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The temporal development of the mixing field in a decaying jet (Re = 50,000) was quantified by measuring mole fraction and scalar dissipation rate (SDR) in a decaying, isothermal, turbulent gaseous jet. The 2D scalar field was measured by using planar laser induced fluorescence of acetone and, with appropriate image processing, this allowed estimation of the SDR using the two in-plane components within 16% error. The instantaneous and averaged distributions of the mole fraction are reported for downstream dimensionless distances up to 7 nozzle exit diameters and 35 exit flow timescales after end of injection. With advection of the last uniform exit concentration (UEC) profile core away from the nozzle exit, a region of weak concentration arises at the decaying jet's trailing edge. Estimates made in a Lagrangian frame of reference show that the trailing edge of the jet becomes leaner, after the end of injection (AEI), faster than in the steady state, confirming the existence of an ‘entrainment wave’. The normalised probability density functions of the 2D SDR at various stations and times AEI differ from a lognormal distribution at both low and high SDR values with negative skewness and positive excess kurtosis. A pseudo 3D SDR, made by including an estimate for the out of plane component, showed reduced departure from lognormal. The departure may be attributed to the disappearance of the strong shear layer associated with the absence of nozzle momentum AEI. To the authors’ knowledge, this study provides the first measurements of the SDR in a decaying, isothermal turbulent jet.

The effects of inert diluents in the fuel mixture of a model swirl stabilized gas turbine combustor, under thermoacoustically unstable limit cycle operation, were studied experimentally. The measurements included particle image velocimetry (PIV), high-speed CH* chemiluminescent imaging, and dynamic pressure signals. The paper focuses on the dynamic phenomenon of the period doubling bifurcation, which came about when the equivalence ratio ϕ of undiluted flames was enriched from 0.55 to 0.60 under constant Reynolds number (Re=18,000). The bifurcation featured an emergence of an aerodynamically related timescale in addition to the fundamental timescale that was induced from an unstable acoustic eigenmode. The aerodynamic timescale is introduced by azimuthal convection of a high-heat-release-rate region and is linked in the literature with a precessing motion of the recirculation zone. It was found that on increasing the diluent molar fraction up to 50%, the amplitude and the frequency of the limit cycle fundamental acoustic mode decreased. A mechanism to interpret this suppression is that increasing the diluent molar fraction of the fuel makes the flame more susceptible to quenching because the extinction strain rate of the mixture is decreased. The paper argues that the existence of inert diluents in the fuel can significantly alter the dynamic state of the combustor, because the anchoring locations of the flame greatly depend on the composition-sensitive extinction strain rate of the mixture.

The effects of inert diluents in the fuel mixture of a model swirl stabilized gas turbine combustor, under thermoacoustically unstable limit cycle operation, were studied experimentally. The measurements included Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV), high speed CH* chemiluminescent imaging and dynamic pressure signals. The paper focuses on the dynamic phenomenon of the period doubling bifurcation, which came about when the equivalence ratio (Ø) of undiluted flames was enriched from 0.55 to 0.60 under constant Reynolds number (Re). The bifurcation featured an emergence of an aerodynamically related timescale in addition to the fundamental timescale which was induced from an unstable acoustic eigenmode. The aerodynamic timescale is introduced by azimuthal convection of a high heat release rate region, and is linked in the literature with a precessing motion of the recirculation zone. Prior to the bifurcation, the flame anchored between the wall and the outer shear layers of the recirculation zone assuming a V-shape. The dynamics were attracted to a Period-1 limit cycle. Post the bifurcation the flame expanded in the inner shear layers of the recirculation zone assuming an M-shape, while the dynamics were attracted to a Period-2 limit cycle. The latter operational condition was subject to nitrogen dilution in order to parametrically increase the molar fraction of inert diluent in the fuel stream. It was found that on increasing the diluent molar fraction the amplitude and the frequency of the limit cycle fundamental acoustic mode decreased. Also, inert dilution suppressed the aerodynamic timescale and the flame assumed a V-shape again. A mechanism to interpret this mechanism is suggested. Increasing the diluent molar fraction of the fuel makes he flame susceptible to quenching because the extinction strain rate of the mixture decreased. Thus, the flow imposed strain rates quenched the flame when it attempted to anchor on the inner shear layers of the vortex breakdown induced recirculation zone. The inability of the flame to anchor on the shear layers suppressed the aerodynamic mode. The paper argues that the existence of inert diluents in the fuel can significantly alter the dynamic state of the combustor, since the anchoring locations of the flame greatly depend on the composition-sensitive extinction strain rate of the mixture.

Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engines deliver high thermal efficiency and, therefore, low CO 2 emissions, combined with low NO X and particulate emissions. However, HCCI operation is not possible at all conditions due to the inability to control the autoignition process and new understanding is required. A high-swirl low-compression-ratio, optically accessed engine that can produce overall fuel lean, axially stratified charge (richer fuel mixture close to the cylinder head was achieved using port injection against open valve and homogeneous mixture during injection against closed valve timing) was operated in HCCI mode without and with spark-assist mixture ignition. The present study investigates the differences in the HCCI autoignition process and the propagation of the autoignition front with homogeneous mixture or fuel charge stratification, internal Exhaust Gas Recirculation (iEGR) (introduced by utilizing different camshafts) and spark-assisted iEGR lean combustion. In order to visualize the HCCI process, chemiluminescence flame images, phase-locked to a specific crank angle, were acquired. In addition, time-resolved images of the developing autoignition flame front were captured. Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) was applied to the acquired images to investigate the temporal and spatial repeatability of the autoignition front and compare these characteristics to the considered scenarios. The eigenvalues of the POD modes provided quantitative measure of the probability of the corresponding flame structures. The first POD mode showed higher probability of single autoignition sites originating from a particular location (depending on the scenario). However, the contribution from other modes cannot be neglected, which signified multiple locations of the single autoignition and also, multiple sites of self-ignition of the fuel-air mixture. It was found that increasing iEGR resulted in random combustion (multiple autoignition sites and fronts), which, however, became significantly non-random due to addition of spark-assisted ignition. It was identified in the POD analysis of the time-resolved flame images that the presence of inhomogeneity either in the temperature or the mixture fraction distribution increases the probability of random combustion during the very early stages of flame development. Thus, the fluctuations of heat release is higher during this period.

In the current paper, time resolved high speed optical Particle Image Velocimetry and CH* chemiluminescence measurements were performed, to study self-excited limit cycle combustion instabilities in a swirl stabilized model gas turbine combustor operating at atmospheric pressure with choked propane and air flow supplies. The combustor was operated under a constant Reynolds number (Re=22,000) and four equivalence ratios, namely ϕ = 0.50 for operation susceptible to extinction, and ϕ=0.55, ϕ=0.60 and ϕ=0.65 for operation under a thermoacoustically unstable combustion regime, to encounter two limit cycle dynamic states. The period-1 limit cycle was driven by thermoacoustic coupling between the acoustic and the thermal field at a fundamental timescale dictated by an acoustic eigenmode of the combustor. The period-2 limit cycle, further to the fundamental acoustic timescale featured a subharmonic aerodynamic signature in the heat release rate and dynamic pressure spectra caused by the helical coherent structure of a Precessing Vortex Core (PVC). Previous studies have shown that the PVC in the limit cycle regime may be suppressed by the temperature stratification at the inlet of the combustor. A mechanism is suggested to interpret the flame anchoring locations which effectively regulated whether PVC was excited or suppressed. It is showed that the conditions under which the flame attached to the centerbody and suppressed the PVC can be explained by the spatial distribution of the relative ratio of the flow imposed to the mixture extinction strain rate. The PVC was excited due to local extinction by aerodynamic straining at the inlet of the combustor, at the phase angle of maximum dynamic pressure. On increasing the equivalence ratio, the flame became robust to aerodynamic straining and flashed back at the phase angle of maximum dynamic pressure. The PVC was then suppressed due to the relative ratio of the flow imposed to the extinction strain rate, which allowed the establishment of swirl-damping temperature gradients at the combustor inlet. The paper underlines the importance of quantifying the relation between the flow imposed and extinction strain rate, as it largely dictates the eventual combustor limit cycle dynamic state and its resonant frequencies.

