Combustion Characteristics for Non-homogeneous Segregated H2-Air Mixtures

• Main Author: Manoubi, Maha
• Other Authors: Radulescu, Matei
• Language: en
• Published: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa 2015
• Subjects: Hydrogen deflagration; Non-homogeneous media; Flame propagation; Soap bubble; Spherical flame
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10393/32272; http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-3926

The work presented in this thesis is an investigation of the dynamics of unconfined hydrogen-air flames in the presence of buoyant effects and the determination of an ignition criterion for flame propagation between adjacent pockets of reactive gas separated by air. The experimental work was conducted using the soap bubble technique and visualized with high speed schlieren or large scale shadowgraph systems. A study was first conducted to determine the most suitable soap solution additive among glycerol, guar and polyethylene oxide for conducting the experiments, isolating guar as the best candidate. The soap solution was then used to study the dynamics of flames in single or multiple soap bubbles filled with reactive mixtures of different compositions. The soap bubble method was also further improved by designing a soap dispenser that can maintain a bubble indefinitely and a method to burst the soap solution prior to an experiment using timed heated wires. In the experiments with single bubbles, it was found that for sufficiently lean hydrogen-air mixtures, buoyancy effects become important at small scales. The critical radius of hemispherical flames that will rise due to buoyancy was measured and estimated using a model comparing the characteristic burning speed and the rise speed of the flame kernel. Excellent agreement was found between the model predictions and the measured critical flame radii. The experiments with multiple bubbles provided the scaling rules for flame transition between neighboring pockets of hemispherical or spherical shape separated by an inert gas. The test results demonstrated that the separation distance between the bubbles is mainly determined by the expansion ratio when the buoyancy effects are negligible, corresponding to near stoichiometric mixtures. For leaner mixtures with stronger buoyant effects, the critical separation distance was no longer governed by the expansion ratio alone, as buoyancy forces render the flame propagation across the inert gas more difficult. Visualization of the ignition dynamics confirmed that buoyancy forces tend to accelerate the first kernel up before ignition of the second kernel can be achieved.