Energy 36 (2011) 2834e2846

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Energy
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Combustion optimization of a port-array inverse diffusion flame jet

L.L. Dong*, C.S. Cheung, C.W. Leung
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper is an experimental study on the combustion optimization of an Innovative Inverse Diffusion
Received 27 October 2010 Flame (IDF) characterized by a central air jet surrounded by an array of fuel jets for impingement heating.
Received in revised form An extensive investigation has been performed to explore the effects of the diameter ratio between air
10 February 2011
port and fuel port (dair/dfuel) on the IDF structure, particularly on its thermal and emission characteristics.
Accepted 15 February 2011
Small, moderate and large dair/dfuel are investigated. It is found that under the same air flow rate ðQ_ air Þ
Available online 17 March 2011
and dfuel, dair exerts a significant influence on the behavior of the IDF by changing air/fuel hydrodynamics
including air/fuel mixing intensity and air entrainment intensity. The experimental results show that
Keywords:
Inverse diffusion flame
smaller dair produces a blue flame with better thermal characteristics, with higher maximum flame
Flame structure temperature (Tf,max), wider range of air jet Reynolds number (Reair) for flame stability, and wider oper-
Port-array burner ation range of the overall equivalence ratio, F. On the emission side, smaller dair is found to produce more
Combustion emission incomplete combustion products of CO and HC but less NOx, which is attributed to lower volume of high-
temperature zone and shorter flame residence time. The current investigation provides a valuable input
for combustion and design optimization of this innovative IDF burner for impingement heating.
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Impinging flame jets are widely used in industrial and domestic
heating applications because of the enhanced convective heat
transfer rate in the impingement region around the stagnation
point. Burner type has a significant influence on the thermal and
pollutants emission performances of a flame impingement system
[1]. Most of the previous research focused on the premixed or
partially premixed flame jet for impingement heating because of its
high heat release rate, high flame temperature and soot-free flame
structure [2,3]. However, premixed flame has the intrinsic danger of
flashback and low stability nature. Additional facilities in the
burner design are needed to prevent the flame flashback and to
stabilize the flame. Pilot flames are often needed to stabilize
a turbulent premixed flame jet [4,5]. These additional facilities
complicate the burner design. Impinging normal diffusion flame
(NDF) is featured with long yellow flame, indicating a low heat
release rate and excess soot emission, making it a less desirable
option for impingement heating purpose [6].
Inverse diffusion flame (IDF) is a special type of diffusion flame
where the oxidizer is emitted from the burner center surrounded
by fuel gas. The previous research has been concentrated on the co-
* Corresponding author. Present address: Department of Chemical Engineering,
University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK. Tel.: þ44 1225 386338; fax: þ44 1225 385713.
E-mail address: ld262@bath.ac.uk (L.L. Dong).
flowing IDF. Wu and Essenhigh [7] identified six different flame types
in a mapping of inverse methane diffusion flames with Reair and the
fuel jet Reynolds number (Refuel) less than 1000. The stability char-
acteristics of the IDF, including the effects of jet oxygen concentration,
preheat temperature and jet diameter on the visual lift-off velocity
have also been studied [8]. Some investigators have found that the
IDF has a dual-flame structure similar to that of partially premixed
flames [9e11]. Ganguly and Puri [10] found that the central micro-
jet alters the flame structure, enabling it to be as effective as partial
premixing in terms of reducing the flame height and luminosity.
Efforts have also been made to understand the pollutants emission
from the IDF, especially NOx, and the incomplete combustion-related
species of CO and soot. In general, it is found that the IDF is charac-
terized with reduced soot and NOx and high level of CO emissions
[12e15]. Kaplan and Kailasanath [15] found that the IDF produces far
less soot than the NDF with the same fuel/air ratio. Partridge and
Laurendeau [13] found that ultra-low levels of NOx below 18 ppm can
be achieved, which makes IDF very suitable in air-staged burner.
An innovative port-array inverse diffusion flame (IDF) burner,
where the central air jet is surrounded by an array of fuel jets, has
been developed and studied recently. It has been found that this
port-array IDF burner produces shorter flame length than co-
flowing IDF burner because of enhanced fuel/air mixing [16].
Further investigations on this innovative IDF further confirmed its
favorable thermal and emission characteristics and great potential
for impingement heating purpose [17,18]. However, despite all
these research efforts, a complete understanding of the

0360-5442/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.energy.2011.02.025
 L.L. Dong et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 2834e2846
Fig. 1. Schematic of the (a) experimental setup and (b) port-array IDF burner head.
characteristics of this new port-array IDF is not achieved due to the
complexities encountered in the flow, mixing, and combustion
processes. Further investigation and information are needed when
it comes to design optimization of this new port-array IDF burner. It
has been found that the burner geometry, especially dair/dfuel, has
a significant influence on the flame structure of the co-flowing IDF
[9]. However, the influence of this important burner geometry
parameter on the performance of this new port-array IDF burner is
not known yet. Therefore, the present investigation is motivated to
study the influence of dair/dfuel on the thermal and emission char-
acteristics of the IDF for the purpose of combustion and burner
design optimization. By keeping dfuel fixed at 2.4 mm, three typical
dair, i.e., 4 mm, 6 mm and 9 mm, are selected, to represent small,
moderate and large dair/dfuel, respectively. They are referred to as
4 mm-IDF, 6 mm-IDF and 9 mm-IDF respectively in the following
discussions. Their performances, including flame shape, flame
length, flame thermal structure, and flame emissions, are investi-
gated and compared under different operating conditions with
varied F, Reair, Refuel, and the velocity ratio between air and fuel jets
(Vair/Vfuel). The present experimental results provide valuable and
helpful information on the combustion and design optimization of
this new port-array IDF burner. In the meantime, it also provides
a database and benchmark for future investigations.
2. Experimental setup and methods
The experimental setup is shown schematically in Fig. 1. The test
rig was mainly composed of two parts: the IDF system and the flue
2835
gas sampling system. The IDF was produced by a brass perforated
multi-port burner. In order to study the effect of port diameter on
the IDF, an interchangeable burner head was used. The diameters of
the central air port studied here were 4 mm, 6 mm and 9 mm,
respectively. The central air port was surrounded by 12 small fuel
ports which were evenly distributed and have the same diameter of
2.4 mm. The center-to-center distance between the central air port
and each fuel port was 8 mm. The schematic of the burner head is
shown in Fig. 1(b). Metered air was delivered to the IDF burner
directly, while metered LPG fuel was divided into two lines to enter
into the settling chamber tangentially, through which the fuel gas
could attain a high level of turbulence due to gas swirling. The
augmented free stream turbulence enhanced the mixing of the fuel
with the air after being discharged. The IDF burner was fixed on
a 3-dimensional positioner, which made it move freely. The IDF was
enclosed with screen mesh to minimize the disturbance of the
surrounding air flow. The flame temperature (Tf) was measured by
a B-type uncoated bare wire thermocouple with the bead diameter
of 0.5 mm. The thermocouple was fixed on a still holder. By moving
the burner, the radial and axial flame temperature distributions
were measured. A stand-alone IOtech data acquisitor was used to
record the flame temperature. Corrections for temperatures over
300  C were made to compensate for the radiative and convective
heat exchanges from the thermocouple bead with the method
suggested by Bradley and Matthews [19]. The emissivity of the
thermocouple bead was assumed to be a constant since no soot
accumulation was found in the present study. An emissivity of 0.14
was selected as recommended for uncoated Type B thermocouple
by Sparrow and Cess [20]. The maximum temperature corrected
was 138  C. Direct flame images were obtained with a digital
camera. The length of each flame zone is determined by averaging
10 images of the flame captured under the same operation
conditions.
A flue gas sampling system was designed and constructed for
analyzing the combustion products from the IDF. This system
included a sampling hood and the relevant gas analyzers. The
combustion products together with dilution air were sampled from
an exhaust gas hood, which was put on top of the flame. The
sampled gas flowed through the sampling port to the sampling
tube where it was cooled by air flowing outside. The flue gas was
split into two lines to different gas analyzers. One went directly to
the heated chemiluminescent NOx analyzer (HCLA) and the heated
flame ionization HC analyzer (HFID). The other flowed into a water
trap first before entering into the Anapol gas analyzer to record the
concentrations of CO, O2, and CO2. The emission indices of CO, HC
and NOx were evaluated, through which the emissions from
different burners could be compared. The coordinate system is also
shown in Fig. 1(a).
Uncertainty analysis was performed with the method of Kline
and McClintock [21]. With 95% confidence level, the minimum and
maximum uncertainties are, respectively, 2.6% and 10.4% in Tf, 1.7%
and 8.2% in HC, 2.1% and 9.5% in CO, 2.3% and 12.3% in NOx, 2.0% and
11.6% in NO, and 1.1% and 8.3% in CO2.
3. Results and discussions
Experiments were carried out on the three burners under the
same Q_ air to compare the influence of dair/dfuel on the thermal and
emission characteristics of the IDF. Vair and Reair are different for
each burner under the same Q_ air . Refuel, and Vair/Vfuel are also
provided for each operation condition since they are also important
parameters to evaluate the jet flow condition and the air/fuel
mixing intensity. The current investigation focused on blue, dual-
structure, triple-layer IDF, which has been identified to be the
desirable IDF structure for impingement heating [17].
2836 L.L. Dong et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 2834e2846