This work employs a combination of pressure trace analysis, high-speed optical measurements and laser-based techniques for the assessment of the effects of various post-injection schemes on the soot reduction potential in an optical single-cylinder light-duty diesel engine. The engine was operated under a multiple injection scheme of two pilot and one main injection, typical of a partially premixed combustion mode, at the lower end of the load and engine speed range (ca 2.0 bar IMEP at 1200 r/min). Experiments considering the influence of the post-injection fuel amount (up to 15% of the total fuel quantity per cycle) and the post-injection timing within the expansion stroke (5, 10 and 15 CAD aTDC), under a constant total fuel mass per cycle, have been conducted. Findings were analysed via means of pressure trace and apparent rate of heat transfer analyses, as well as a series of optical diagnostic techniques, namely, high-speed flame natural luminosity imaging, CH*, C∗2 and OH* line-of-sight chemiluminescence, as well as planar laser-induced incandescence measurements at 31 and 50 CAD aTDC. The combination of post-injection fuel amount and timing has substantial effects on charge reactivity and soot oxidation potential. The analysis reveals that an amount of fuel (7% of the total fuel mass per cycle) injected more than 10 CAD after the main combustion event leads to higher levels of soot emissions, while a larger amount of fuel (15% of the total fuel mass) injected 5 CAD after the main combustion event appears to have a beneficial effect on the soot oxidation processes. Overall, results indicate that a post-injection scheme close to the main combustion phasing could reduce soot levels and improve engine performance, that is, higher IMEP levels at the same fuel consumption rates, although it could increase engine noise.

The current paper studies the thermoacoustically unstable combustion, under elevated mean pressure, of a commercial swirl stabilized gas turbine burner fitted with optically accessible windows. The considered measurements include particle image velocimetry (PIV), OH∗ chemiluminescence imaging, high speed broadband flame imaging and dynamic pressure signals. We study cases A and B, wherein natural gas flames at mean pressures equal to 3 bar and 6 bar delivered thermal loads equal to 335 kW and 685 kW respectively. The flow field demonstrated a typical vortex breakdown induced inner recirculation zone and a sudden step expansion induced outer recirculation zone. In case A, high amplitude dynamic pressure bursts were observed amidst a quiescent acoustic background. The flame was conical, it anchored on the shear layers of the recirculation zone and it periodically expanded in the outer recirculation zone (ORZ). In case B, the flame was consistently thermoacoustically unstable with seldom requiescent events, while at the same time expansion to the ORZ was suppressed. By applying Dynamic Mode Decomposition on high speed images of case A, it was showed that this expansion introduced an additional time scale, further to the fundamental acoustically related timescale. The superposition of two timescales over a turbulent background established an intermittent regime of thermoacoustic instabilities, wherein the dynamics transitioned between quiescent and fully oscillatory. A physical mechanism is suggested to explain the differences between the flame shapes on adjusting mean pressure. The mechanism considers that the premixture is characterized by a Lewis number lower than unity, the laminar flame speed increases on decreasing mean pressure and the flow imposed on the flame strain rate oscillated over a period of thermoacoustic instability. This combination resulted in oscillatory heat release rate, in the region of the outer shear layers. The phenomenon was more pronounced in case A than in case B, because flow dilatation imposed-strain rates are higher for the former than for the latter flame. The paper argues that for a given fuel, elevated mean pressure introduces time scales that can significantly affect the dynamic regime the combustor operates in.

A novel velocimetry method is proposed for point velocity measurement, which is based on tracking a laser-induced plasma in a flow. The plasma’s behaviour is first analysed spatially, temporally and spectrally in quiescent air. The dependence of this technique on the delay time between subsequent plasma images and the processing methods are described. It is found that, for optimized operation of the technique in a turbulent air jet (exit diameter 10.0 mm from a 480 mm long pipe; with an averaged velocity of 50 m/s at the jet exit resulting in Reynolds number of 34,000) with 100 µs time delay between plasma images, the systematic and random components of the velocity uncertainty are − 0.51 m/s and ± 3.6 m/s along the laser beam direction, and 1.25 m/s and ± 0.86 m/s along other directions perpendicular to the laser beam. These uncertainties are mainly caused by the asymmetric laser energy deposition during the formation of plasma, and the associated spatial resolution (in this realisation of the instrument) of 5 mm. The mean velocity measurements in the turbulent air jet flow are consistent with the reported flow behaviour in the literature for mean velocity: the turbulent intensity of axial velocity fluctuations is comparable to those in the literature but difference arises due to the limited spatial resolution. This velocimetry method is an alternative to traditional tracer-based velocimetry methods, because it does not require ‘seeding’ of particles or other substances in the flow. It also has the ability to measure local gas mixture composition, using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy approach, simultaneously with flow velocity, but this aspect is not explored in the current study. Concept of Laser-Induced Plasma Image Velocimetry (LIPIV) applied to a turbulent jet flow. The LIPIV technique measures the flow velocity vector by using the temporal displacement of the laser-induced plasma in a flowing fluid. For this reason, two sequential images of the plasma with time delay Δt are used.

The present work investigates the effect of the injection dwell time and injection pressure on soot reduction potential in an optical single-cylinder light-duty diesel engine. The engine operated under a double-injection scheme under low load and low engine speed conditions. The conducted experiments considered two different dwell times for three different injection pressures. The fuel quantity of the main injection was adjusted to maintain the same indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) value among all cases considered. Findings were analyzed via means of pressure trace and apparent heat release rate (AHRR) analyses, as well as a series of optical diagnostics techniques, namely high-speed imaging and planar laser-induced incandescence (pLII). The combination of dwell time and injection pressure substantially affects charge reactivity and soot oxidation potential. The analysis suggests that a shorter dwell time combined with a higher injection pressure can lead to an enhanced potential for engine-out particulate reduction by creating an in-cylinder environment that promotes soot oxidation. Overall, results indicate that a close-coupled pilot and main injection scheme can reduce soot levels, albeit while increasing specific fuel consumption by up to 12% to maintain the same engine power output levels.

The interaction between droplet dispersion and evaporation in an acetone spray evaporating under ambient conditions is experimentally studied with an aim to understand the physics behind the spatial correlation between the local vapour mass fraction and droplets. The influence of gas-phase turbulence and droplet–gas slip velocity of such correlations is examined, while the focus is on the consequence of droplet clustering on collective evaporation of droplet clouds. Simultaneous and planar measurements of droplet size, velocity and number density, and vapour mass fraction around the droplets, were obtained by combining the interferometric laser imaging for droplet sizing and planar laser induced fluorescence techniques (Sahu et al., Exp. Fluids, vol. 55, 1673, 2014b, pp. 1–21). Comparison with droplet measurements in a non-evaporating water spray under the same flow conditions showed that droplet evaporation leads to higher fluctuations of droplet number density and velocity relative to the respective mean values. While the mean droplet–gas slip velocity was found to be negligibly small, the vaporization Damköhler number ($Da_{v}$) was approximately ‘one’, which means the droplet evaporation time and the characteristic time scale of large eddies are of the same order. Thus, the influence of the convective effect on droplet evaporation is not expected to be significant in comparison to the instantaneous fluctuations of slip velocity, which refers to the direct effect of turbulence. An overall linearly increasing trend was observed in the scatter plot of the instantaneous values of droplet number density ($N$) and vapour mass fraction ($Y_{F}$). Accordingly, the correlation coefficient of fluctuations of vapour mass fraction and droplet number density ($R_{n\ast y}$) was relatively high (${\approx}0.5$) implying moderately high correlation. However, considerable spread of the $N$ versus $Y_{F}$ scatter plot along both coordinates demonstrated the influence on droplet evaporation due to turbulent droplet dispersion, which leads to droplet clustering. The presence of droplet clustering was confirmed by the measurement of spatial correlation coefficient of the fluctuations of droplet number density for different size classes ($R_{n\ast n}$) and the radial distribution function (RDF) of the droplets. Also, the tendency of the droplets to form clusters was higher for the acetone spray than the water spray, indicating that droplet evaporation promoted droplet grouping in the spray. The instantaneous group evaporation number ($G$) was evaluated from the measured length scale of droplet clusters (by the RDF) and the average droplet size and spacing in instantaneous clusters. The mean value of $G$ suggests an internal group evaporation mode of the droplet clouds near the spray centre, while single droplet evaporation prevails near the spray boundary. However, the large fluctuations in the magnitude of instantaneous values of $G$ at all measurement locations implied temporal variations in the mode of droplet cloud evaporation.

