The 2nd International Seminar on High Temperature Combustion, Jan.

17-18, 2000, Stockholm, Sweden

Highly Preheated Air Combustion Research in Sweden

Blasiak W, Dong W, Lille S
Metallurgy/Heat and Furnace Technology, Royal Institute of Technology, 10044 Stockholm, Sweden

Lindblad B
Jernkontoret, Stockholm, Sweden

1. Introduction
During last two years Highly Preheated Air Combustion (HPAC) has been recognized in Sweden as a very promising combustion method applicable to different type of industrial furnaces. First research activities began in January 1997 at Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Division of Heat and Furnace Technology under support of Jernkontoret and NUTEK/STEM. The general aim of all ongoing activities is wide and fast implementation of this combustion method into existing furnaces. To fulfil this aim good understanding and efficient implementation tools are needed. The research program is realized in the form of separate smaller projects. Available data on high temperature combustion are very limited therefore wide fundamental experimental studies followed by modeling are carried out. Firstly a laboratory (10-50 kW) furnace working at steady-state conditions is used to study a jet fuel in conditions of the Highly Preheated Air Combustion. Main technical objectives are: to obtain a better fundamental understanding of the physical/chemical processes taking place during High Temperature Air Combustion by detailed experiment, to develop interpretative and/or predictive models and scaling up tools necessary for successful application in industrial furnaces to obtain experimental data for the verification and development of mathematical modeling tools. Mathematical modeling follows these studies. Mathematical modeling of the whole process is the only reliable way to scale up the combustion process. In this way a high combustion temperature process can be optimally designed for different applications, for example for different types of furnaces. Therefore the main objective of this project is to develop and experimentally verify mathematical model which is able to predict correctly at first a single fuel jet in conditions of highly preheated air combustion. Secondly, the experiments in semi-industrial scale, a 500 kW test furnace are carried on. The 500 kW test furnace can be equipped with at least one par of regenerative burners. The main technical objectives of this activity are: specification of optimal conditions for material heat treatment, combustion tests with respect to efficiency, pollutants emission for different gas fuels, testing of oil combustion with high-cycle regenerative burners testing and evaluation of existing commercial high-cycle regenerative burners.

The 2nd International Seminar on High Temperature Combustion, Jan. 17-18, 2000, Stockholm, Sweden

In-furnace measurements of temperature, velocities and gas composition are carried out for different sets of decisive parameters (fuel, air injection velocity, position of air, fuel nozzles, furnace temperature, and in-furnace oxygen concentration). Furnace is operated with commercial burners according to industrial needs. At least one par of high-cycle regenerative burners with fuel direct injection can be installed in the furnace and tested. Also in this case development of mathematical modeling as applied to furnaces with regenerative burners follows the experiments.

2. Experimental study on behavior of single fuel jet in highly preheated and diluted air combustion
In order to obtain facts about stability and structure of a flame in highly preheated air conditions with low oxygen concentrations; some simplifications have to be done. The HPAC technique is a variable cyclic process, which means that the conditions change constantly inside the furnace. The area of investigation has been decided to be the location at which the fuel mixes with the oxidizer and is ignited, see Figure 1, and it was assumed that under very short periods of time there are stable conditions. These stable conditions are investigated, i.e. the process is frozen for a specific set of parameter, such as preheat temperature, flow field and oxygen concentration. From this simplification, a test furnace was built to continuously provide hot oxidizer Fuel jet with variable oxygen concentration, and with the possibility to inject fuel Air Flue gas perpendicularly into the hot oxidizer. Figure 1 Area of investigation Part of the work was the study of highly preheated air combustion, in relation to; flame stabilization and emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and carbon monoxide (CO). The other part was to look at different visualization techniques that can be used in HPAC, such as LDA, schlieren and direct photography. 2.1 Methodology 2.1.1 Parametric study The parametric study involved systematic alteration of a number of physical and chemical variables and the continuos monitoring of the consequent affects on flame stability and emissions level. The intake air to the furnace is continuously heated electrically until a stable pre-heat temperature is obtained depending upon the magnitude of electric current across the air heating coils. Since very high air pre-heat temperatures are desired and additionally there is a constant radiative heat loss from the furnace wall to the outside atmosphere, 6 to 8 hours are consumed in order to reach a steady state situation. Prior to entering the heating system, compressed air is filtered and dried successively, followed by dilution (optional) with a flow of nitrogen (N2 PLUS). The oxidizer enters the furnace space from the bottom after passing through a couple of flow laminizing devices. The fuel (Gasol 95) is injected into the laminar oxidizer stream via a nozzle inserted perpendicularly to direction of oxidizer flow i.e., through the