Fig. 2. Photographs of the IDFs at Q_ air ¼ 1:8 l=min under different air port diameters dair. (a) dair ¼ 4 mm, F ¼ 0.8, Refuel ¼ 220, Reair ¼ 7500, Vair/Vfuel ¼ 193; (b) dair ¼ 4 mm, F ¼ 1.4,
Refuel ¼ 384, Reair ¼ 7500, Vair/Vfuel ¼ 116; (c) dair ¼4 mm, F ¼ 2.83, Refuel ¼ 777, Reair ¼ 7500, Vair/Vfuel ¼ 57; (d) dair ¼ 6 mm, F ¼ 0.8, Refuel ¼ 220, Reair ¼ 5000, Vair/Vfuel ¼ 89; (e)
dair ¼ 6 mm, F ¼ 1.4, Refuel ¼ 384, Reair ¼ 5000, Vair/Vfuel ¼ 51; (f) dair ¼ 6 mm, F ¼ 2.83, Refuel ¼ 777, Reair ¼ 5000, Vair/Vfuel ¼ 25; (g) dair ¼ 9 mm, F ¼ 1.0, Refuel ¼ 274, Reair ¼ 3333, Vair/
Vfuel ¼ 31; (h) dair ¼ 9 mm, F ¼ 1.4, Refuel ¼ 384, Reair ¼ 3333, Vair/Vfuel ¼ 22; (i) dair ¼ 9 mm, F ¼ 2.83, Refuel ¼ 777, Reair ¼ 3333, Vair/Vfuel ¼ 11.