This study reports on the use of fractal grids as a new type of turbulence generators in premixed combustion applications. Fractal grids produce turbulence fields which differ from those formed by regular turbulence generators such as perforated plates or meshes. Fractal grids generate high turbulence intensities over an extended region some distance downstream of the grid with a comparatively small pressure drop. Additionally, the integral scale of the flow does not change downstream of the grid. The extended region of high turbulence can also be optimized for the specific application at hand by changing certain parameters of the grid which makes it possible to design the downstream development of the turbulence field. Four space-filling fractal square grids were designed to independently vary the resulting turbulent field and a regular square mesh grid with similar turbulent intensity acted as a reference case. The structure of the resulting premixed V-shaped flames was investigated using Conditioned Particle Image Velocimetry (CPIV). At the same downstream position, flames in the turbulence field of fractal grids showed larger turbulent burning velocity compared to flames in regular grid generated turbulence. However, when compared for the same turbulence intensity, flames in fractal grid generated turbulence produced similar turbulent burning velocities compared to flames in regular grid generated turbulence. In particular, it could be shown that theories such as Taylor’s theory of turbulent diffusivity and Damkohler’s theory of premixed flame propagation, which were deduced from regular turbulence fields, adequately described the increase of effective flame surface area due to the increase in turbulence intensity. Using fractal grids allows the independent variation of the turbulent fluctuations, the integral length scale and the turbulent Reynolds number. An unexpected finding was that the burning velocity ratio, s t / s l was negligible influenced by the integral length scale. A correlation between the burning velocity ratio, s t / s l , and the normalized velocity fluctuations of the flow, u ′/ s l , showed a negligible influence of the integral scale on the turbulent burning velocity. A literature review revealed that the influence of the integral scale on the turbulent burning velocity is still unclear and further research is required. In this context, fractal grids are particularly helpful as they cover a wider range of integral length scales for sufficiently turbulent flows, u ′ ⩾ s l , compared to regular grids.

The liquid flow inside, and the induced air flow around, a falling droplet in stagnant air was numerically investigated using the volume of fluid method to describe the droplet interface. The droplet consisted of oil with the same surface tension and with viscosity as parameter. It was injected into stagnant air with an initial velocity of 1 m/s; therefore, the initial Weber (We = 0.14), Reynolds (Re = 141), and Bond (Bo = 2.4) numbers remained constant during the parametric study whilst the initial Capillary (Ca) and Ohnesorge (Oh) numbers varied by an order of magnitude from 0.46 to 4.6 and from 0.044 to 0.44, respectively. We examined the effect of viscosity on the flow inside, and around, the droplet as well as on the droplet deformation and its natural frequency. This investigation showed a strong dependence of the deformation with liquid viscosity. Specifically, the droplets achieved their final deformation in under-damped, for low viscosity, and in over-damped, for high viscosity, oscillation modes. After a critical time tcrit (or Recrit), the instantaneous air flow symmetry was disturbed, initially in the wake and soon after in the interior of the droplet and in the vortex shedding downstream of the droplet. The air flow in the wake region detached from the droplet surface and resulted in a wake which was approximately 1.5 times longer and wider than the wake behind a solid sphere at the same Re number at steady state conditions. A roller-vortex structure (called rollex) was established upon injection in the immediate wake of the droplet, forming the necessary kinematic link between the directions of the internal circulation in the droplet (Hill vortex) and of the external recirculating air flow in the droplet’s wake. The droplet drag coefficients were compared with corresponding values used in droplet breakup models: although, ultimately, the droplet drag coefficient converged to the values given by the models, the initial magnitudes after injection were incorrect.

[EN] This paper studies the effect of liquid viscosity on the atomisation regimes of initially spherical and non-spherical droplets and also kinematic characteristics of non-spherical droplets. The droplets consisted of water-glycerol solutions with viscosities ranging from 6.3 to 697 mPa s, and the initial aspect ratio was 1, The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of Volvo Car Corporation (VCC), Gothenburg, Sweden and EPSRC grant EP/K019732/1.

In Gasoline Direct Injection engines, direct exposure of the injector to the flame can cause combustion products to accumulate on the nozzle, which can result in increased particulate emissions. This research observes the impact of injector fouling on particulate emissions and the associated injector spray pattern and shows how both can be reversed by utilising fuel detergency. For this purpose multi-hole injectors were deliberately fouled in a four-cylinder test engine with two different base fuels. During a four hour injector fouling cycle particulate numbers (PN) increased by up to two orders of magnitude. The drift could be reversed by switching to a fuel blend that contained a detergent additive. In addition, it was possible to completely avoid any PN increase, when the detergent containing fuel was used from the beginning of the test. Microscopy showed that increased injector fouling coincided with increased particulate emissions. Based on these results a selection of the injectors was installed in a laboratory injection chamber and the spray patterns were investigated with a high speed camera. Injectors corresponding to the largest PN drift produced the thinnest spray jets with the deepest penetration. These factors amplify the risk of wall wetting and provide an explanation for the increase of PN. The positive effect of the detergent was also reflected in the spray pattern analysis, which illustrates the potential benefits of such fuel additives.

This paper discusses the interaction between droplets and entrained turbulent air flow in the far-downstream locations of a confined polydispersed isothermal spray. Simultaneous and planar measurements of droplet and gas velocities in the spray along with droplet size are obtained with the application of a novel experimental technique, developed by Hardalupaset al. (Exp. Fluids, vol. 49, 2010, pp. 417–434), which combines interferometric laser imaging for droplet sizing (ILIDS) with particle image velocimetry (PIV). These measurements quantified the spatial correlation coefficients of droplet–gas velocity fluctuations ($R_{dg}$) and droplet–droplet velocity fluctuations ($R_{dd}$) conditional on droplet size classes, for various separation distances, and for axial and cross-stream velocity components. At the measurement location close to the spray edge, with increasing droplet size,$R_{dg}$was found to increase in axial direction and decrease in cross-stream direction. This suggests that as the gas-phase turbulence becomes more anisotropic away from the spray axis, the gravitational influence on droplet–gas correlated motion tends to increase. The effective length scales of the correlated droplet–gas motion were evaluated and compared with that for gas and droplet motion. The role of different turbulent eddies of the gas flow on the droplet–gas interaction was examined. The flow structures were extracted using proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) of the instantaneous gas velocity data, and their contribution on the spatial droplet–gas velocity correlation was evaluated, which quantified the momentum transfer between the two phases at different length scales of the gas flow. The droplets were observed to augment turbulence for the first three POD modes (larger scales) and attenuate it for the rest of the modes (smaller scales). It has been realized that apart from droplet Stokes number and mass loading, the dynamic range of length scales of the gas flow and the relative turbulent kinetic energy content of the flow structures (POD modes) must be considered in order to conclude if the droplets enhance or reduce the carrier-phase turbulence especially at the lower wavenumbers.

Spontaneous chemiluminescence emission has been suggested as one of the most promising options for flame stoichiometry monitoring, with particularly interesting application for lean premixed combustors. Most published works are focused on global and time-averaged flame stoichiometry; however, the results reported in previous studies it can be concluded that chemiluminescence measurement could be also valid for local or instantaneous equivalence ratio monitoring. This could enable the development of novel diagnostic techniques with interesting applications in many combustion situations, like the study of thermo-acoustic instabilities. This was the main motivation for this study, focused on analyzing the feasibility of chemiluminescence for space- and/or time-resolved stoichiometry measurements. The results revealed unexpected results, not reported in previous studies, with a non-negligible variation of the relation between chemiluminescence and equivalence ratio that seems to be related to changes in local flame properties such as temperature or composition. This finding has important practical consequences since the chemiluminescence vs. equivalence ratio curves should be carefully verified for each application.

