Laminar burning velocities and laminar flame speeds of multi-component fuel blends at elevated temperatures and pressures

• Main Author: Byun, Jung Joo
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: Laminar flame speed; Laminar burning velocity; Fuel blends; Iso-octane; n-heptane; Ethanol
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2152/ETD-UT-2011-05-516

Iso-octane, n-heptane, ethanol and their blends were tested in a constant volume combustion chamber to measure laminar burning velocities. The experimental apparatus was modified from the previous version to an automatically-controlled system. Accuracy and speed of data acquisition were improved by this modification. The laminar burning velocity analysis code was also improved for minimized error and fast calculation. A large database of laminar burning velocities at elevated temperatures and pressures was established using this improved experimental apparatus and analysis code. From this large database of laminar burning velocities, laminar flame speeds were extracted. Laminar flame speeds of iso-octane, n-heptane and blends were investigated and analysed to derive new correlations to predict laminar flame speeds of any blending ratio. Ethanol and ethanol blends with iso-octane and/or n-heptane were also examined to see the role of ethanol in the blends. Generally, the results for iso-octane and n-heptane agree with published data. Additionally, blends of iso-octane and n-heptane exhibited flame speeds that followed linear blending relationships. A new flame speed model was successfully applied to these fuels. Ethanol and ethanol blends with iso-octane and/or n-heptane exhibited a strongly non-linear blending relationship and the new flame speed model was not applied to these fuels. It was shown that the addition of ethanol into iso-octane and/or n-heptane accelerated the flame speeds. === text