Experimental Investigation of a Pulsation Reactor via Optical Methods

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Abstract

Material treatment in pulsation reactors (PRs) offers the potential to synthesize powdery products with desirable properties, such as nano-sized particles and high specific surface areas, on an industrial scale. These exceptional material characteristics arise from specific process parameters within PRs, characterized by the periodically varying conditions and the resulting enhanced heat and mass transfer between the medium and the particulate material. Understanding flame behavior and the re-ignition mechanism is crucial to controlling the efficiency and stability of the pulse combustion process. In order to accomplish this objective, an investigation was conducted into flame behavior within the combustion chamber of a Helmholtz-type pulsation reactor. The study was focused on primarily analyzing the flame propagation process and examining flame velocity throughout the operational cycle of the reactor. Two optical methods—natural flame luminosity (NFL) and particle image velocimetry (PIV)—were applied in related experiments. An analysis of the NFL measurement data revealed a correlation between the intensity of light emitted by the pulsed flame and the air-fuel equivalence ratio (range from 0.89 to 2.08 in this study). It is observed that a lower air-fuel equivalence ratio leads to higher flame luminosity in the PR. In addition, in order to study the parameters related to system stability and energy transfer efficiency, this study also focuses on the local velocity field measurement method and an example of a fluid flow result in a combustion chamber by using a phase-locked PIV measurement system upgraded from a classic PIV system. The presented results herein contribute to the characterization of flame propagation within a pulsation reactor, as well as in pulsatile flows over one working cycle in a broader context, with flow velocity in the center of the combustion chamber ranging from 1.5m/s to 5m/s. Furthermore, this study offers insights into the applicable experimental methodologies for investigating the intricate interplay between flames and flows within combustion processes.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number385
Number of pages24
JournalProcesses : open access journal
Volume12
Issue number2
Publication statusPublished - 15 Feb 2024
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0003-3471-0193/work/153268978
ORCID /0000-0002-5609-1736/work/153654726
unpaywall 10.3390/pr12020385
Scopus 85187244510
Mendeley 7b2113c3-ca19-3c13-96c4-6f66f22a4c1b

Keywords

Subject groups, research areas, subject areas according to Destatis

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Keywords

  • natural flame luminosity, particle image velocimetry, pulsatile flame, pulsatile flow, pulsating combustion, pulsation reactor