The 2nd International Seminar on High Temperature Combustion, Jan. 17-18, 2000, Stockholm, Sweden

furnace wall, and at a height approximately 1/3 of combustion space wall from the laminizing element. The resultant flue gases move out of the system via the exhaust system (exhaust duct and induced-draft exhaust fan), and in doing so also pass through the flue gas filtering and analyzing system. Information from the flue gas analyzer is fed to an online data logger, which in turn is connected to a computer. A program called Easy View is used to continuously monitor and record the changes in the inputs and outputs. Parameters that are changed for a certain air preheat temperature include the fuel injection nozzle diameter and oxygen concentration (% volume) in the air mixture fed to the furnace, but however, the total flow of oxidizer (200nl/min) and fuel rate (0.3nl/min) is always kept constant. Observations are recorded for nozzle diameters ranging from 0.3mm - 0.9mm and for each nozzle size a set of measurements is obtained for different oxygen concentrations (21%vol. - 5%vol.). Flame characteristics, such as stability, lift-off distance, luminosity, color ratio (yellow: blue), flame fluctuation level, and size are noted along with the level of emissions for NOx and CO. A schematic diagram of the experimental test furnace and auxiliaries is presented in Figure 2.
Flue gas analysis (NOx, CO2,CO,O2)

Data logger for temperatures, flow rates and pressures

Flue gas channel

T,P Temperature measurements and air heater control

Combustion chamber

T T

Mixing

Flow meters Pressurised air

Flow laminizing device / Honeycomb element

T T, P Propane Nitrogen T

Connection box for heating coils

Air filter

T,P Air heating section

Figure 2 Schematic of the Continuos High Air Temperature Furnace

Criteria employed to assess flame stabilization essentially include level of flame fluctuation. The turbulent flame is considered to be stable as long as it is constantly visible within the glass window of the combustion space, but as soon as the flame begins to appear and disappear intermittently, it indicates the onset of unstability. The extreme condition of unstability involves the nonexistence of the flame. These ocular stabilization measurements will be continued with LDA measurements in upcoming next stage.

Lift-off distance is measured along the axial direction of the flame front i.e., in the direction of fuel injection. Since there are no graduations on the glass window or any other arrangement for lift-off distance measurement, therefore it is determined approximately.

The 2nd International Seminar on High Temperature Combustion, Jan. 17-18, 2000, Stockholm, Sweden

2.1.2 Photography With a camera, it is possible to capture time-averaged pictures of a flame. The quality of the picture is highly effected by the optical set-up, film type, surrounding conditions and development of the pictures. However, some parameters are less effected then others by these factors. For example when comparing the size of the flame the most important factor is the time of exposure, and if this is kept constant for all pictures, good reliability can by achieved.
Hasselblad camera

f=80 mm Combustion chamber

Figure 3 Typical direct photo of flame; 0,5mm nozzle; 21%O2 T=768C

Figure 4 Setup of the direct photography system; Top view

The still photography is used to capture lift-off distance and size of flame, and can if the conditions are known, be used to compare the intensity and color of flames. Highspeed photography is used to look at fluctuations and other high-speed phenomenon. The setup for direct photography is the same for both the still and the high-speed camera. One of the windows was prepared with a non-reflective ceramic plate to avoid mirror images in the photos. The camera was placed on a tripod on a distance that placed the whole combustion chamber in the viewfinder, as shown in Figures 3 and 4. The shutter speed and opening was adjusted for different conditions, and the shutter speed was kept as high as possible. The still camera is a 60x60 mm Hasselblad camera and a Hatland high-speed camera was used to take pictures up to 8000 pictures per second. For still photography Kodak color films were used with a sensitivity of 400 ASA, with a shutter speed of up to 1/100 s. For high-speed a 16mm Kodak high-speed film was used with a sensitivity of 400 ASA. 2.1.3 Schlieren technique The Schlieren technique uses an artificial light to create a light beam of separated wavelengths. This light beam is then reflected through the measurement volume, and registered in a camera. Schlieren picture does not get true colors; instead the light will be effected by the densities in the combustion chamber, giving an image of the density differences between flame, fuel and flue gases. Figure 5 shows clearly what can be seen from schlieren investigations: size and shape of the flame front, shape of the gas flow inside the flame and temperature variations in the surrounding atmosphere. When the flame is very dull and the light is to low to get a picture with direct photography, then schlieren technique will still be able to pick out the flame front and gas flow.