Thermoacoustic instabilities under lean operation in gas turbine burners hinder the development of lean premixed combustion mode of operation, thus limiting the potential to decrease NO x emissions. A method to improve stability of lean combustion while maintaining low thermal NO x formation is to add hydrogen in typical gas turbine fuels such as natural gas. The present work examines the thermoacoustic dynamic characteristics of hydrogen-enriched methane blends in a swirl stabilized model gas turbine combustor. We blend CH4 with increasing H2 molar content (from 0% to 40%) at a global equivalence ratio of ϕ = 0.55 on a constant Reynolds number Re = 19000. The reference case of pure methane is susceptible to blow off at the same equivalence ratio. On increasing the hydrogen content at 10% H2, the flammability limits are extended. However, further increase of the H2 content leads to manifestation of random short bursts of dynamic pressure and heat release. Thermoacoustic dynamics are intermittently injected between a quiescent state and a regime of high amplitude oscillations. On further increasing H2 content, the dynamics are attracted towards a limit cycle; a fully established high amplitude regime, where no requiescence is observed. In this regime, heat release rate and dynamic pressure oscillate in phase and at the same frequency. Based on the observed dynamics, we seek a mixture property to characterize the dynamic state, the combustor operates in. We show that the extinction strain rate associated with each mixture can collapse the dynamic transitions from quiescent to intermittent instabilities and finally to fully established thermoacoustic oscillations. In each dynamic state, we examine the mechanism that affiliates coherent structures of the underlying thermodynamic flow field with the flame through the relation of the spatial distribution of the flow imposed strain rate over the extinction strain rate of each mixture. It is shown that the flame anchoring locations for a given mixture are dictated by the flow imposed strain rate and then that increased extinction resistance couples the flame with naturally excited to swirling flows helical instabilities, that may instigate mechanisms responsible for intermittent heat release rate bursts. Finally, the combustor demonstrates a limit cycle behaviour where the flow-imposed strain rate oscillates about the extinction strain rate along the inner shear layers causing local extinction of the flame at the root close to the centerbody.

Previous work has demonstrated that single-cylinder CI engines, with relatively modest changes to operating conditions over a wide operating range, can be run with both very low NOx and low smoke as well as at high efficiency on fuels with high resistance to autoignition such as gasoline. The purpose of this work was to run a multi-cylinder engine without any major changes to the engine system on a gasoline fuel at constant fuel demand to get better understanding of the possible practical advantages and challenges. A 2.7 dm3 Euro IV V6 diesel engine was run on a European standard diesel fuel of 54 CN (Cetane Number) according to the engine map at 1000 rpm and 1500 rpm at different loads. At the same speeds and loads, it was also run on a 84 RON gasoline but with different injection strategies and operating parameters, such as EGR levels. With gasoline, NOx levels comparable to the diesel map point could be obtained but at lower EGR rates, at lower injection pressures and lower brake specific fuel consumption and with extremely low smoke; however the CO and HC emissions were higher. The engine could not be run at high speeds or at loads greater than 12 bar IMEP on gasoline because, without introducing modifications, the fuel overheated and gave rise to vapour-lock problems. Also at high loads, in order to limit NOx emissions, high EGR rates were required but the CO levels were excessive, because the particular turbocharger could not deliver adequate intake pressure at such conditions and hence the intake oxygen levels were too low. Thus further modifications to the fuel system and an alternative turbocharger would be needed to extend the operating range on gasoline. There appears to be potential for simplifying future CI engines e.g. by using lower injection pressures and replacing lean NOx after-treatment by CO and HC control by using gasoline-like fuels.

Non-intrusive chemiluminescence measurements have been used as heat release rate and equivalence ratio indicators for gas turbine combustor active control. In the present study, measurements and modelling of OH*, CH(A)*, C 2 *, and CO 2 * chemiluminescence are used to examine chemiluminescence sensing of heat release rate and equivalence ratio in premixed counterflow methane – air flames with equivalence ratio from 0.6 to 1.3 and strain rate from 80 to 400 s -1 . Two spectrally resolved detecting optical systems were used to detect spatially-averaged (global) and spatially resolved (local) chemiluminescence characteristics in the reaction zone. A recently published reaction mechanism 1 for the chemiluminescence of the OH*, CH*, and C 2 * species is incorporated to GRI-Mech 3.0. The augmented mechanism is further validated against the experimental results of the present study and is used to predict the chemiluminescence characteristics of premixed counterflow methane – air flames. The mechanism includes OH* chemiluminescence formation paths from hydrogen reaction, which have not been evaluated before in premixed counterflow flames. The CHEMKIN based counterflow flame code, OPPDIF is employed to simulate the experiments. The calculated OH* and CH(A)* chemiluminescence agrees well with the experimental results measured by both optical methods. Both the experimental and numerical results demonstrate the ability of OH* and CH(A)* intensities to mark heat release rate in methane – air flames. Overall, CH* may be preferable for heat release rate sensing applications at elevated equivalence ratio and strain rate. For equivalence ratio sensing in methane combustion, the measured and simulated OH*/CH(A)* chemiluminescent intensity ratio is highly dependent on equivalence ratio and nearly independent of strain rate. Thus, this ratio can be used to monitor equivalence ratio. However, a non-monotonic behavior of the OH*/CH* ratio for very lean combustion (ER < 0.7) is observed, in agreement with previous studies. This behavior can be reproduced by the reaction mechanisms. The behavior of OH*/CH(A)* chemiluminescent intensity ratio for flames of methanepropane blends are also calculated with the detailed chemistry model. The addition of propane in methane modifies the behaviour of OH*/CH(A)* chemiluminescent intensity ratio dramatically. However, the numerical results suggest that the OH*/CH(A)* chemiluminescent intensity ratio is an indicator of equivalence ratio in lean methanepropane fuel blended flames.

The work investigates the effect of various post-injection strategies on the flame patterns in a Ricardo Hydra optical single-cylinder, light-duty diesel engine, operated in a partially premixed combustion mode, under low load (IMEP: ca. 2.3 bar), low speed (1200 rpm) conditions. The effect of post-injection fuel amount (12% and 24% of the total fuel quantity per cycle) and post-injection timing (0, 5, 10 deg aTDC) are investigated via pressure trace analysis and optical measurements. Flame propagation is captured by means of high-speed flame natural luminosity imaging and of CH*, C2*, and OH* line-of-sight chemiluminescence measurements. Results suggest that post-injections suppress mixture reactivity but enhance oxidation, and that a larger amount of fuel and/or later post-injection, leads to higher levels of natural luminosity, indicating possible higher soot-out emissions, while post-injection close to the main combustion event appears to have a beneficial effect on the soot oxidation processes.

This paper describes the development and application of a novel optical technique for the measurement of liquid film thickness formed on surfaces during the impingement of automotive fuel sprays. The technique makes use of the change of the light scattering characteristics of a metal surface with known roughness, when liquid is deposited. Important advantages of the technique over previously established methods are the ability to measure the time-dependent spatial distribution of the liquid film without a need to add a fluorescent tracer to the liquid, while the measurement principle is not influenced by changes of the pressure and temperature of the liquid or the surrounding gas phase. Also, there is no need for non-fluorescing surrogate fuels. However, an in situ calibration of the dependence of signal intensity on liquid film thickness is required. The developed method can be applied to measure the time-dependent and two-dimensional distribution of the liquid fuel film thickness on the piston or the liner of gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines. The applicability of this technique was evaluated with impinging sprays of several linear alkanes and alcohols with different thermo-physical properties. The surface temperature of the impingement plate was controlled to simulate the range of piston surface temperatures inside a GDI engine. Two sets of liquid film thickness measurements were obtained. During the first set, the surface temperature of the plate was kept constant, while the spray of different fuels interacted with the surface. In the second set, the plate temperature was adjusted to match the boiling temperature of each fuel. In this way, the influence of the surface temperature on the liquid film created by the spray of different fuels and their evaporation characteristics could be demonstrated.

