A study on the effect of experimental setup configuration on soot formation in a laminar premixed ethylene-air flame

摘要

An experimental investigation was conducted to study the effect of various experimental configurations and burner operating conditions on the measured soot volume fraction in laminar premixed ethylene-air flames at equivalence ratios of 2.34 and 2.64. Soot volume fractions were measured using light extinction for all the experimental conditions. The experimental configurations studied included variation of the height above the burner of the stabilization plate, the diameter of the hole in the stabilization plate, use of a plate without a hole and a screen with a 30 mm hole, variation in the cooling water flow to the burner, and variation in the nitrogen shroud flow rate. The observed soot volume fractions show that changes in the height above the burner of the stabilization plate using either the 30 mm or 40 mm diameter hole as well as changes in the cooling water flow rate do not significantly affect the measured soot volume fraction. The change in the shroud nitrogen flow rates influence the observed soot volume fraction at high nitrogen flow rates. Use of a stabilization plate with a 20 mm diameter hole or a stabilization plate with no hole also affected the measured soot volume fraction.