The 2nd International Seminar on High Temperature Combustion, Jan. 17-18, 2000, Stockholm, Sweden

The schlieren flow-visualization technique was used to observe flow patterns and instability phenomena in the fuel jet. The Schlieren system has 150mm diameter mirrors and can be used for visualization in black and white or in color. The schlieren color flow visualization system was designed with a continuously dispersed prism, which has about four times higher sensitivity than the black and white system. The high-speed camera, which can sample over 8000 pictures per second, was used to record the flow patterns. The flow visualization was done using a special color schlieren method. The combustion chamber was equipped with two windows placed on opposite walls of the combustion chamber. The windows were made of quartz glass with fine surface, less than 2/10 wavelength, and were highly parallel. The high quality of the windows was required to obtain a high resolution of the jets. The diameter of the windows was 150 mm and the thickness 30 mm. A prism in the optical system just behind the slit made color visualization possible. The prism created a continuous spectrum of light.
100W halogen bulb lens slit prism

turbulent jet mirror 150 mirror lens wires film nozzle

Figure 5 Typical schlieren picture of free jet flame

Figure 6 Layout for the optical colour visualisation system with direct vision

The layout of the prism and the full optical system is shown in Figure 6. The direct vision prism was made up of three cemented prisms, with the central one made consisting of dense flint, and the outer ones being identical and made from cron optical glass. This construction of prisms permits the yellow ray i.e. D-Fraunhofer line, to pass through the prism without any deviation. Other spectral components are slightly deviated. The maximum angle between the red and violet rays was not greater than 1o 30 . A complete spectrum of white light from a light 100 W halogen bulb with color temperature of equal to 2900 K was used. Spherical mirrors with a focus length of 1450 mm were used to create the schlieren picture. The height of the slit was constant 8 mm, whereas its width was varied from 0.5 to 1.5 mm. The white light is split into colors by the constant deviation prism, and focused on a point with the same diameter as the width of the slit. A more detailed analysis of the optical system provides a correlation between the density gradient, , and axial co-ordinate y as follows:
d a = d y KL f

Equation 1

The 2nd International Seminar on High Temperature Combustion, Jan. 17-18, 2000, Stockholm, Sweden

Where K =0.226 cm3/g is the constant in Gladston-Dale law, L - axial dimension of visualized jet and f is the length of focus for the collimating mirror. The distance a is our sensitivity in the film plane. To estimate the value of a, a number of measurements was performed by using a mechanical shifter in the knife plane. The final result is a = 0.04 mm for color schlieren images. Compared to results from experiments using white-light technique, the color system is at least four times more sensitive. The schlieren color visualization of combustion seems to be more useful in comparison with the black and white system, if the image analysis is made by the redgreen-blue (RGB) methods. These methods can only distinguish boundaries between different colors in the object, so it is currently difficult to analyze details of the flow or flame. 2.1.4 Laser Doppler anemometry The laser Doppler Anemometry system consists of an optical system and an electronic processor. The optical system takes a laser beam and divides it into two beams that intersect in the flow under investigation. Light scattered from small particles moving with the flow through the beam intersection volume in detected by the optical system. The scattered light is of another frequency due to the movement of the particles, the Doppler effect. The two laser beams create a fringe pattern in the intersection volume. Particles moving across the fringe pattern will scatter the light and a signal consisting of light and dark regions is detected. The time difference between the light peaks is solely determined by the velocity of the particle and the fringe spacing. The fringe spacing is determined by the optical system; lenses, beam diameter and angle between the beams. The signal processor determines the frequency between the peaks and uses the fringe spacing to convert the frequency to flow velocity. To solve several flow related problems a frequency shift has been added to one the laser beams. This will cause the fringes to move, so a particle standing still is measured with a Doppler frequency corresponding to the frequency shift added to the laser beam. Particles moving in one direction will appear with a Doppler shift higher than the added frequency and particles moving in the other direction will appear with a lower Doppler shift. The Doppler frequency if determined with the correlation technique. When two signals of identical frequency but different phase are compared in a cross correlator, the output of the cross correlator is proportional to the cosine of the phase difference between the signals. A frequency detector is obtained by delaying a part of the electrical signal by a known amount since this corresponds to adding a phase of times the frequency to the signal. Comparing the original signal (without delay) with the delayed signal in a phase detector of the correlation type thus yields the phase difference. Dividing this by the known delay then results in the frequency. The results from the electronic signal processor are analyzed with a Dantec PDA program. From the software, statistical quantities such as turbulence and higher order moments can be calculated. The laser system is configured for back-scatter mode, which means that the laser light is emitted and received by the same optical unit, otherwise the setup is identical to