A swirl-stabilised, lean, partially premixed combustor operating at atmospheric conditions has been used to investigate the local curvature distributions in lifted, stable and thermoacoustically oscillating CH4-air partially premixed flames for bulk cold-flow Reynolds numbers of 15,000 and 23,000. Single-shot OH planar laser-induced fluorescence has been used to capture instantaneous images of these three different flame types. Use of binary thresholding to identify the reactant and product regions in the OH planar laser-induced fluorescence images, in order to extract accurate flame-front locations, is shown to be unsatisfactory for the examined flames. The Canny-Deriche edge detection filter has also been examined and is seen to still leave an unacceptable quantity of artificial flame-fronts. A novel approach has been developed for image analysis where a combination of a non-linear diffusion filter, Sobel gradient and threshold-based curve elimination routines have been used to extract traces of the flame-front to obtain local curvature distributions. A visual comparison of the effectiveness of flame-front identification is made between the novel approach, the threshold binarisation filter and the Canny-Deriche filter. The novel approach appears to most accurately identify the flame-fronts. Example histograms of the curvature for six flame conditions and of the total image area are presented and are found to have a broader range of local flame curvatures for increasing bulk Reynolds numbers. Significantly positive values of mean curvature and marginally positive values of skewness of the histogram have been measured for one lifted flame case, but this is generally accounted for by the effect of flame brush curvature. The mean local flame-front curvature reduces with increasing axial distance from the burner exit plane for all flame types. These changes are more pronounced in the lifted flames but are marginal for the thermoacoustically oscillating flames. It is concluded that additional fuel mixture fraction and velocimetry studies are required to examine whether processes such as the degree of partial-premixedness close to the burner exit plane, the velocity field and the turbulence field have a strong correlation with the curvature characteristics of the investigated flames.

We have measured the trajectories of particles into, and around, the recirculation zone formed in water flowing through a sudden pipe expansion with radius ratio 1:3.7, at Reynolds numbers between 5,960 and 41,700 over a range of particle Stokes number (here defined as $$ St = {\frac{{T_{\text{f}} }}{{\tau_{\text{p}} }}} $$ , where T f is an appropriate mean or turbulent timescale of the fluid flow and a particle relaxation time, τp,) between 6.2 and 51 and drift parameter between 0.3 and 2.8. The particles were thus weakly inertial but nevertheless heavy with a diameter about an order of magnitude larger than the Kolmogorov scale. Trajectories of particles, released individually into the flow, were taken in a Lagrangian framework by a three-dimensional particle tracking velocimeter using a single 25 Hz framing rate intensified CCD camera. Trajectories are quantified by the axial distribution of the locations of particle axial velocity component reversal and the probability distributions of trajectory angle and curvature. The effect of increasing the drift parameter was to reduce the tendency for particles to enter the recirculation zone. For centreline release, the proportion of particles entering the recirculation zone and acquiring a negative velocity decreased from about 80% to none and from about 66% to none, respectively, as the drift parameter increased from 0.3 to 2.8. Almost half of the particles experienced a relatively large change of direction corresponding to a radius of curvature of their trajectory comparable to, or smaller than, the radius of the downstream pipe. This was due to the interaction between these particles and eddies of this size in the downstream pipe and provides experimental evidence that particles are swept by large eddies into the recirculation zone over 1.0

The spatial resolution of a Chemiluminescence Sensor, based on focused Cassegrain optics, to detect the location of the reaction zone and heat-release rate in a model gas turbine combustor is reported. The sensor measures simultaneously the chemiluminescent intensities from OH* and CH* excited radicals in flames in order to obtain information on the local flame characteristics. The spatial resolution was evaluated by a combined theoretical and experimental study in laminar and turbulent flames and was supported by detailed chemistry calculations, including the chemiluminescent species, of unstrained one-dimensional flames. The experimental study involved simultaneous measurements of chemiluminescence with the sensor and laser-based reaction rate imaging, using the product of OH and CH2O radicals obtained from planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF), and OH PLIF for the location of the reaction zone. The study quantified the influence of flame shape and dimensions and the direction of traverse of the focal region of the sensor through the flames on the spatial resolution, thereby identifying the limitations and optimising the applicability of the sensor. The sensor was used to obtain local time-dependent measurements of heat-release and equivalence ratio of a reacting mixture, based on the chemiluminescent intensity ratio of OH*/CH*, in a swirl-stabilised model gas turbine combustor and quantified the degree of air–fuel premixedness, probability of reaction and power spectra of pressure and chemiluminescent intensity fluctuations in two unsteady flames.

This paper investigates the structure of the continuous liquid jet of a coaxial air-blast atomiser over a range of Weber numbers 60-1040, Reynolds numbers of liquid jet 5400-21700 and air to liquid momentum ratios of the two streams of 1.7–335. A novel optical technique, based on internal illumination of the liquid jet through the jet nozzle by a laser pulse, which excites a fluorescing dye introduced in the atomizing liquid, was used to obtain instantaneous measurements of the breakup length and the three dimensional location of the liquid core of the continuous liquid jet. The latter was achieved by simultaneously imaging the liquid jet from two directions normal to each other. Such measurements are usually prevented by droplets surrounding the liquid jet at the dense spray near the nozzle exit. The measurements showed that the break-up length of the liquid jet scaled well with the air to liquid momentum ratio. The standard deviation of the temporal fluctuations of the break-up length was around 10% of the mean breakup length for each considered flow condition. The instantaneous jet surface does not develop axi-symmetric wave structures but the time-averaged liquid jet is axi-symmetric around the nozzle axis, while the maximum deflection of the liquid jet occurs close to the breaking point.

A novel optical method is proposed for the measurement of the length of the continuous liquid jet core in atomizers. Laser light is directed through the injecting nozzle to illuminate internally the liquid jet, which acts as an optical fiber transmitting the laser beam. The continuous core of the liquid jet is visualized by means of laser-induced fluorescence, generated by the addition of dye in the liquid. The instantaneous continuous length of the liquid jet is measured as the distance from the nozzle exit, where the emitted laser-induced fluorescence intensity from the liquid jet becomes negligibly small due to interruption of laser light transmission through the liquid jet following the liquid jet breakup. The method provides a nonintrusive measurement approach, promising improved measurements in dense sprays, where droplets obstruct the illumination and the imaging path of shadowgraphic techniques. Measurements in an air-blast atomizer showed that the continuous liquid length measured by the novel approach is systematically shorter than that measured by shadowgraphy. As such, existing empirical correlations for the breakup length, which have been mainly measured by shadowgraphy, may need to be revisited.

Internal combustion engines used in transportation produce about 23% of the UK's carbon dioxide emission, up from 14% in 1980. The current science described in this paper suggests that there could be 6–15% improvements in internal combustion fuel efficiency in the coming decade, although filters to meet emission legislation reduce these gains. Using these engines as hybrids with electric motors produces a reduction in energy requirements in the order of 21–28%. Developments beyond the next decade are likely to be dominated by four topics: emission legislation and emission control, new fuels, improved combustion and a range of advanced concepts for energy saving. Emission control is important because current methods for limiting nitrogen oxides and particulate emissions imply extra energy consumption. Of the new fuels, non-conventional fossil-derived fuels are associated with larger greenhouse gas emissions than conventional petroleum-based fuels, while a vehicle propelled by fuel cells consuming non-renewable hydrogen does not necessarily offer an improvement in emissions over the best hybrid internal combustion engines. Improved combustion may be developed for both gasoline and diesel fuels and promises better efficiency as well as lower noxious emissions without the need for filtering. Finally, four advanced concepts are considered: new thermodynamic cycles, a Rankine bottoming cycle, electric turbo-compounding and the use of thermoelectric devices. The latter three all have the common theme of trying to extract energy from waste heat, which represents about 30% of the energy input to an internal combustion engine.

We quantify the temporal development of the mixing field of a starting jet by measuring the mixture fraction and the scalar dissipation rate and their statistics in an isothermal, impulsively started, gaseous jet. The scalar measurements are performed using planar laser induced fluorescence and, with appropriate processing of the resulting images, allow scalar dissipation rate measurements within 20%. The probability density functions of the mixture fraction, measured within a region of the order of 3 times the Batchelor length scale of the flow, are bimodal and skewed around a well-mixed radial location, which depends on the downstream distance and the time after the start of injection. The instantaneous distributions of the scalar dissipation rate reveal regions of high mixing at the jet periphery and at the developing vortex ring. The normalised probability density function (pdf) of the scalar dissipation rate at various flow positions and times after the start of injection has the same characteristic shape but differs from the usually suggested lognormal distribution at both low and high dissipation values; the same, also, holds true for the pdf conditioned on different values of the mixture fraction. The mean of the scalar dissipation rate conditional on mixture fraction shows a variation across the mixture fraction range, which differs between flow locations and times after the start of injection; however, at later times and for larger downstream distances the conditional mean between flow locations has similar distributions. Implications of the measurements for the auto-ignition of gaseous jets are examined and demonstrate that near the nozzle exit or at earlier times conditions are un-favourable for auto-ignition.