3.1. Flame shape
The direct images of the three burners are shown in Fig. 2(a) to
(i). Flame pictures were taken under the same Q_ air of 4.8 l/min,
which correspond to Reair of 7500, 5000, and 3333 for the 4 mm-
IDF, 6 mm-IDF and 9 mm-IDF, respectively. Three F ranging from
0.8 to 2.83 were chosen for each burner representing fuel-lean,
near-stoichiometric and fuel-rich combustion. It can be observed
that all the flames are characterized with a short flame base,
a contracted flame neck, and a long flame torch. The surrounding
fuel jets are sucked by the central air jet to move inwards when Vair/
Vfuel is big enough, forming the contracted flame neck. The
deflected fuel jets impinge on the flame neck and part of them is
quenched by the encountered cold air jet. Then the mixed air and
fuel gases reignite in the flame neck and further propagate as
a premixed flame with an inner reaction zone and an outer diffu-
sion layer, as shown in Fig. 2 except Fig. 2(f) and (i). The flame neck
acts as a mixer and holder for the downstream premixed flame.
The 6 mm-IDF burner has been investigated in detail in [17],
where seven flame structures have been identified for Reair ranging
from 300 to 8000 and over a large range of overall equivalence ratio
from 0.1 to over 3.0. In this investigation, three types of flame
structures can be identified from Fig. 2. The first one is the blue,
dual-structure, triple-layer IDF, which is characterized with
a diffusion base flame, and a premixed flame torch containing
a closed inner reaction zone and an outer flame layer connected by
the flame neck, as shown in Fig. 2(b), (d), (e), (g), and (h) and
presented schematically in Fig. 3. When Vair/Vfuel is high enough,
the trajectories of the fuel jets are deflected towards the central air
jet as a result of the air jet entrainment. The directly impinging fuel
jets penetrate the air jet boundary into the air jet, causing exchange
of momentum, heat and mass transfer between them, thus
enhancing air/fuel mixing in the flame neck. Jet impinging mech-
anisms are used to increase the mixing and reaction rates in many
industrial areas. When the fuel jets impinge on the central air jet,
they interact as crossflow. Bain and Smith [22] have shown that
 L.L. Dong et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 2834e2846
Fig. 3. Structure of the dual-structure triple-layer IDF.
stronger velocity fluctuations increase the air/fuel mixing rate and
the kinetic energy and enhance the reaction rate, and thus the
combustion efficiency. The reaction rate was found to be propor-
tional to the flow intensities by Holve and Sawyer [23]. During the
fuel jets impingement process, their velocities decrease to
a minimum at the impingement point. The momentum energy
transfer increases the flow intensities and the mixing rate. There-
fore, the flame neck acts as air/fuel mixer and turbulence generator.
The premixed or partially premixed air/fuel mixture propagates
downstream, exhibiting a premixed/partially premixed flame
structure with an inner reaction cone and an outer layer. It is this
type of IDF that combines the advantages of both diffusion and
premixed flames, with no possibility of flashback and possessing
intense heat release rate and easily controllable flame length,
which makes it desirable for heating application. The second type is
similar to the first one, except that the inner reaction zone is open,
when the flame is either fuel-lean, as illustrated in Fig. 2(a), or fuel-
rich, as shown in Fig. 2(c). In the third type, the flame torch beyond
the flame neck no longer looks like a double-layer partially pre-
mixed flame, but rather possessing a yellow flame tip, when the
flame is overly fuel-rich and Vair/Vfuel becomes lower, as shown in
Fig. 2(f) and (i). It can be observed that the behavior of the IDF
below the flame neck is similar to each other for all the three types.
The flow pattern is characterized by air entrainment, deflection and
impingement of the fuel jets, and the final mixing of fuel and air in
the flame neck. The traveling distances of the fuel jets before
meeting the air jet depend on Vair/Vfuel and the distance between
the air and fuel ports. Larger Vair/Vfuel and closer arrangement of the
air and fuel ports will result in shorter fuel jet traveling distance.
The air/fuel mixing level in the flame neck dictates the downstream
flame structure. It can be seen from Fig. 2 that the flame beyond the
neck exhibits different appearances with increase in dair, because it
changes Vair, Vair/Vfuel, and the air port rim-to-fuel port rim distance,
and thus the mixing intensity of the fuel and air jets in the flame
neck.
It can be seen from Fig. 2 that on the whole, the 4 mm-IDFs are
slim in appearance and stable in performance. These flames have
a yellow neck when Reair is less than 7800, which indicates an
incomplete air/fuel mixing in the flame neck. Beyond that, the
flame becomes all blue till 12,000 when it becomes unstable and
2837
starts to lift off from the flame neck, leaving only the base flame
with an air hole in the center. This confirms that the flame neck is
the mixer and holder for the flame torch. When Reair is further
increased, the base flame lifts off from the burner and eventually
the whole flame blows out. With larger dair, the yellow ring in the
flame neck disappears and the flames become all blue when f  1.4,
indicating an enhanced combustion and good level of air/fuel
mixing in the flame neck. Therefore, the air/fuel mixing in the flame
neck increases with the increase in dair despite the decrease in Vair/
Vfuel. This is attributed to two reasons. First, under the same Refuel,
the bigger the rim-to-rim distance between the air and fuel ports,
the longer the traveling distance for the fuel jet to reach the air jet,
and the greater the fuel jet velocity reduction. The 4 mm-IDF has
the largest rim-to-rim distance, then the fuel jet impingement
velocity comes the lowest. This results in reduced air/fuel mixing
intensity. On the other hand, the flame neck radius increases with
increase in dair, producing a larger volume for air/fuel mixing and
a longer radial distance for the impinging fuel jets to penetrate.
4 mm-IDF has the smallest mixing volume at the flame neck and
the shortest possible penetrating distance. Therefore, it has the
lowest fuel/air mixing level in the flame neck. The insufficient air/
fuel mixing results in soot emission in the fuel-rich side, i.e., the
outer rim of the flame neck, causing a yellow ring in the flame neck,
as shown in Fig. 2(a) to (c). It is also observed that as increasing dair,
the flame becomes fatter, shorter and more fluctuating. For the
6 mm-IDF, the flame remains stable until Reair ¼ 8000. When dair is
further increased to 9 mm, the flame becomes even more short-
ened and swollen, and becomes fluctuating and highly turbulent all
along regardless of Reair. The flame becomes unstable when
Reair ¼ 4333. It eventually blows out when Reair is further increased
to 4700. Therefore, it can be concluded that the blue, dual-structure
IDF with smaller dair can be stabilized over a wider range of Reair.
This is attributed to the reduced air/fuel mixing-caused turbulence
level in the flame neck. However, its blow-off limit of Reair still
comes higher than a single premixed flame jet due to the decreased
air jet velocity in the flame neck caused by the direct fuel jet
impingement. As increasing dair, the increased turbulence in the
flame neck causes the IDF behaves more and more like turbulent
premixed flame with reduced flame stability.
The effects of F on the flame appearance for the three burners
are also shown in Fig. 2. It is observed that when F is increased to
2.83, the flame appearance of the 4 mm-IDF is different from the
other two. For the 4 mm-IDF, the post-neck flame is still blue. But
the inner reaction zone is not easy to identify and no longer closed.
In contrast, the post-neck flames under the other two burners are
characterized by large yellow tips. This difference is due to the
effect of entrainment of the surrounding air. The higher Vair of the
4 mm-IDF greatly enhances the air entrainment, which signifi-
cantly reduces the local equivalence ratio and keeps the IDF blue. In
the other two cases, the entrainment is less strong, leaving the
flame tips yellow due to diffusion combustion of excess fuel, which
has not been consumed in the upstream reaction zone. Therefore,
smaller dair can not only produces stable blue IDFs over a larger
range of Reair, but also in a larger range of F.
3.2. Flame length
Flame length provides the information on the high-temperature
zone and the global residence time available for pollutant forma-