The 2nd International Seminar on High Temperature Combustion, Jan. 17-18, 2000, Stockholm, Sweden

Figure 7. This makes the calibration of the system much easier and faster. The laser is an Argon ion laser, Spectra-Physics Stabilite model 2017. For higher signal to noise ratio, the system is used in 1D-mode, giving an acceptance rate of over 90% on average. The focal length for the back-scattering setup is 600mm, and the measuring volume is 2,37mm x 146 m.
Laser Optical unit Photomultiplier Electronics

Particle generator Flow

Receiver optics

Data recording

Figure 7 Setup of the LDA system

All measurements are taken at a single point. In order to build up a flow profile a traversing system has been used to move the laser system and the measurement point. The maximum traversing volume is one m3. The seeding was done with TiO2 particles, which were introduced into the oxidizer before heating, from a fluidized bed model. The data gathered was corrected to avoid velocity bias. 2.2 Test Furnace The furnace is essentially a rectangular section of a steel alloy construction erected in a vertical direction. The middle section of the furnace consists of the air tight combustion space provided with a glass window for observing the flame. Figure 8 indicates some of the essential flame characteristics observed during experimentation; lift-off distance, approximate ratio between the different colored flame zones, surface area, degree of fluctuation, etc. The furnace has thermal insulation along the walls, which mainly consists of ceramic materials, alumna fibers, etc. Insulating plates of ceramic nature surrounds the heating coils in the lower section of the furnace. Resting on firebricks above the heating elements is the flow laminizing device. This is a high temperature resistant-perforated ceramic plate, geometrically shaped to fit in the furnace. To completely ensure laminar flow conditions, quite a number of spherical marbles are placed above the plate. The top section of the furnace is an insulated space, which connects to the exhaust system for the flue gases.

Data logger for temperatures, flow rates and pressures Yellow Color Flame Zone

Propane Fuel (liquid gas) 0.3 nlitres/min

Temperature measurements and air heater control

Blue Color Flame Zone Lift-off Distance (mm)

Fuel Injection Nozzle (0.3mm - 0.9mm)

Air Preheat Temperature Thermocouple (S - type) Electric Cables to Connection box for Air Preheater Pre-heated Laminar Air Mixture Stream

Flow Laminizer / Honeycomb Element

Non-laminar / turbulent pre-heated combustion air mixture

Figure 8 Schematic of the combustion chamber showing some flame characteristics

2.2.1 Process Control The temperature inside the furnace is controlled and maintained by means of an automatic / manual feedback control system. An electrical system comprising of three

The 2nd International Seminar on High Temperature Combustion, Jan. 17-18, 2000, Stockholm, Sweden

heating coils and a voltage/current controller and regulator is employed to heat up the air entering the system. During, automatic mode, the current regulator always strives to maintain a certain magnitude of current across the coils which corresponds to a preset coil temperature or indirectly the desired air preheat temperature. In addition to air preheat temperature, K and S-type thermocouples are used to monitor the temperatures of air mixture, electric coils, burned gases, and furnace wall. All thermocouples are connected to the data logger and therefore corresponding temperatures are displayed on the computer numerically as well as graphically. The flow rates for air, fuel and nitrogen are set and maintained by a flow regulator/controller. Desired values for air, fuel and nitrogen flow rates are fed to the regulator/controller, which are then transformed into electrical signals to the corresponding electronic control valves that open or close accordingly. However, manual valves are also located on the flow Figure 9 Diagram of the preheat temperature lines for safety purposes. Emission control system values detected by the flue gas analyzer are also presented on the computer via the data logger. Figure 9 shows the simple feedback mechanism employed for control of the coil temperature in the furnace. Load represents changes in airflow rate and air mixture temperature; Process is simply a change in temperature of the controlled variable i.e., coil temperature, while the Measuring Element is the corresponding thermocouple. Comparator, Controller, and Final Control Element are integrated in the Current/Voltage regulator and the Manipulated Variable is electric current.
Controller Mechanism Load (U) Comparator

Desired Temperature Value (R)

Controller

(E=R-B)

Final Control Element

Controlled Variable (C)

Process

Mv

Measured Value (B)