The measurement of the rate of fuel injection using a constant volume, fluid filled chamber and measuring the pressure change as a function of time due to the injected fluid (the so called “Zeuch” method) is an industry standard due to its simple theoretical underpinnings. Such a measurement device is useful to determine key timing and quantity parameters for injection system improvements to meet the evolving requirements of emissions, power and economy. This study aims to further the understanding of the nature of cavitation which could occur in the near nozzle region under these specific conditions of liquid into liquid injection using high pressure diesel injectors for heavy duty engines. The motivation for this work is to better understand the temporal signature of the pressure signals that arise in a typical injection cycle. A preliminary CFD study was performed, using OpenFOAM, with a transient (Large Eddy Simulation -LES), multiphase solver using the homogenous equilibrium model for the compressibility of the liquid/vapour. The nozzle body was modelled for simplicity without the nozzle needle using a nozzle hole of 200μm diameter and the body pressurised to values typical for common rail engines. Temperature effects were neglected and the wall condition assumed to be adiabatic. The chamber initial static pressure was varied between 10 and 50 bar to reflect typical testing conditions. Results indicate that vapour formation could occur in areas 10-30mm distant from the nozzle itself. The cavitation was initiated around 100 μs after the jet had started for low ΔP cases and followed the development period required for the formation of vortices associated with the vortex roll up of this jet. These vortices had localised sites, in their core region, below the vapour pressure and were convected downstream of their initial formation location. It was also found that vapour formation could occur at chamber static pressures up to 50 bar (the highest tested) due to cavitation in the shear layer and this vortex effect. The pressure signal received at the chamber would therefore be more difficult to interpret with additional error components.

Measured filtered density functions (FDFs) as well as assumed beta distribution model of mixture fraction and “subgrid” scale (SGS) scalar variance z′′2⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯, used typically in large eddy simulations, were studied by analysing experimental data, obtained from two-dimensional planar, laser induced fluorescence measurements in isothermal swirling turbulent flows at a constant Reynolds number of 29 000 for different swirl numbers (0.3, 0.58, and 1.07). Two-dimensional spatial filtering, by using a box filter, was performed in order to obtain the filtered variables, namely, resolved mean and “subgrid” scale scalar variance. These were used as inputs for assumed beta distribution of mixture fraction and top-hat FDF shape estimates. The presumed beta distribution model, top-hat FDF, and the measured filtered density functions were used to integrate a laminar flamelet solution in order to calculate the corresponding resolved temperature. The experimentally measured FDFs varied with the flow swirl number and both axial and radial positions in the flow. The FDFs were unimodal at flow regions with low SGS scalar variance, z′′2⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯< 0.01, and bimodal at regions with high SGS variance, z′′2⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯> 0.02. Bimodal FDF could be observed for a filter size of approximately 1.5-2 times the Batchelor scale. Unimodal FDF could be observed for a filter size as large as four times the Batchelor scale under well-mixed conditions. In addition, two common computational models (a gradient assumption and a scale similarity model) for the SGS scalar variance were used with the aim to evaluate their validity through comparison with the experimental data. It was found that the gradient assumption model performed generally better than the scale similarity one.

Schlieren [Schlieren and Shadowgraphy Techniques (McGraw-Hill, 2001); Optics of Flames (Butterworths, 1963)] is a non-intrusive technique that can be used to detect density variations in a medium, and thus, under constant pressure and mixture concentration conditions, measure whole-field temperature distributions. The objective of the current work was to design a schlieren system to measure line-of-sight (LOS)-averaged temperature distribution with the final aim to determine the temperature distribution inside the cylinder of internal combustion (IC) engines. In a preliminary step, we assess theoretically the errors arising from the data reduction used to determine temperature from a schlieren measurement and find that the total error, random and systematic, is less than 3% for typical conditions encountered in the present experiments. A Z-type, curved-mirror schlieren system was used to measure the temperature distribution from a hot air jet in an open air environment in order to evaluate the method. Using the Abel transform, the radial distribution of the temperature was reconstructed from the LOS measurements. There was good agreement in the peak temperature between the reconstructed schlieren and thermocouple measurements. Experiments were then conducted in a four-stroke, single-cylinder, optical spark ignition engine with a four-valve, pentroof-type cylinder head to measure the temperature distribution of the reaction zone of an iso-octane–air mixture. The engine optical windows were designed to produce parallel rays and allow accurate application of the technique. The feasibility of the method to measure temperature distributions in IC engines was evaluated with simulations of the deflection angle combined with equilibrium chemistry calculations that estimated the temperature of the reaction zone at the position of maximum ray deflection as recorded in a schlieren image. Further simulations showed that the effects of exhaust gas recirculation and air-to-fuel ratio on the schlieren images were minimal under engine conditions compared to the temperature effect. At 20 crank angle degrees before top dead center (i.e., 20 crank angle degrees after ignition timing), the measured temperature of the flame front was in agreement with the simulations (730–1320 K depending on the shape of the flame front). Furthermore, the schlieren images identified the presence of hot gases ahead of the reaction zone due to diffusion and showed that there were no hot spots in the unburned mixture.

Lean-burn spark-ignition engines exhibit higher efficiency and lower specific emissions in comparison with stoichiometrically charged engines. However, as the air-to-fuel (A/F) ratio of the mixture is made leaner than stoichiometric, cycle-by-cycle variations in the early stages of in-cylinder combustion, and subsequent indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP), become more pronounced and limit the range of lean-burn operation. Viable lean-burn engines promote charge stratification, the mixture near the spark plug being richer than the cylinder volume averaged value. Recent work has shown that cycle-by-cycle variations in the early stages of combustion in a stratified-charge engine can be associated with variations in both the local value of A/F ratio near the spark plug around ignition timing, as well as in the volume averaged value of the A/F ratio. The objective of the current work was to identify possible sources of such variability in A/F ratio by studying the in-cylinder field of fuel-droplet distribution during the early intake stroke. This field was visualised in an optical single-cylinder 4-valve pentroof-type spark-ignition engine by means of laser-sheet illumination in planes parallel to the cylinder head gasket 6 and 10 mm below the spark plug. The engine was run with port-injected isooctane at 1500 rpm with 30% volumetric efficiency and air-to-fuel ratio corresponding to both stoichiometric firing (A/F=15, Φ =1.0) and mixture strength close to the lean limit of stable operation (A/F=22, Φ =0.68). Images of Mie intensity scattered by the cloud of fuel droplets were acquired on a cycle-by-cycle basis. These were studied in order to establish possible correlations between the cyclic variations in size, location and scattered-light intensity of the cloud of droplets with the respective variations in IMEP. Because of the low level of Mie intensity scattered by the droplets and because of problems related to elastic scattering on the walls of the combustion chamber, as well as problems related to engine “rocking” at the operating conditions close to the misfire limit, the acquired images were processed for background subtraction by using a PIV-based data correction algorithm. After this processing, the arrival and leaving timings of fuel droplets into the illuminated plane were found not to vary significantly on a cycle-by-cycle basis but the recorded cycle-by-cycle variations in Mie intensity suggested that the amount of fuel in the cylinder could have been 6–26% greater for the “strong” cycles with IMEP 115% higher than the average IMEP, than the ones imaged for “weak” cycles at less than 85% the average IMEP. This would correspond to a maximum cyclic variability in the in-cylinder equivalence ratio Φ of the order of 0.17.