tion within the flame. Direct measurement of the flame length is
a widely used method when the blue reaction zone is visually
distinguishable [14]. However, this method could lead to consid-
erable errors in yellow IDFs when soot forms in the fuel-rich side
outside and above the inner reaction zone. Soot radiates and
obscures the inner blue reaction zone [24,25]. Some researchers
2838 L.L. Dong et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 2834e2846
also reported the flame length by measuring Tf,max on the centerline
using a thermocouple or Rayleigh scattering since Tf,max occurs in
the reaction zone [7,26,27].
In the current study, the focus is on blue, dual-structure IDF
desirable for heating purpose. This unique flame structure makes it
easy to visually identify the dark blue inner reaction cone and the
pale blue outer layer. Therefore, the lengths of the different visible
flame zones are visually determined by averaging 10 flame images
captured by the digital camera. This direct observation method is
also used for IDFs [16,28] and coaxial jet spray flames [29]. A good
duplication is found in the current measurement with minimum
and maximum errors of 1.2% and 7.5%, respectively.
The effects of F on the base flame length, the inner reaction zone
length, the flame outer layer length, and the post-flame zone length
of the 4 mm-IDF are shown in Fig. 4(a). F is selected to vary from
overly fuel-lean condition at F ¼ 0.4 to fuel-rich at F ¼ 2.8. It is
found that the linearly variation of F results in the nonlinear
variation in Vair/Vfuel. When f  1.2, Vair/Vfuel decreases rapidly with
the increase in F. Beyond that, the variation of Vair/Vfuel with F
becomes more flattened. It is observed that when F is less than 1.2
or greater than 2.4, the inner reaction zone is open at the tip and
difficult to be separated from the outer layer, so no inner cone
length is reported here. The open inner cone when f  1.2 indicates
a fuel-lean combustion. The reaction in the inner reaction zone is
quenched by the excess central air. Moreover, when f < 0.6, only
the diffusion base flame stays with an air hole in the middle.
Therefore, Vair/Vfuel ¼ 133 under f ¼ 1.2 is a turning point from
open-tip flame to the blue, dual-structure, triple-layer flame. The
reopening of the inner cone when F reaches 2.4 indicates that the
inner reaction zone starts to disappear and the start of the transi-
tion from the premixed flame structure to the diffusion mode due
to overly fuel-rich condition.
It can also be seen from Fig. 4(a) that the base flame length, the
flame inner cone length and the outer layer length all increase
monotonically with F. This is because more fuel needs to be
consumed in longer high-temperature region. For the base flame
and the inner reaction cone, the increase is almost linear. The base
flame length increases from 8 mm under F ¼ 0.6 to 14 mm under
F ¼ 2.8. The inner cone length ranges from 63 mm under F ¼ 0.6 to
106 mm under F ¼ 2.8. For the outer layer, the flame length
increases monotonically from 82 mm to 210 mm for F ¼ 0.6 and
F ¼ 2.8, respectively. It is also observed that the post-flame length
increases first with F from 1.2 to 2.0 with a decelerating rate, and
finally decreases as F is further increased to 2.4. The decrease in
post-flame length from f ¼ 2.0 to f ¼ 2.4 is due to the prolonged
inner cone length associated with the overly fuel-rich condition.
The variations of different flame zone lengths with Reair under
F ¼ 1.4 for different dair are shown in Fig. 4(b) to (e). Data reported
here starts from Reair ¼ 4000 for the 4 mm-IDF because only
beyond this value, a clear distinction between the inner reaction
cone and the outer layer can be identified. For the other two cases,
the data reported starts from Reair ¼ 1000. In all the three cases, the
reported data cover the range of Reair when the IDF remains blue
and stable, i.e., till 12,000, 8000 and 4333 for the 4 mm-IDF, 6 mm-
IDF and 9 mm-IDF, respectively. Vair/Vfuel is constant for each dair
corresponding to a constant F.
It is observed from Fig. 4(b) that the length of the base flame
changes very little with the increase in Reair. The smaller the dair, the
longer the base flame. The increase of the base flame length with
decrease in dair is due to prolonged between-perimeter distance
between the air and fuel jets. The larger between-perimeter
distance under smaller dair makes the fuel jet travel longer distance
to reach the air jet, which results in a longer base flame. It is
observed from Fig. 4(c) that the inner cone length increases with
Reair for all the three dair. For the 4 mm-IDF, the inner cone length
increases almost linearly from Reair of 4000 to 12,000 as a result of
the increased fuel flow rate ðQ_ fuel Þ. As a comparison, the variation
trends for 6 mm-IDF and 9 mm-IDF are different. There is a critical
Reair in each case, which separates two characteristics variation
zones. This critical Reair is 3000 for 6 mm-IDF, and 3333 for 9 mm-
IDF. Before this critical Reair, the flame inner cone length increases
rapidly and almost linearly with Reair. After that, the increasing
speed of the in inner cone length with Reair reduces significantly,
and only slight increase is observed. This could be due to the
different turbulence level below and beyond the critical Reair. Below
the critical Reair, the rapid increase in inner cone length with Reair is
a result of the increased Refuel. When Reair exceeds the critical value,
the influence of the enhanced turbulence becomes significant
enough to shorten the inner reaction zone. Therefore, although
Refuel increases with Reair, the enhanced turbulence intensity
becomes significant. Their competing effects lead to the less rapid
increase in flame inner reaction zone length. Han and Mungal [30]
also observed the shortened combustion zone due to enhanced
flow turbulence intensity.
It can also be found from Fig. 4(c) that, generally, the inner cone
length increases with the decrease in dair under the same Reair. As
has been identified, the smaller the dair, the lower the turbulence
level in the flame neck, the less complete air/fuel mixing. Therefore,
a longer preheating mixing zone is needed for smaller Reair to
achieve the complete air/fuel mixing before entering the inner
reaction zone. As a result, the inner cone length is increased.
The variations of the post-flame zone lengths with Reair for the
three dair are shown in Fig. 4(d). Two variation trends are found, as
for the inner cone length variation. For the 4 mm-IDF, the outer
layer length decreases monotonically and almost linearly with Reair
due to the enhanced air entrainment in the post-flame zone with
the increase in Vair. As a comparison, for both 6 mm-IDF and 9 mm-
IDF, the post-flame zone lengths increase first with Reair till
reaching the critical value of 3000 for 6 mm-IDF and 3333 for
9 mm-IDF. Beyond the critical Reair, the post-flame lengths decrease
with Reair. The reason is the same for the inner cone length. When
Reair exceeds the critical value, the influence of turbulence becomes
significant. The augmented turbulence with increased Reair
enhances the mixing of the unburned fuel with the surrounding air,
resulting in the enhanced combustion and shortened post-flame
zone length.
The variations of the flame outer layer lengths with Reair for the
three dair are shown in Fig. 4(e). Since the outer layer length is the
sum of the inner cone length and the post-flame zone length, their
variation trends with Reair are the results of the combined effects of
the variation trends of the inner cone length and the post-flame
zone length. As a result, the outer layer length decreases mono-
tonically and almost linearly with Reair for 4 mm-IDF. Below the
critical Reair of 3000 for 6 mm-IDF, and 3333 for 9 mm-IDF, their
outer layer lengths increase rapidly with Reair. Beyond the critical
Reair, the outer layer length for 6 mm-IDF remains at a constant
level at around 130 mm as an off-set effect of the increasing inner
cone length and decreasing post-flame zone length. For the 9 mm-
IDF, the outer layer length decreases with Reair beyond the critical
Reair due to faster decrease in post-flame zone length and the
slower increase in inner cone length.
3.3. Flame temperature distribution
In order to understand the thermal structure of the IDF, the
temperature profiles, including the temperature contour and the
centerline temperature distribution, were obtained experimentally
in the present study. The temperature contours for the three dair
under the same F and Q_ air , are shown in Fig. 5(a) to (c). The four
 L.L. Dong et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 2834e2846 2839