Measuring Element

2.2.2 Emission Measuring Equipment The emission analyzing system utilized for experimental purposes is the ECOM-SG Plus which is a compact equipment especially planned for quasi-continuos use. A gas processing system is especially tuned for electrochemical sensors ensure long-time stability and accuracy of measurements. This particular system is very suitable for experimental measurements since it offers with simultaneous mobility - speedy set-up times and a low expenditure on maintenance. Flue gas measurement is initiated with a 3-minute calibration phase during which the unit switches over to fresh air admittance and purges the internal tubing behind the gas cooler and the complete sensor technique. After termination of the calibration, phase the program requests the input of the fuel type fired in the installation to be checked. Upon fuel selection, the program switches over to the indication of measurement values. It shows the momentary emission values and the temperatures. All emission values are displayed in ppm. Figure 10 shows a typical display screen for emission values, measured by the analyzing system when operating on fresh air.

The 2nd International Seminar on High Temperature Combustion, Jan. 17-18, 2000, Stockholm, Sweden

time O2 CO NO NO2 NOx SO2

20.9% 0 ppm 0 ppm 0 ppm : 0 ppm 0 ppm

: TGas TRoom

12:34:56 : 154 oC : 23 oC

Figure 10 Flue gas measurement display

2.3 Stoichiometric Calculations The experiments involved the injection of propane (Gasol 95; 96% Propane) into the combustion space, where it reacts chemically with the oxygen content of the preheated oxidizer. The stoichiometric combustion equation for propane-air interaction is the following:
Reaction 1

Propane (fuel) + Oxygen (in oxidizer) Carbon dioxide (Flue gas) + Water Vapors (Flue gas)
Reaction 2

C3H8 + 5 O2 3 CO2 + 4 H2O Considering volumetric flow rates, the equation can be rewritten:
Reaction 3

1 nl/min C3H8 +5 nl/min O2 3 nl/min CO2+4 nl/min H2O The preceding equation suggests that in order to achieve complete combustion of propane-fuel injected at a rate of 1 nl/min, the necessary oxygen supply rate is 5 nl/min (i.e., air flow rate of approx. 23.8 nl/min). The combustion air is diluted during experimentation by the introduction of an inert gas, in this case nitrogen. Therefore, consequently the corresponding volume fraction of oxygen in air also decreases. Theoretically, oxygen volume (Vol%) in the air mixture is calculated by the following equation.
Equation 2

Oxygen (Vol%) = ((0.21Air) / (Air + Nitrogen))100 The total flow (air flow + nitrogen flow) and gas flow (fuel) are maintained at constant values while experimenting, however air flow is changed which directly influences the percent excess air and dilution coefficient. These quantities are defined as follows.
Equation 3

Dilution Coefficient = DC = (A/F)act/(A/F)Theo.

The 2nd International Seminar on High Temperature Combustion, Jan. 17-18, 2000, Stockholm, Sweden

Equation 4

Percent Excess Air = 100*((A/F)act (A/F)Theo.)/ (A/F)Theo. = 100*(dilution coefficient 1) In this experimental study, the dilution coefficient is determined by using the following simple equation. Dilution coefficient is also referred to as the air excess factor ( ).
Equation 5

Air Excess Factor ( ) = Air flowMeasured / Air flowStoic = (0.21 Air Flow)/(5 Gas Flow) Actual values obtained for NOx (ppm) and CO (ppm) emissions, under different conditions are converted into stoichiometric equivalent values, for the purpose of comparison. The following empirical relations are used in this regard.
Equation 6

NOx-stoichiometric (ppm) = Air Excess Factor( ) NOx-measured (ppm)

Equation 7

CO-stoichiometric (ppm) = Air Excess Factor( ) CO-measured (ppm) 2.4 Experimental results 2.4.1 Carbon monoxide emission It is apparent from the results that for any pre-heat temperature CO concentration in flue gas is at a maximum for the smallest nozzle diameter, and minimal for large size nozzle diameters, i.e., 0.8mm and 0.9mm. CO emissions for 0.3mm nozzle diameter appear to fall as oxygen concentration is decreased at any pre-heat temperature, but these emissions always remain well above acceptable limits. The minimum values for CO at air-preheat temperature of 840oC are for the nozzle diameter of 0.9mm and oxygen content of 8% volume. However, at relatively low air pre-heat temperatures (670oC, 710oC, 750oC) the CO concentration tends to increase very gradually or remains almost constant. Overall, it seems that average CO emissions are reduced as air pre-heat temperature is increased. 2.4.2 Nitrogen oxide emission In contrast to CO emission curves, diagrams for NOx levels indicate quite predictable trends. It is very clear that NOx emissions decrease with reduction in oxygen concentration. Except for the smallest nozzle diameter of 0.3mm which results in the lowest emissions, decreasing nozzle size tends to increase NOx emissions for high air preheat. Also high NOx emission values are obtained at higher air preheat temperatures combined with oxygen concentration of 21% volume, but gradually decrease with lowering of oxygen content in air mixture. At low oxygen levels, the emission magnitudes at different diameters are very close to each other, except for the curves plotted at 670oC. Curves for air preheat temperatures of 840oC, 790oC, 750oC, and 710oC appear to have similar characteristics.

