Kenneth Ho

Master of Engineering Science Candidate

BE (Chemical) Hons

Location: Room A210 Engineering Annex
Email: kho@chemeng.adelaide.edu.au 
Phone: + 61 8 8303 3093
FAX: + 61 8 8303 4373

Supervisors

Dr Zeyad Alwahabi
Dr Peter Ashman

Research Topic

Laminar flame database design by soot measurements and chemical species simulation

Research Abstract

A proposed database consisting of measured soot concentrations and simulated species' profiles has been designed to investigate the interrelationship between soot and radicals for premixed flat flames. Soot volume fractions were achieved by the use of a Helium-Neon laser extinction technique carried out at 632.8nm coupled with an alternating chopper at 300 Hz. Temperature profiles were obtained by the use of a ceramic coated Pt / (13% Rh) Pt thermocouple. Axial profiles of temperature and soot volume fraction were measured for ethylene at 101.3kPa using a 30cm diameter McKenna flat flame burner. Both major and minor chemical species' profiles were simulated by utilising PREMIX function in CHEMKIN using experimental temperature profiles as estimates. Full concentration profiles were mapped out for 53 species using GRI-MECH version 3.0 reaction set.

Preliminary results revealed that soot volume fractions increased proportionally with C/O ratios as a function of burner heights per mm increment. In contrast, temperatures initially decreased from the start of 3-5 mm after which remained constant for 50% of the flame front before declining towards the flame exit. Simulation results have shown that OH, CH3, C2H2 species' concentrations peaked at 4mm region prior to gradual decrease. However, sensitivity analysis is needed to explore other chemical species which influence soot precursors is recommended.

Interests

• Combustion, Oil and Gas, Energy