Fig. 4. (a) Variation of flame length with the overall equivalence ratio, fuel jet Reynolds number and the velocity ratio between air jet and fuel jet. (b) Variation of base flame length
with air jet Reynolds number, fuel jet Reynolds number, and air port diameter. (c) Variation of flame inner cone length with air jet Reynolds number, fuel jet Reynolds number, and
air port diameter. (d) Variation of post-flame length with air jet Reynolds number, fuel jet Reynolds number, and air port diameter. (e) Variation of flame outer layer length with air
jet Reynolds number, fuel jet Reynolds number, and air port diameter.
2840 L.L. Dong et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 2834e2846

Fig. 5. Temperature contour of the (a) 4 mm-IDF; (b) 6 mm-IDF and (c) 9 mm-IDF.

characteristic zones, i.e., base flame zone, mixing zone, reaction
zone, and post-flame zone, are indicated.
It is observed from Fig. 5 that the base flame zone below the
flame neck is characterized with low temperature. The mixing zone
includes the flame neck, where the initial air/fuel mixing occurs, and
the preheating mixing zone, where further air/fuel mixing
continues and completes. The length of the preheating mixing zone
depends on the mixing intensity in the flame neck. Higher air/fuel
mixing intensity in the flame neck gives rise in a shortened pre-
heating mixing zone. The mixing zone lengths are 50 mm, 40 mm,
and 25 mm for 4 mm-IDF, 6 mm-IDF and 9 mm-IDF, respectively.
The mixing zone is characterized by negative radial temperature
gradient. This is because the combustion occurs outside the inner
cone layer, while the inside central area is still occupied by cool,
unmixed or poorly mixed air, which gives rise to a negative
temperature gradient. The reaction zone is defined to start from
where the negative temperature disappears, which is an indication
that the mixing process is finally completed. The dominant
phenomenon in the reaction zone is chemical reaction, through
which the majority of the fuel energy is released, resulting in high Tf.
 L.L. Dong et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 2834e2846 2841

a 2200 b 2200

2000
2000
1800
1800
1600
1600 φ=1.4
φ=1.4
1400
1400 dair=6mm
Tf (K)

dair=4mm

Tf (K)
1200
1200 V air/V fuel = 51
V air/V fuel = 114
1000
1000
800 Reair=4000, Refuel = 307
800 Reair=5000, Refuel = 256 Reair=5000, Refuel = 384
Reair=6500, Refuel = 333 600 Reair=6000, Refuel = 461
600
Reair=7500, Refuel = 384 Reair=7000, Refuel = 538
Reair=8500, Refuel = 435 400 Reair=8000, Refuel = 615
400
Reair=9750, Refuel = 500
200
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
y (mm) y (mm)
d air = 4mm d air = 6mm

c 2200

2000

1800

1600
φ=1.4
1400
dair=9mm
T f (K)

1200
V air/V fuel = 23
1000

800 Reair=2500, Refuel = 288

Reair=3333, Refuel = 384
600 Reair=4000, Refuel = 461
Reair=4333, Refuel = 499
400

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150

y (mm)

d air = 9mm

Fig. 6. Variations of Centerline Flame Temperature with Air Jet Reynolds Number and Fuel Jet Reynolds Number for (a) 4 mm-IDF; (b) 6 mm-IDF and (c) 9 mm-IDF.

The post-flame zone starts from beyond the location of the Tf,max,
which occurs at the inner cone tip. As we can see from Fig. 5, Tf
remains high in the early post-flame zone before decreasing
monotonically. It is also observed that the Tf,max increases with
decreasing dair. The Tf,max are around 2180 K, 2050 K and 1980 K for
the 4 mm-IDF, 6 mm-IDF and 9 mm-IDF, respectively. Although the
central high-temperature region is shorter for larger dair, it is much
wider at the same time. As a result, the volume of the high-
temperature region with above 1900 K increases with dair.
The variations of the centerline Tf with Reair under different dair
are shown in Fig. 6. It can be observed from Fig. 6(a) that for all the
cases, Tf increases rapidly after being issued from the burner until
Tf,max is achieved in the reaction zone. Then a high Tf plateau over
2073 K follows extending to the post-flame zone. The highest Tf
reaches 2200 K for 4 mm-IDF. The sharp temperature increase in
the initial stage and the following high-temperature plateau has
also been found by Sobiesiak and Wenzell [9] in their study on the
co-flowing IDF jet. They explained them as the evidence of the
occurrence of the premixed combustion mode inside the envelope
of the diffusion flame. However, the Tf,max they reported is around
1873 K. Comparing to co-flowing IDF, the current unique port-array
IDF is able to produce stronger air/fuel mixing in the flame neck
region, leading to an enhanced combustion in the inner reaction
zone. It is also found from Fig. 6 that there is a similarity area in Tf in
the high-temperature plateau under all Reair, where Tf changes very
little with Reair. This self-similar temperature profile suggests
a possible occurrence of self-similar flow in this region. Beyond the
high-temperature plateau, Tf decreases monotonically and at
a faster pace for smaller dair.
The variations of Tf with F for the three dair are shown from
Fig. 7(a) to (c). It can be observed that Tf increases rapidly from
around room temperature to the peak value. Then it either
decreases monotonically when F < 1.4 or remains at the high level
in the high-temperature plateau when F  1.4. It is also seen that
under all F and dair, the difference in Tf between different F is
imperceptible in the base flame and the mixing zones. Beyond that,
Tf increases with increasing F all the way till F reaches 1.4. When
further increasing F, Tf,max and Tf in the high-temperature plateau
can either decrease, as for the 4 mm- and 6 mm- IDFs, or keep
almost unchanged, for 9 mm-IDF. This indicates that the practical
2842 L.L. Dong et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 2834e2846

a b 3400 φ=0.6, Refuel = 214, V air/V fuel = 118

3600 φ=0.6, Refuel = 176, V air/V fuel = 266 3200 φ=0.8, Refuel = 285, V air/V fuel = 89
3400
φ=0.8, Refuel = 234, V air/V fuel = 200 3000 φ=1.0, Refuel = 357, V air/V fuel = 71
φ=1.0, Refuel = 293, V air/V fuel = 160 φ=1.4, Refuel = 499, V air/V fuel = 51
3200 2800
φ=1.2, Refuel = 351, V air/V fuel = 133 φ=1.8, Refuel = 642, V air/V fuel = 39
3000 φ=1.4, Refuel = 410, V air/V fuel = 114 2600
2800 φ=1.8, Refuel = 527, V air/V fuel = 89 2400
2600 φ=2.0, Refuel = 586, V air/V fuel = 80 2200
2400
2200 2000
1900 K

Tf (K)
2000 1800
Tf (K)

1800 1600
1600 1400
1400 1200
1200 1000
1000
800
800 Reair=6500
Reair=8000 600
600
400 400
dair=6mm
200 dair=4mm 200
0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160

Start of Thermal NO y (mm) End of Thermal NO y (mm)

Dominant Zone Dominant Zone
d air = 6mm
d air = 4mm

c 3400 φ=0.6, Refuel = 214, V air/V fuel = 63

3200 φ=0.8, Refuel = 285, V air/V fuel = 39
3000 φ=1.0, Refuel = 357, V air/V fuel = 32
2800
φ=1.2, Refuel = 428, V air/V fuel = 26
φ=1.4, Refuel = 499, V air/V fuel = 23
2600 φ=1.6, Refuel = 571, V air/V fuel = 20
2400 φ=1.8, Refuel = 642, V air/V fuel = 18
2200
2000
Tf (K)

1800
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600 Reair=4333
400
dair=9mm
200
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160

y (mm)

d air = 9mm

Fig. 7. Variations of centerline flame temperature with the overall equivalence ratio, fuel jet Reynolds number, velocity ratio between air jet and fuel jet for (a) 4 mm-IDF; (b) 6 mm-
IDF and (c) 9 mm-IDF.

