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Enhancement of Blowout Limits in Lifted Swirled Flames in Methane-Air Combustor by the Use of Sinusoidally Driven Plasma Discharges

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Active Flow and Combustion Control 2021 (AFCC 2021)

Part of the book series: Notes on Numerical Fluid Mechanics and Multidisciplinary Design ((NNFM,volume 152 ))

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Abstract

This study focuses on the effects of continuous volumetric discharge of sinusoidal plasma actuator at 20 kHz coupled directly with methane-air premixed flame in the near field of the injector exit. A plasma actuator composed of a needle-type electrode placed at the center of the nozzle, connected with high-voltage, while the nozzle was acted as a grounded electrode with different input electrical power values was designed to enhance lean blowout performance in a swirl model combustor. The ionic wind induced by the electrical body force given by the flow ionization leads to velocity disturbance and subsequently affects the flame. To investigate the possible mechanism of the combustion control by the plasma through the aerodynamic effect high speed flow visualization was analyzed under quiescent conditions. Flow visualizations showed that the plasma discharge affects the flow dynamics near the burner exit. It was observed that by increasing the electrical power used for the actuation a recirculation zone is formed in the non-reacting flow field. Furthermore, comparative experiments between conventional and plasma-assisted combustion were carried out to analyze the combustion enhancement in terms of lean blowout performance. The effect of the input electric power of the plasma actuator was studied, and it was seen that at coupled plasma powers corresponding to less than 1% of the thermal output power, there is a significant improvement in the blow-out limit.

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Abbreviations

A\(_{eff}\):

Effective area, [mm\(^{2}\)]

DBD :

Dielectric barrier discharge

f:

Frequency, [Hz]

FFT:

Fast Fourier transforms

HV:

High voltage

I(t):

Applied current signal, [A]

LBO:

Lean blow-out

\(\dot{m_{air}}\) :

Air mass flow rate, [kg/hr]

\(\dot{m_{fuel}}\) :

Fuel mass flow rate, [kg/hr]

NTP:

Non thermal plasma

P\(_{elec.}\):

Electrical Power consumed to produce the plasma, [W]

PIV:

Particle Image Velocimetry

SN:

Swirl number, [-]

SNR:

Signal to noise ratio

V(t):

Applied voltage signal, [V]

V\(_{pp}\):

Peak to peak voltage, [V]

V\(_{max}\):

Maximum voltage used to produce the plasma, [V]

\(\lambda \) :

Wavelength, [nm]

\(\varPhi _{0}\) :

Equivalence ratio without plasma actuation, [-]

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Acknowledgment

This project has received funding from the Clean Sky 2 Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No. 831881 (CHAiRLIFT). The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and the Clean Sky 2 JU members other than the Union.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering for Innovation, University of Salento, Via per Monteroni, 73100, Lecce, Italy

    Maria Grazia De Giorgi, Sara Bonuso & Ghazanfar Mehdi

  2. Engler-Bunte-Institute, Division of Combustion Technology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Engler-Bunte-Ring 7, 76131, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Mohamed Shamma, Stefan Raphael Harth, Nikolaos Zarzalis & Dimosthenis Trimis

Authors
  1. Maria Grazia De Giorgi
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Correspondence to Maria Grazia De Giorgi .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Measurement and Control, Institute of Chemical and Process Engineering, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Rudibert King

  2. Department of Aero Engines, Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Dieter Peitsch

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De Giorgi, M.G. et al. (2022). Enhancement of Blowout Limits in Lifted Swirled Flames in Methane-Air Combustor by the Use of Sinusoidally Driven Plasma Discharges. In: King, R., Peitsch, D. (eds) Active Flow and Combustion Control 2021. AFCC 2021. Notes on Numerical Fluid Mechanics and Multidisciplinary Design, vol 152 . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90727-3_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90727-3_5

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