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Degree

Master of Science, Miami University, Physics, 2006.

Abstract

This work focuses upon the effects of electric fields on the stability of pre-mixed hydrocarbon flames fueled by methane, propane and butane. For all fuels studied, over varying flow rates and equivalence ratios, electric-field-induced modification of the flame front stability over wide ranges has been observed and documented. Specifically, the electric pressure effect has been used to force pre-mixed hydrocarbon/air flame fronts to transition from flow-induced hydrodynamic-instability-dominated behavior, to field-stabilized laminar flow, and finally to field-induced thermal-diffusive-instability-dominated turbulent flame fronts. The effects are best described from a combustion dynamics viewpoint as a continuously variable electric-field-induced diminution of the flame Lewis number from typical values (> 1), past the flame critical Lewis number (0.6-0.9), to thermal-diffusive-instability dominated values below the critical Lewis number at higher applied potentials. A possible field-driven ion chemistry process that could produce those effects is the dissociative recombination of the flame ion (H30+) at the burner surface.

Keywords

Combustion; Flame Instabilities

Advisor

S. Douglas Marcum

Pages

98p.

Document number: miami1154727896
Permalink: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1154727896

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