overall stoichiometric conditions occur at F ¼ 1.4. Along with fuel
jets, large amounts of the surrounding air are also entrained by
the central air jet, reducing the initial overall F measured at the
burner exit. Therefore, the IDFs are practically fuel-lean when
F < 1.4. This can be confirmed by the decrease in Tf,max with F,
and also by the monotonic decrease in Tf in the post-flame zone
caused by the dilution of the entrained cold surrounding air.
When F > 1.4, the flame is fuel-rich. The excess fuel is consumed
in the early post-flame zone, producing a high-temperature
plateau.
The comparisons of the centerline Tf distribution for the three
dair under the same Q_ air and Q_ fuel are shown in Fig. 8. Two sets of
air/fuel flow rates under f ¼ 1.4 are presented. The locations of the
tip of the inner reaction zone and the outer layer obtained from the
flame length measurement are indicated in Fig. 8(a). It can be seen
that Tf,max occurs at or near the measured inner cone tip. This
validates the accuracy of the flame length measurement employed
in the current study. Tf increases at a faster pace from around room
temperature to Tf,max for larger dair, corresponding to the shortened
inner reaction zone as a result of the enhanced turbulence level.
Tf,max decreases with the increase in dair from 2200 K with 4 mm-
IDF to 2000 K with 9 mm-IDF, indicating a closer approaching to
the adiabatic combustion with smaller dair. This is due to the
decreased residence time for smaller dair, which results in less time
available for the occurrence of the flame radiation [31]. It is seen
from Fig. 8(a) that under the same Q_ air and Q_ fuel , the visible total
flame length increases slightly from 132 mm to 139 mm, and to
140 mm when dair is decreased from 9 mm, to 6 mm and to 4 mm.
However, Vair increases from 4.6 m/s to 10.3 m/s, and to 23.2 m/s,
accordingly. Therefore, the residence time decreases significantly
with the increase in dair. Tf decreases faster for 4 mm-IDF in the
post-flame zone, due to stronger entrainment of the surrounding
cold air. As a result, 6 mm-IDF produces the highest Tf at the end of
the post-flame zone.
 L.L. Dong et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 2834e2846 2843

3000 50
a 3000 33 Reair=8000
CO2 Concentration
O2 Concentration
dair=4mm, Reair=7500, V air/V fuel=114 2800
dair=6 mm CO Concentration 45
2800 dair=6mm, Reair=5000, V air/V fuel=51 30 NO Concentratrion
2600 φ=1.8
dair=9mm, Reair=3333, V air/V fuel=23

Species Concentration (%)

2600 Flame Temperature 40
Refuel = 790

NO Concentration (ppm)
2400 27
2400 φ = 1.4 Vair/Vfuel = 40
Re fuel = 384 2200 24 1900K 35
2200
Q = 4.9 l min 2000
2000 air 21 30
Q = 0.17 l min
1800 fuel 1800
18
T f (K)

Tf (K)
25
1600 1600
15
1400 1400 20
A 12
1200 1200
φ=1.4 15
1000 9
Re = 384 1000
800
• fuel B 10
Q• air=4.9 l/min 6
800
600 Q fuel=0.17 l/min End of Flame
C 600 3 5
400 Outer layer
400 0
200 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
200 -3
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
End of Flame y (mm)
Inner Cone y (mm)
A – Post-Flame Length at dair = 9mm
A B C D E
B – Post-Flame Length at dair = 6mm
C – Post-Flame Length at dair = 4mm A – Base Flame Zone B – Mixing Zone C – Reaction Zone
D – Post-Flame Reaction Zone E – Post-Flame Entrainment Zone
φ = 1.4, Re fuel = 384 Fig. 9. Comparison of centerline species emissions and flame temperature.

b 3000
dair=4mm, Reair=9700, V air/V fuel=114
2800 dair=6mm, Reair=6500, V air/V fuel=51 around 21%. The concentrations of the combustion products, [CO],
2600 dair=9mm, Reair=4333, V air/V fuel=23 [CO2], and [NO], are zero. This indicates that there is no air/fuel
2400 mixing and reaction in the flame neck zone. The mixing zone is
2200 characterized by the rapid variations of the species concentrations,
2000 which is controlled by the air/fuel mixing. [O2] decreases sharply to
1800 less than 3% at the end of the mixing zone, while the concentrations
Tf (K)

1600 of the combustion products increase along the mixing zone. At the
1400 end of the mixing zone, [CO2] reaches 9%, [CO] reaches 3.3%, and
1200 [NO] reaches 25 ppm. At the same time, Tf increases rapidly to
1000
φ=1.4 above 1900 K. The reaction zone is characterized by the constant
Re
• fuel
= 500 levels of [CO], [CO2] and [O2]. The averaged concentration is 4.5% for
800
Q• air=6.3 l/min
600 Q fuel=0.22 l/min CO, 9% for CO2, 1.7% for O2. Tf remains at a high level above 1900 K in
400 the reaction zone and reaches the maximum at the end of the
200 reaction zone, which corresponds to the tip of the flame inner cone.
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
However, [NO] decreases first and then increases in the reaction
y (mm) zone. The decrease in [NO] when entering the reaction zone is due
φ = 1.4, Re fuel = 500 to the reduced local residence time. When the air/fuel mixture
reaches nearly stoichiometric when entering the reaction zone, the
Fig. 8. Comparison of centerline flame temperature under different air port diameters reaction rate accelerates rapidly comparing to that in the mixing
under (a) 4.9 l/min air flow rate; (b) 6.3 l/min air flow rate. zone, leading to reduced local residence time. As a result, [NO]
decreases accordingly despite the high Tf in the region. In the
remaining reaction zone, the reaction rate remains at a high level,
3.4. Pollutants emission leading to less variation in the local residence time. Therefore, the
influence of Tf on NO formation becomes prominent, resulting in
Besides its thermal performance, pollutants emission is another the steady increase in [NO] with Tf. In the post-flame reaction zone,
important factor to evaluate the performance of the current IDF. Tf still remains at a high level above 1900 K. [NO] continues to
The centerline Tf and species concentrations are presented in Fig. 9 increase to its maximum at 36 ppm. It has been found by Partridge
to relate these two important factors. The variations of the emis- et al. [12] that thermal NO mechanism is the dominant overall
sions of the major pollutant species, i.e., HC, CO and NOx, with dair pathway for NO formation when Tf > 1900 K in the IDF after con-
and F, are presented in Fig. 10(a) to (c). The emissions are expressed ducting a spatially resolved, LSF measurement of [NO]. They also
in terms of the emission index (EI), with the unit of g/kg-fuel. Q_ air is found that the majority of the NO is formed around the IDF tip. The
kept constant under all the conditions. F is selected to cover the quantity of NO produced via thermal NO mechanism is small when
fuel-lean to fuel-rich conditions in the blue, dual-structure, triple- Tf < 1800 K. Correa [32] and Reisel and Laurendeau [33] also found
layer flame range. It extends from 0.6 to 2.2 for 4 mm-IDF, from 0.6 that NO is primarily formed in the region around the IDF tip, and
to 1.57 for 6 mm-IDF, and from 1.0 to 1.57 for 9 mm-IDF. No initial concluded that thermal NO is the dominant mechanism in this
fuel-lean condition is studied for the 9 mm-IDF because the flame region. As shown in Fig. 9, in the reaction zone and the post-flame
blows out when F < 1.0. reaction zone, Tf is higher than 1900 K. Therefore, it is concluded
The evolutions of the centerline species concentrations are that thermal NO mechanism is the major pathway for NO formation
presented first in Fig. 9 because they will affect the net emissions in these regions. It is also found that in the post-flame reaction
from the IDFs. It is observed from Fig. 9 that in the base flame zone, zone, [CO] decreases with y, while [O2] and [CO2] increases along
the concentration of O2, [O2], remains at the atmospheric level at the centerline. The increased [O2] is attributed to the entrained
2844 L.L. Dong et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 2834e2846

surrounding air, which facilitates the conversion from CO to CO2.