An infrared sensor was used for measurements of spatial distribution of hydrocarbon concentration in a model of a gas turbine combustor, using absorption tomography along multiple lines of sight (LOS). This sensor has the potential for monitoring the degree of premixedness of reacting fuel and air in stationary gas turbine combustors, where operation with lean premixed mixtures is important for reduction of NOx emissions. A numerical simulation, using a stochastic representation of a turbulent hydrocarbon distribution in the cross section of a duct was generated, in order to evaluate the ability of computed tomography (CT) to reconstruct the initial distribution. The simulation considered the experimental execution of the measurements, the optimal number of parallel LOS and projection angles and the optimal reconstructed grid size that would be required to minimize the error of reconstruction of the distribution with the algebraic reconstruction tomography algorithm for planar parallel geometry of LOS. We conclude that the quality of reconstruction is increasing asymptotically as both parallel and angular projections increase. As the reconstructed object grid is refined and given a maximum acceptable error of reconstruction, there is a minimum threshold for both the amount of view angles and parallel projections. For instance, the spatially integrated error of reconstruction can remain below 30% in a 11 × 11 object grid for at least 10 parallel LOS and at least 6 view angles. For similar quality of reconstruction and an increasing number of projection angles, the required amount of parallel LOS is slightly decreasing. An experimental assessment of the spatial resolution of the sensor is presented by comparing infrared absorption (INFRA) measurements with those from optical planar visualisation of fuel concentration, based on a Mie scattering technique. The flow investigated was a confined coaxial flow of a 8 mm-diameter central premixed air/methane jet (initial equivalence ratio of 2; Reynolds number of 3800), surrounded by a co-flow of air (0.5 m/s) in a 144 mm diameter duct. The INFRA sensor combined with CT used in this case an 11 × 11 reconstruction grid with 25 parallel LOS and 6 projection angles, because of limitations particular to this experiment, and assumed an axisymmetric flow to provide information to improve the accuracy of the reconstruction. The numerical simulation predicted for this geometry an error of about 30%, which is lowered by the axisymmetric assumption. The CT concentration measurements for low radial gradients (i.e. for Z≫2.75D) had an error in the reconstructed hydrocarbon concentration profile (here calculated by integration over the full width of the duct), of 25% of the corresponding Mie scattering measurements, which were previously calibrated with a flame ionisation detector. The error was found to increase with the local radial gradient of the concentration, which was confirmed by a supplementary numerical simulation that investigated the influence of the spatial gradient of concentration and laser beam diameter. This computational work showed that INFRA combined with CT should have a maximum laser beam width of 20% of the reconstruction grid spatial resolution for optimal accuracy and that the technique can resolve gradient scales of half a pixel of the reconstruction grid size.

This paper describes a Cassegrain optics-based chemiluminescence sensor (CS) for measurements in gas turbine combustors. The chemiluminescence sensor measures the equivalence ratio of reacting fuel and air mixtures, and can identify the flame location, in partially premixed flames. It has the potential for monitoring the degree of premixedness of reacting fuel and air in industrial gas turbine combustors, where operation with lean premixed mixtures is important for reduction of NO, emissions. The spatial resolution of the sensor is evaluated by comparing OH* chemiluminescence measurement from the CS with laser induced OH fluorescence, in the cone-shaped premixed flame of a Bunsen burner. The ability of the sensor to measure in a modified micro-gas turbine environment burning a methane/air, as well as, a methane/ water/air flame (humidified flame) is also demonstrated. (Less)

The potential of lean combustion for the reduction in exhaust emissions and fuel consumption in spark ignition engines has long been established. However, the operating range of lean-burn spark ignition engines is limited by the level of cyclic variability in the early-flame development stage that typically corresponds to the 0-5 per cent mass fraction burned duration. In the current study, the cyclic variations in early flame development were investigated in an optical stratified-charge spark ignition engine at conditions close to stoichiometry [air-to-fuel ratio (A = 15] and to the lean limit of stable operation (A/F = 22). Flame images were acquired through either a pentroof window (‘tumble plane’ of view) or the piston crown (‘swirl plane’ of view) and these were processed to calculate the intra-cycle flame-kernel radius evolution. In order to quantify the relative effects of local fuel concentration, gas motion, spark-energy release and heat losses to the electrodes on the flame-kernel growth rate, a zero-dimensional flame-kernel growth model, in conjunction with a one-dimensional spark ignition model, was employed. Comparison of the calculated flame-radius evolutions with the experimental data suggested that a variation in A/F around the spark plug of Φ(A/F) ≈ 4 or, in terms of equivalence ratio Φ, a variation in Φ ≈ 0.15 at most was large enough to account for 100 per cent of the observed cyclic variability in flame-kernel radius. A variation in the residual-gas fraction of about 20 per cent around the mean was found to account for up to 30 per cent of the variability in flame-kernel radius at the timing of 5 per cent mass fraction burned. The individual effect of 20 per cent variations in the ‘mean’ in-cylinder velocity at the spark plug at ignition timing was found to account for no more than 20 per cent of the measured cyclic variability in flame kernel radius. An individual effect of similar level was attributed to the heat losses to the electrodes, and a much lower effect than that, namely 5-10 per cent at most, could be attributed to cyclic variations in spark-energy release traces. Even when the variations in mean velocity were coupled to both the effects of heat losses to the electrodes and spark-energy release variations, the combined effect was found to account for no more than 40-50 per cent of the observed cyclic variability in flame-kernel radius at the 5 per cent mass-fraction burned timing of 40 ° crank angle after ignition timing.

The operating range of lean-burn SI engines is limited by the level of cycle-by-cycle variability in the early flame development, which typically corresponds to the 0–5% mass fraction burned. An experimental investigation was undertaken to study this flame variability in an optical, stratified-charge, SI engine close to the lean limit of stable operation (A/F=22). Double-exposed flame images acquired through either a pentroof window (“tumble plane” of view) or the piston crown (“swirl plane” of view) were processed to calculate the intra-cycle flame growth and convection rates under 1500 RPM low-load conditions. Projected flame-boundary analysis was also performed to investigate the effect of flame shape/wrinkling on the subsequent timing of 5% mass fraction burned on a cycle-by-cycle basis. The images showed that the flame always preserved its shape while growing in size (even when it had been initiated with a highly convoluted shape); image processing demonstrated the manner with which the flame-growth speed varied as the flame propagated and approached the pentroof and piston-crown walls for slow, “typical” or fast burning cycles. It was found that it was beneficial to have a high convection velocity in the swirl plane of flow during the first 10° CA after ignition timing (corresponding to less than 0.1% mass fraction burned), but after this stage it was beneficial to have a moderate convection velocity for the flame. However, on the tumble plane of flow, a high convection velocity was preferable up to 30° CA after ignition timing (corresponding, typically, to 1% mass fraction burned). Slow development of a flame was associated with higher stretch rates for the same flame radius than fast-developing flames during the period of growth from 3 to 6 mm in radius (about 0.1–1% mass fraction burned). Extended analysis of the projected flame front's shape and its wrinkling showed that the fastest lean-condition flames had contour characteristics similar to those of the flames recorded for stoichiometric conditions. This suggested that the fastest lean flames on a cycle-by-cycle basis might have been richer than the average in the vicinity of the spark plug at ignition.

On decrit une methode non ambigue d'identification de la phase gazeuse, en supposant que la courbe d'etalonnage soit determinee largement par la lumiere refractee a travers la particule

