Development of a Spherical Combustion Chamber for Measuring Laminar Flame Speeds in Navy Bulk Fuels and Biofuel Blends

摘要

This thesis presents the results of an experimental study to determine laminar flame speeds using the spherical flame method. An experimental combustion chamber, based on the constant-volume bomb method, was designed, built, and instrumented to conduct these experiments. Premixed Ethylene/air mixtures at a pressure of 2 atm, temperature of 298 5K and equivalence ratios ranging from 0.8 to 1.5 were ignited and using a high speed video Schlieren system images were taken to measure the laminar flame speed in the expanding spherical flame front. The results were compared against published data for ethylene/air mixtures which yielded agreement within 5%. An attempt was made to measure the laminar flame speed for F-76 at a pressure of 5 atm and temperature of 500K; however, premixed conditions were unable to be met due to auto-ignition and vapor characteristics of F-76. Suggestions for future work provide a potential solution and improvement to the current design.