a 280 Current IDF, Re =7500, d = 4mm 900 360
The exothermic CO/O2 reaction keeps Tf at a high level with over
Current IDF, Re 1900 K. In the post-flame entrainment zone, entrained air dilution
260 V /V for Current IDF at Re =7500, d = 4mm 330
Current IDF, Re =5000, d = 6mm 800 is prominent. As a result, [O2] increases rapidly, while [CO], [CO2]
240 V /V for Current IDF at Re =5000, d = 6mm
Current IDF, Re =3333, d = 9mm 300 and Tf decrease steadily along the centerline.
220 V /V for Current IDF at Re =3333, d = 9mm
700 The variations of the emission index of the major pollutant
270
200
species, i.e., EIHC, EICO and EINOx, with F under the same Q_ air for
180 600 240
the three dair, are shown in Fig. 10(a) to (c). The variations of Refuel
EIHC (g/kg)

160 210 and Vair/Vfuel with F are also plotted.

V air/V fuel
500

Refuel
140 It is observed from Fig. 10(a) that HC only appears in the IDF
180
120
400 150
when F < 1.0 for the 4 mm-IDF and 6 mm-IDF. Beyond that, no HC
100 is observed. This is due to flame quenching by the central excess
120
80 300 cold air. It has been observed that, for 4 mm-IDF, the flame inner
60 90 cone tip is open when F  1.2, indicating the occurrence of flame
200 quenching by the excess cold central air. The photograph of the
40 60
20 open-tip IDF can be referred back to Fig. 2(a). The less the F, the
100 30
0 more significant the flame quenching. This results in significant HC
-20 0
0 emission when f  0.8.
0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4
It is observed from Fig. 10(b) that EICO decreases mono-
φ tonically with the increase in F for all the three dair. There are
EIHC two CO reduction mechanisms. As shown in Fig. 7 and discussed
in Section 3.3, the practical stoichiometric condition occurs
b 16 900 400 around F ¼ 1.4 for all the three dair. On one hand, when F < 1.4, it
has been found from Fig. 7 that Tf,max increases with F, which
Current IDF, Re =7500, d = 4mm
Current IDF, Re
V /V for Current IDF at Re =7500, d = 4mm
14 Current IDF, Re =5000, d = 6mm 800 350 indicates the occurrence of the more complete combustion. As
V /V for Current IDF at Re =5000, d = 6mm
Current IDF, Re =3333, d = 9mm a result, less CO is produced. On the other hand, it has also been
12 V /V for Current IDF at Re =3333, d = 9mm 700
300 found from Fig. 8 that when F > 1.4, Tf,max remains little changed
or slightly decreased with the increase in F. A high-temperature
10 600
EICO (g/kg)

250 plateau forms extending from the reaction zone to the post-flame
V air/V fuel

8 500 zone. It has been observed from Fig. 9 that the CO produced in
Refuel

200 the inner reaction zone goes through further oxidation with the
6 400 entrained surrounding air in the high-temperature post-flame
150 zone to convert into CO2. It has also been found from Fig. 4(a)
4 300
that the post-flame length generally increases with F. Therefore,
100
2 200
the longer post-flame length under higher F produces longer
residence time facilitating more CO/CO2 conversion in this
50
0 100 region.
It is also be observed from Fig. 10(b) that under the same Q_ air
0
-2
0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2
0
2.4 and Q_ fuel , [EICO] decreases with the increase in dair, although
Tf,max decreases at the same time, as shown in Fig. 8(b). [EICO] of
φ the 4 mm-IDF comes as the highest ranging from 3.8 g/kg-fuel at
F ¼ 2.2 to 8.8 g/kg-fuel at F ¼ 0.6. In contrast, [EICO] of the
EICO

9 mm-IDF is considerably lowered varying from 0.17 g/kg-fuel

c 7
Current IDF, Re =7500, d = 4mm
Current IDF, Re 1000 450 under F ¼ 1.0 to zero under F ¼ 1.57. This sharp contrast in CO
V /V for Current IDF at Re =7500, d = 4mm
6.5 Current IDF, Re =5000, d = 6mm emission indicates that more complete combustion occurs
V /V for Current IDF at Re =5000, d = 6mm
900 400
6 Current IDF, Re =3333, d = 9mm
under larger dair. First, as discussed in Section 3.1, larger dair
5.5
V /V for Current IDF at Re =3333, d = 9mm
Co-FLowing IDF in [28]
800
350 produces stronger air/fuel mixing in the flame neck and more
5
IDF under Re =2500 in [16] turbulence in the flame, which enhances complete combustion
Laminar Partially Premixed Flame in [35] 700
Turbulent Partially Premixed Flame in [36] 300 and reduces the CO production in the reaction zone. Second,
EINOx (g/kg)

4.5
600 under the same Q_ air and Q_ fuel , larger dair has longer residence
V air/V fuel