The operating range of lean-burn spark-ignition engines is limited by the level of cyclic variability in the early flame development that typically corresponds to the 0-5% mass fraction burned duration. An experimental investigation was undertaken to study the levels of flame chemiluminescence in an optical stratified-charge spark-ignition engine, using a Cassegrain optical system with high spatial resolution. Measurements of OH and CH-radical intensities were simultaneously acquired with double flame images per cycle for a range of air-to-fuel ratios (A/F=12-22). These signals of chemiluminescence were used to evaluate the in-cylinder equivalence ratio of the reacting mixture and to further examine its contribution to the flame growth speed and the cyclic variability in the crank angle by which 5% mass fraction was burned (θXb5%). Specifically, the ratio of the OH/CH chemiluminescence signals was calibrated in the engine and tested extensively for different injection strategies and spark advances, to measure the "global" and "local" in-cylinder A/F ratio around the spark plug. The complications encountered towards this goal are discussed in detail. The results showed that the equivalence ratio exhibited large variations on a cycle-by-cycle basis and consistently produced negative correlation coefficients with θXb5%, especially for lean-set operating conditions (A/F=20-22). Particularly, for open-valve injection strategy that yielded a stratified mixture, the degree of this correlation lied in the range ≈-0.4 to -0.8, being lower for the locally measured A/F ratio and higher for the globally evaluated one. Some issues related to the opposite gradients of the calibration curves deduced for the measurement of the global and local in-cylinder A/F ratios need to be examined outside the engine using a combustion facility with controlled conditions of pressure, temperature, turbulence intensity, and dilution by combustion residuals. © 2003 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Statistics of the alignment of fluid-dynamic principal strain-rates and the local flamelet-normal in a premixed turbulent V-flame (methane-air, Re t = 450, φ = 0.8) were measured experimentally using simultaneous stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (SPIV) and planar laser-induced fluorescence of OH (OH-PLIF). The use of a second OH-PLIF sheet, oriented in a crossed-plane imaging configuration enabled conditioning of the statistics with respect to through-plane flame orientation. The statistics show the geometric alignment changes significantly with the distance between the flame and the location where the strain-rate field is evaluated. It was observed that approximately 30 η upstream of the flame, the fluid-dynamic principal strain-rates show no preferential alignment with the flamelet. With increasing proximity to the flame, the most extensive principal strain-rate is observed to align preferentially perpendicular to the local flamelet-normal. In the immediate vicinity of the flame, where local fluid-dynamics are dominated by dilatation, the principal extensive strain-rate is observed to align preferentially parallel to the local flamelet-normal. The realignment of the principal strain-rates in the immediate vicinity of the flame is clearly the result of local flow acceleration caused by heat-release at the reaction zone. As the most extensive principal strain-rate tends to align preferentially perpendicular to the local flamelet-normal outside the region of heat-release, the data indicate that high scalar gradients observed ahead of the flamelet are produced by the local turbulent flow-field, rather than destroyed by it.

The operating range of lean-burn spark-ignition (SI) engines is limited by the cycle-to-cycle variability of the fuel concentration at or near the spark plug at ignition timing. An experimental investigation was undertaken to measure the temporal and spatial distribution of hydrocarbon (HC) concentration in a spark-ignition engine, using the infrared (IR) laser absorption at 3392 nm. The purposes were to establish whether there is a correlation between time-resolved HC measurements for a range of global air-to-fuel (A/F) ratios (A/F = 15.5–23) with the strength of the firing stroke and to establish how this varies with fuel port-injection strategies against either open (injection timing 30° crank angle (CA) after intake top dead center) or closed-valves (injection timing 180°CA after intake top dead center), respectively resulting in stratified and near-homogeneous charge distributions. The results showed that IR line-of-sight (LOS) averaged A/F ratio measurements yielded a good agreement with the global A/F ratio readings obtained by the linear air-to-fuel (LAF) zirconia-based sensor. Furthermore, the cyclic variability of the measurements of the fuel concentration increased with increasing A/F ratio. At A/F = 23, closed-valve injection strategy resulted in small spatial stratification of the fuel charge with an ensemble-averaged correlation coefficient of fluctuations of the IR LOS A/F ratios with fluctuations of peak in-cylinder pressure of 0.37. For open-valve injection strategy, which resulted in axial fuel mixture charge-stratification but no radial charge-stratification, a maximum correlation coefficient of the IR LOS A/F ratios with fluctuations of peak pressure of 0.34 was measured (at the measurement location closest to the spark). This correlation was reduced to 0.17 at locations furthest from the spark plug. Finally, results showed that at A/F = 23, fuel stratification can be used to control lean-burn SI combustion, while at A/F = 15.5, no significant difference was observed between the two injection timings. The consequences of these findings on the fuel distribution in the pentroof and the control of the lean limits of SI engines are discussed.

The shadow Doppler velocimeter (SDV) is a non-intrusive optical instrument that is capable of simultaneous, spatially precise, measurement of particle size and velocity for particles of arbitrary shape. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the accuracy and resolution limits of a given optical configuration of the instrument using a computer code based on Mie theory. This code is intended for use in the engineering development of the SDV in order to optimize the optical configuration and quantify particle size accuracy, and other limitations, of the SDV, primarily the estimation of the effective field of view. The approach taken in this work is the simulation of a simplified, geometrically scaled SDV configuration in which the actual imaging lens system is replaced by a single equivalent lens. The light scattered by a spherical particle within the simulated laser Doppler probe volume was calculated using a Mie scattering approach and a thin-lens approximation was incorporated into a Huygens-Fresnel quadrature to calculate the light intensity distribution at the image plane. Shadow image simulations were performed for particles in the size range (5 µm, 40 µm) for both `in-focus' and `out-of-focus' spherical particles. These simulations were used to determine the optimal intensity thresholds for the light intensity needed by the current SDV processors in order to make measurements. These optimized thresholds were then used to determine the sizing performance of the SDV instrument (beam crossing angle = 5.0° and f/6.25 imaging lens). For the existing configuration of the SDV the particle sizing error was less than 10% for particles of diameter >20 µm.

The acquired images of interferometric particle sizing techniques are characterized by intense fringe pattern overlapping in dense droplet and bubble areas, which hinders the image processing process and subsequent information extraction. Methods employed, such as thresholding and the Hough transform and template cross-correlation, exhibit weaknesses when processing such dense areas of interest. We investigate the viability of applying the wavelet transform (WT) for the detection of the fringe pattern centers and the evaluation of the particle size. We present the basics of the WT using the Mexican hat, which exhibits excellent localization properties and present two different alternatives routes in detecting the fringe patterns in the compressed and uncompressed fringe pattern cases. We found that in comparison to the most reported methods for image evaluation, such as intensity thresholding and plain cross-correlation, the WT is a very efficient tool for detecting the patterns, even in images with high-number fringe pattern areas. The usage of the WT for the sizing of the imaged droplets and bubbles is also examined, in comparison to the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT).

Measurements of the scalar dissipation rate are performed in an impulsively started gas jet, using planar laser induced fluorescence. The measurements are well resolved spatially. The deteriorating effect of experimental noise on this experiment is treated with a Wiener filter, which is shown to be applicable to this large-scale inhomogeneous flow. The accuracy of the scalar dissipation rate is within $20\%$, as determined from an explicit calculation of the filtering errors. The residual fields that remain after the filtering are analysed in detail and their statistical properties show that these resemble white noise to a good approximation. The level of corrections is minimal for the scalar field but it is of the order of $40\%$ for the scalar dissipation rate. An examination of the filtering operation using modeled spectra and the measured spatial resolution shows that the Wiener filter produces errors in the estimate of the scalar dissipation rate $\sim30\%$, for Taylor-scale Reynolds number up to 1000. The implications of this modelling are discussed with respect to common experimental situations and point out the relative merits of improving the spatial resolution as compared to improvements in the signal to noise ratio.

The effects of imposed oscillations on the extinction of turbulent nonpremixed and premixed counterflow flames have been quantified as a function of amplitude and frequency of the oscillation. Forced flame extinction was shown to depend on the total duration of pulsation and ranged from a few milliseconds to almost a second, depending on the amplitude and the frequency of the oscillation. Thus extinction times increased quasi-exponentially with decreasing amplitude and increasing frequency of oscillation for nonpremixed flames but were a nonmonotonic function of frequency in premixed flames, with the longest extinction time corresponding to higher frequencies as the flame tended to stoichiometric. Premixing of the fuel or the air stream increased the stability of forced flames, with extinction times reaching their maximum values for twin stoichiometric flames and decreasing towards leaner or richer mixtures. Velocity measurements revealed that the rms of the velocity fluctuations due to the imposed forcing was comparable to, or larger than, the bulk velocity so that oscillated flames were subjected to and survived instantaneous strain rates which were higher than those which caused extinction of the corresponding unforced flames. Visualization showed that the instantaneous strain rate was up four times that of the bulk flow for about half the oscillation period and promoted flame extinction during this part of the oscillation cycle. However, if the duration of the oscillation was smaller than a critical time scale, extinction did not occur, revealing that there was weakening of the flame over several cycles during which the temperature was reduced.

This study reports an experimental investigation of the phenomena which occur when discrete, monodisperse droplets of a water–ethanol–glycerol solution in the size and velocity ranges of 160