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The 2nd International Seminar on High Temperature Combustion, Jan. 17-18, 2000, Stockholm, Sweden

2.4.3 Lift-off distance Curves for flame lift-off distance at constant pre-heat temperatures indicate that liftoff increase with reduction in oxygen concentration as well as decreasing the fuel injection nozzle diameter. Highest lift-off distances are obtained at the low air preheat temperature and lowest oxygen concentration. Curves for nozzle diameter of 0.3mm have not been plotted since flame conditions (large fluctuation) do not permit measurement/observation. Unstable lift-off values have not been added to the graphs to simplify matters. 2.4.4 Visualization The visualization techniques used in this work are efficient tools to study flow structure in conditions of highly preheated air combustion. The classical use of the schlieren technique is more perceptible compared to the circumstance where the difference in density between flame and environment is substantially lower. A practical problem, which occurred, came from convective flow of air along the outside of the schlieren windows. However even with this difficulty, the schlieren technique can be used to visualize small gradients in density between the flame and surrounding gases, particularly in the case of high molar fraction of oxygen. When the fuel is injected with low velocity (large nozzle), the fuel jet is exposed inside the flame. With higher velocity (small nozzle) the entrainment of surrounding oxidizer is so strong that the visualization of the jet is much weaker. When properly used, the visualization technique can obtain information about the flame base, thus lift-off distance, and flame shape. By registration of the flame with a high-speed camera, it is possible to distinguish the flow structure, even inside the flame. For higher temperature, T>750 C, the lift-off distance was difficult to ascertain particularly when the oxygen molar fraction was below 8 % and using small nozzles. The flame lift-off measurements for these low oxygen concentrations were hampered due to a lack of clear contrast between the flame luminosity and the hot chamber walls. Additionally the flame was unstable under the aforementioned conditions.

Figure 11 a) 0,4mm nozzle 10% O2 b) 0,4mm nozzle 5% O2; T=774C

The time of exposition for HSP (high-speed photography) was four times shorter than the number of expositions per second. The short exposure time increases the sharpness of the photos. The examples of HSP photography made with schlieren visualization can be seen in Figures 11 and 12. The fuel jet is clearly seen in all

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The 2nd International Seminar on High Temperature Combustion, Jan. 17-18, 2000, Stockholm, Sweden

images, but the flame is much better presented with large nozzles where the fuel jet velocity is lower. The base of the lifted flame is seen in most cases and is most clear where there is a high molar fraction of oxygen in the crossflow. An increase of pre-heat temperature will decrease the temperature difference between the flame and cross-flow, this will make schlieren color visualization difficult to analyze because of the decreased density difference.

Figure 12 a) 0,8mm nozzle 10% O2 b) 0,8mm nozzle 5% O2; T=774C

With ordinary photography it can be seen that the flame extents over a large part of the combustion chamber. This occurs when the fuel is injected into an oxidizer with low molar fraction of oxygen. The lift-off distance and shape of the flame are highly effected a b c d by the velocity of the fuel and of the oxygen molar fraction in Figure 13 a) 0,7mm nozzle 21% O2 b) 0,7mm nozzle the oxidizer, this can be 2%O2 c)0,5mm nozzle 21% O2 d) 0,5mm nozzle 2% registered with a photo with O2; T=768C long exposure time (1/5 1/20s). The long exposure time will of course give an average lift-off distance and size. From direct photography it is seen that the increase of velocity and the decrease of oxygen molar fraction give longer lift-off distance and larger flame, Figure 13. Temperature, oxygen concentration and nozzle size effect the color and general visibility of the flame, which gives a problem when comparing pictures of different conditions. Intense flames will require change exposure times or aperture, if this is not done, the pictures of intense flames will be white and for correspondingly; for low visibility flames the pictures will be black. This is not the case for schlieren pictures, since in schlieren the light for visualization is supplied by external lamp.