4 250
Refuel

time, which allows more time for the CO formed due to in-
3.5 500
200 adequate mixing and quenching to go through the high-
3
400 temperature reaction zone and converts to CO2. Third, larger dair
2.5
150 has longer post-flame length, as shown in Fig. 8(a). This leads to
2 300
longer local residence time in the post-flame zone, where CO/
1.5 100
200 CO2 conversion occurs with the presence of entrained
1 surrounding air and high Tf, as discussed in Fig. 9. Therefore,
100 50
0.5 further enhancement of CO/CO2 conversion occurs. The
0 0 0 combined effects of these three factors lead to the reduced net
0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4
CO emission for larger dair. It should also be noted that for all the
φ blue, dual-structure, triple-layer IDFs under the three dair, [CO]
EINO x ranges from 15 ppm under f ¼ 1.57 with 9 mm-IDF, to 350 ppm
under f ¼ 1.2 with 4 mm-IDF. The maximum [CO] of 350 ppm is
Fig. 10. Comparison of (a) EIHC; (b) EICO and (c) EINOx under different air port
diameters. well below the average [CO] of 630 ppm of the LPG cooker-top
burners in Thailand [34].
 L.L. Dong et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 2834e2846
It is observed from Fig. 10(c) that EINOx first increases with F
when F  1.8 for all the three dair. This is due to two reasons. When
F  1.4, Tf,max increases monotonically with F, as shown in Fig. 7. In
addition, the inner reaction zone length increases with F, as shown
in Fig. 4(a), resulting in longer residence time. The higher Tf and
longer residence time facilitate NOx emission. However, for 4 mm-
IDF, EINOx continues to increase afterwards until F ¼ 1.8. Then it
starts to decrease with F. It has been found from Fig. 7(a) that Tf,max
reaches its peak under F ¼ 1.4 at 2200 K. Then it starts to decrease
very slowly with F, reaching 2120 K when F ¼ 1.8, and 2060 K
when F ¼ 2.0. However, the length of the high-temperature plateau
with over 1900 K extending from the reaction zone to the post-
flame zone, where thermal NO is prominent, increases significantly
from 78 mm under F ¼ 1.4 to 104 mm under F ¼ 1.8, thanks to the
occurrence of the high-temperature plateau in the post-flame zone
under F ¼ 1.8. Further increase in F to 2.0 only results in a slight
increase to 110 mm, as shown in Fig. 7(a). Therefore, it could be
concluded that the increase in EINOx from F ¼ 1.4 to F ¼ 1.8 is due
to the significant, up to 33% increase in the length of the thermal
NO-dominant, high-temperature zone with over 1900 K, while the
reduction in Tf,max is only 3.6%. When F is further increased to 2.0,
there is only a slight increase in length of this thermal NO-prom-
inant zone. As a result, the reduction in Tf,max becomes significant
and leads to the reduction in EINOx.
The comparisons of current EINOx to those obtained from
literature are also shown in Fig. 10(c). The measurements by Sze
et al. [16] for port-array IDF and by Mahesh and Mishra [28] for
co-flowing IDF both found that EINOx first increase with the
increase in F, from 1.0 to 1.2 in [16], and 1.1 in [28]. Then EINOx
decreases with the further increase in F. They explained the
EINOx reduction with F as the result of probable NOx reburning.
Their IDFs were both yellow in appearance, characterized with
large amount of soot emission. However, all the IDFs studied in
the current experiments are blue, dual-structure, triple-layer
flames, as shown in Fig. 3. Therefore, there is a fundamental
difference in the flame structures between the current IDFs and
those studied in [16,28]. EINOx from laminar partially premixed
methane/air flame in Gore and Zhan [35] and turbulent partially
premixed methane/air flame in Lyle et al. [36] are also plotted for
comparison. It can be observed that the current IDFs produces
more NOx than the laminar partially premixed flame, but less
than turbulent partially premixed flame when F < 1.4. Generally,
the current IDFs produces much less NOx than the IDFs studied in
[16,28].
It is also observed from Fig. 10(c) that EINOx decreases with
decrease in dair. This is due to two reasons. First, smaller dair
produces smaller volume of high-temperature zone with over
1900 K where thermal NO is prominent, as shown in Fig. 5. As
a result, less NOx is produced. Second, under the same Q_ air and
Q_ fuel , smaller dair also has shorter residence time, further reducing
NOx formation.
4. Conclusions
Experimental study has been performed to explore the
appearances, thermal structures and the emission characteristics
of the inverse diffusion flame produced by port-array burners
with small, moderate and large diameter ratios between air and
fuel ports for the purpose of combustion and design optimization.
The investigation has focused on blue, dual-structure, triple-layer
IDFs, desirable for heating purpose. The combustion and flame
behaviors under different F, Reair, Refuel, and Vair/Vfuel of these
burners are examined and compared. The following conclusions
are drawn.
2845
(1) Burner with smaller dair can produce stable blue IDF in a wider
range of Reair due to the decreased air/fuel mixing-induced
turbulence level in the flame neck, and also in a wider range of
F under the same Q_ air , due to stronger entrainment of the
surrounding air in the post-flame region.
(2) The flame length increases with the increase in F and Refuel.
The flame length decreases with the increase in Reair from
4000 to 12,000 for 4 mm-IDF. For 6 mm-IDF, the flame
length first increases monotonically with Reair until the
critical value of 3000, then remains generally unchanged
with the further increase in Reair to 8000. The same increase
is found for 9 mm-IDF before the critical Reair of 333.
Beyond that, the total flame length starts to decrease with
Reair.
(3) The inner cone length increases with the decrease in dair under
the same Reair thanks to the enhanced turbulence level in the
flame neck as a result of the enhanced air/fuel mixing.
(4) For the three dair, a similarity in the centerline temperature
profiles before the early post-flame zone under different Reair is
observed. In this similarity area, the influence of Reair on Tf is
very weak. Tf,max increases with F until F ¼ 1.4 for the three
dair, indicating the occurrence of the practical stoichiometric
condition under F ¼ 1.4 . A high-temperature plateau extend-
ing from the inner reaction zone to the post-flame zone of over
1900 K is found when F > 1.4.
(5) Under the same Q_ air and Q_ fuel , smaller dair produces higher Tf,
lower volume of high-temperature plateau of over 1900 K, and
longer post-flame zone. The measured flame zone lengths
match well with the measured temperature and compositions
concentrations profiles.
(6) No air/fuel mixing occurs in the base flame zone. Mixing zone is
characterized by the rapid change of the compositions
concentrations and rapid increase in Tf. [CO], [CO2], and [O2] all
remain constant levels in the reaction zone. Part of CO converts
into CO2 in the post-flame reaction zone with the presence of
the entrained surrounding air. Post-flame entrainment zone is
largely characterized by air entrainment to cool down the flue
gas. The high Tf of over 1900 K in the reaction zone and the
post-flame reaction zone indicates that thermal NO mecha-
nism is prominent.
(7) For all the three dair, EICO decreases with F until F ¼ 1.4, as
a result of the increased Tf. Beyond that, EICO still decreases
with F thanks to the CO/CO2 conversion in the high-tempera-
ture post-flame reaction zone. Under the same Q_ air and Q_ fuel ,
EICO decreases with the increase in dair due to the enhanced
turbulence in the flame neck and the subsequent enhanced
combustion in the reaction zone, the increased residence time,
and the increased local residence time in the prolonged post-
flame zone.
(8) EINOx increases with F till F ¼ 1.8 due to the increased Tf and
the increased residence time in the prolonged high-tempera-
ture post-flame reaction zone. EINOx decreases with the
further increase in F due to the decreased Tf,max.
(9) The current blue, dual-structure, triple-layer IDFs produces
more NOx than the laminar partially methane/air premixed
flame, less than turbulent partially methane/air premixed
flame when F < 1.4 and much less NOx than yellow IDFs.
Overall speaking, smaller dair produces the flame with better
thermal characteristics characterized by higher peak flame
temperature and wider range of flame stability. In terms of
pollutant emission, a trade-off is needed in the practical burner
design between incomplete combustion production (CO and HC)
emission reduction and NOx emission reduction, with burner with
smaller dair emitting less NOx but more CO and HC.
2846 L.L. Dong et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 2834e2846
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank The Hong Kong Polytechnic Univer-
sity and the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong SAR (Project
No. PolyU 5142/05E) for financial support of the present study.
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