-ray tomographic microscopy, allows to estimate the values of permeability and relative effective diffusivity. Furthermore, the computational LB results are compared with the results of other numerical tools, as well as with experimental value

Fuel Cell Modeling and Simulations

Fundamental and phenomenological models for cells, stacks, and complete systems of PEFC and SOFC are reviewed and their predictive power is assessed by comparing model simulations against experiments. Computationally efficient models suited for engineering design include the (1+1) dimensionality approach, which decouples the membrane in-plane and through-plane processes, and the volume-averaged-method (VAM) that considers only the lumped effect of pre-selected system components. The former model was shown to capture the measured lateral current density inhomogeneities in a PEFC and the latter was used for the optimization of commercial SOFC systems. State Space Modeling (SSM) was used to identify the main reaction pathways in SOFC and, in conjunction with the implementation of geometrically well- defined electrodes, has opened a new direction for the understanding of electrochemical reactions. Furthermore, SSM has advanced the understanding of the COpoisoning- induced anode impedance in PEFC. Detailed numerical models such as the Lattice Boltzmann (LB) method for transport in porous media and the full 3-D Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Navier-Stokes simulations are addressed. These models contain all components of the relevant physics and they can improve the understanding of the related phenomena, a necessary condition for the development of both appropriate simplified models as well as reliable technologies. Within the LB framework, a technique for the characterization and computer- reconstruction of the porous electrode structure was developed using advanced pattern recognition algorithms. In CFD modeling, 3-D simulations were used to investigate SOFC with internal methane steam reforming and have exemplified the significance of porous and novel fractal channel distributors for the fuel and oxidant delivery, as well as for the cooling of PEFC. As importantly, the novel concept has been put forth of functionally designed, fractal-shaped fuel cells, showing promise of significant performance improvements over the conventional rectangular shaped units. Thermo-economic modeling for the optimization of PEFC is finally addressed

Recovery of damaged solid propellants by interrupting burning and crack-propagation processes

Crack propagation in burning solid propellants and explosives can affect the performance of a rocket motor by increasing both the burning surface area and local pressurization rates. This may sometimes lead to deflagration-to-detonation transition (DDT) or detonation due to some unresolved mechanisms (XDT). In order to obtain direct evidence of structural damage of the propellant sample during crack propagation and branching, an interrupted burning experiment has been designed, constructed, and tested. Sample recovered from a preliminary test firing showed rough surface structure and several macrocracks in directions from the initial crack orientation. The propellant sample is believed to undergo significant cracking and branching before the extinction. This is supported by the experimental evidence of rough and cracked surfaces of the recovered sample, source-flow pattern observed from high-speed movie films, and extremely rapid pressurization of the source-flow region beyond the initial crack tip due to the fast burning of damaged propellant sample

Lattice Boltzmann method with restored Galilean invariance

An isothermal model on the standard two-dimension nine-velocity lattice (D2Q9) is proposed and analyzed.It originates from the thermal model with energy conservation introduced by N. I. Prasianakis and I. V. Karlin [Phys. Rev. E 76, 016702 (2007)]. The isothermal and the thermal equivalent models are tested through thesimulation of the decay of a shear wave and of a temperature wave. Both are shown to be Galilean invariant,reference temperature independent, and rotational isotropic through the measurement of the transport coefficients on a rotated moving frame of reference