Figure 14 Direct photograph of a flame with 21% O2, 0,3mm nozzle and preheat T=768C

Figure 15 Direct photograph of flame with 2% O2, 0,3mm nozzle and preheat T=768C

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The 2nd International Seminar on High Temperature Combustion, Jan. 17-18, 2000, Stockholm, Sweden

The visibility decrease and the color changes from bright yellow/white, Figure 13 a and c, to blue/green/yellow flame when the oxygen concentration decreased, Figure 13 b and d. These changes are clear to see but the color change is difficult to register by direct photography, as stated before. The low intensity blue/green/yellow flames require large aperture to collect more light, and will thereby get more interference from the background radiation from the walls of the furnace chamber. The flame is highly effected by the nozzle size, i.e. the velocity of fuel (mixing of fuel and oxidizer). A large nozzle size will create a bright and intense flame, compared to that of a small nozzle. But a larger nozzle will also decrease fluctuations and decrease lift-off distance. This is clear from the photographs. The color will not be highly effected by the change in nozzle size with constant oxygen fraction, except for the smallest nozzle size (d=0,3mm) which has large fluctuations, Figures 14 and 15. The flame lift-off distance, defined as the distance between nozzle exit to the base of the luminous flame, was measured as a function of jet velocity, molar fraction of oxygen and pre-heat temperature. The laser measurements that were made have given good results, and have helped to increase the reliability of the test furnace. Unfortunately the detailed investigations of the flame structure will take more time to complete. The diagrams presented in appendix G are the co-flow component, seen from above without combustion. These cross sections were made at nozzle height in the combustion chamber at 700 C preheat and 21% oxygen in the oxidizer. These are presented to show the velocity field inside the furnace. To get reliable data for flame velocity, several thousand of samples have to be made for each point. This will of course give an average velocity field. 30000 accepted samples make up each measurement point in the diagrams.

3. Mathematical Modeling of single fuel jet under the conditions of HPAC

Computational fluid dynamics technique is a very strong and effective tool to simulate the flow and combustion. It is based on Navier-Stokes equations or Reynolds transport equations, together with fluid state equation, different turbulence models and turbulent reaction models, etc. In the present work, the following models are used: Turbulence: RNG k- model and Reynolds stress model (RSM) Radiation: Rosseland model and Discrete Transfer Radiation model Heat transfer: Standard wall function NOx formation: Zeldovich s thermal NO and De Soete s prompt NO mechanisms Turbulent-chemistry interaction: finite-rate/eddy-dissipation model and mixture fraction/PDF model

The finite-rate/eddy-dissipation model (FRED) is based on the Arrhenius finite rate chemistry and the eddy-dissipation concept of Magnussen and Hjertager. The solution of transport equations of chemical species, with n-step chemical reactions under the influence of turbulence on the reaction rate is expected to describe the turbulent combustion taken place in a HPAC furnace. According to our preliminary HPAC furnace burning propane, total six species, such as C3H8, O2, CO, CO2, H2O, and N2, and the two-step reactions of propane are selected in this model. The mixture
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The 2nd International Seminar on High Temperature Combustion, Jan. 17-18, 2000, Stockholm, Sweden

fraction/PDF model (MPDF) is based on the solution of the mixture fractions instead of each species transport equations. The turbulence effects are accounted for with the help of a probability density function, while the kinetics of chemical reactions are not explicitly defined but treated in thermodynamics using one of two assumptions, flame sheet or mixed-is-burned or chemical equilibrium . In the present simulation, total ten species, such as C3H8, O2, CO, CO2, H2O, N2, C2, OH, CH and O are calculated in this model. 3.1 Simulated single fuel jet HPAC Furnace The simulated furnace has a combustion chamber in dimension of 160200280mm3 with a fuel jet (diameter from 0.3mm to 1mm) on one side of the wall. The boundary conditions are based on the practical operating conditions in experiments. The main flow rate of diluted air is 0.4 m/s at 300K and the propane flow rate is 25 m/s at 300K. The wall boundary is set as constant temperature at 650K. As shown in Figure 16, the three-dimensional mesh case of the HPAC furnace chamber has 67,730 unstructured tetrahedral cells to discrete the physical/computational domain. The local mesh refinement near the fuel jet has been especially treated in sake of numerical convergence requirements.

Fuel jet position

Figure 16 The 3D mesh of the test set-up chamber

3.2 Modeling results and discussion 3.2.1 Turbulent diffusion flames Flow patterns Figure 17 shows a serial of the k-/FRDE turbulent jet flow patterns and another serial of RSM/MPDF turbulent jet flow patterns in conditions of 3%, 8%, 15% and 21% O2 diluted air at 1300K.

