Publications
Soot formation, transport, and radiation in unsteady diffusion flames : LDRD final report
Fires pose the dominant risk to the safety and security of nuclear weapons, nuclear transport containers, and DOE and DoD facilities. The thermal hazard from these fires primarily results from radiant emission from high-temperature flame soot. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the local transport and chemical phenomena that determine the distributions of soot concentration, optical properties, and temperature in order to develop and validate constitutive models for large-scale, high-fidelity fire simulations. This report summarizes the findings of a Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project devoted to obtaining the critical experimental information needed to develop such constitutive models. A combination of laser diagnostics and extractive measurement techniques have been employed in both steady and pulsed laminar diffusion flames of methane, ethylene, and JP-8 surrogate burning in air. For methane and ethylene, both slot and coannular flame geometries were investigated, as well as normal and inverse diffusion flame geometries. For the JP-8 surrogate, coannular normal diffusion flames were investigated. Soot concentrations, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) signals, hydroxyl radical (OH) LIF, acetylene and water vapor concentrations, soot zone temperatures, and the velocity field were all successfully measured in both steady and unsteady versions of these various flames. In addition, measurements were made of the soot microstructure, soot dimensionless extinction coefficient (&), and the local radiant heat flux. Taken together, these measurements comprise a unique, extensive database for future development and validation of models of soot formation, transport, and radiation.