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The 2nd International Seminar on High Temperature Combustion, Jan. 17-18, 2000, Stockholm, Sweden

F R D E

M P D F

3%

8% 15% Figure 17 Comparison of predicted velocity profiles

21% (O2)

It demonstrates that the flow pattern is not so sensitive to oxygen concentration, though the lower oxygen concentration renders the longer flame. Compared with the on-line experimental photos, the RSM/MPDF model gives out a more realistic prediction for flow pattern than the k-/FRDE model does. Temperature profiles Figure 18 shows a serial profiles of k-/FRDE turbulent jet thermal fields and another serial profiles of RSM/MPDF turbulent jet thermal fields in conditions of 3%, 8%, 15% and 21% diluted air at 1300K, compared with those of experimental photos. It is obvious that the RSM/MPDF model is quite good in prediction of thermal fields while the k-/FRED model overestimates the peak temperatures of jet flames. Both of models show that under the condition of high temperature, the lower oxygen concentration of the main combustion flow leads to a more uniform thermal field. Chemical species profiles In this work total ten species including C3H8, CO, CO2, O2, OH, CH, O2, NOx, N2 and C2 are calculated. Figure 19 shows a series of profiles of C3H8, CO, OH, CH, O2 and NOx mass fractions in conditions of 3%, 15%, and 21% O2 diluted air at 1300K. The profiles of C3H8 and CO listed are predicted by using FRED model while other chemical species listed are calculated by using MPDF model. In present calculations, because FRED model gives out overestimated peak temperatures, it therefore overestimates the thermal NOx emissions.

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The 2nd International Seminar on High Temperature Combustion, Jan. 17-18, 2000, Stockholm, Sweden

FRDE model

MPDF model

Experimental photos

3%

15%

21%

(O2)

Figure 18 Comparison of temperature predictions with experimental photos

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The 2nd International Seminar on High Temperature Combustion, Jan 17-18, 2000, Stockholm, Sweden

(O2) 21%

15%

3%

C3H8

CO

O2

NOx

CH

Figure 19 Comparison of chemical species profiles in conditions of 3%, 15% and 21% O 2 diluted air

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The 2nd International Seminar on High Temperature Combustion, Jan. 17-18, 2000, Stockholm, Sweden

In contrary, the MPDF model gives out quite reasonable results for NOx predictions, though the NOx level in 3% O2 diluted air condition is extremely low. It needs to be evaluated more detail in future work. The results also show that CH and OH radicals are insignificant in the condition of lower oxygen diluted air combustion system. In addition, an interesting phenomenon is that according to MPDF calculation, C2 seems insignificant for propane/air system while Hasegawa s experimental work shows that C2 radical contributes the green luminous intensity in the higher temperature and lower oxygen concentration zone. That means in order to improve the CFD calculation a detailed reaction system has to be added into the modeling framework.

4. Conclusions
In this first stage of experimental and modeling research work for the single fuel jet under the conditions of highly preheated air combustion, results could be used to draw the following conclusions: CO emission is strongly effected by the fuel injection nozzle diameter and is a weak function of air preheat temperature. High preheat temperatures along with low oxygen concentrations, form low NOx concentration zones. In conformity with CO emission trends, maximum NOx levels are obtained with the smaller nozzle diameters and the NOx level decrease gradually as nozzle size is increased. Flame lift-off distance increases with reduction in oxygen concentration as well as fuel jet diameter. The favorable conditions in a HPAC furnace are high preheat temperature of combustion air and relatively long residence time/slow mixing. The schlieren technique is clearly a good method to get information about the flame structure and shape when the temperature difference between the combustion air and flame is high. LDA measurements have the potential of looking inside the flame without disturbing the flow field. The RSM/MPDF model is better than k-/FRED model to predict the turbulent diffusion flame. The main features and characteristics of highly preheated air combustion have been successfully investigated by using mathematical modeling method. A more detailed and comprehensive mathematical modeling for both HPAC fundamental research and large-scale industrial HPAC utilities is still a challenge. References S. Lille, Experimental study of single fuel jet in conditions of highly preheated air combustion, licentiate thesis, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden (1998) S. Lille, T. Dobski and W. Blasiak, Visualization of fuel jet in conditions of highly preheated air combustion, Accepted for publication in AIAA Journal (1999) W. Dong and W. Blasiak, Study on mathematical modeling of highly preheated air combustion, The 2nd HiTAC, Hsinchu, Taiwan, R.O.C (1999)

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