Shaun Chan

Postgraduate Student

B.E. Chemical Engineering (1st Class Honours), University of Adelaide

Location: Room A305 Engineering North
Email: schan@chemeng.adelaide.edu.au
Phone: + 61 8 8303 3959
FAX: + 61 8 8303 4373

Supervisors

Dr Zeyad T. Alwahabi, School of Chemical Engineering, University of Adelaide
Professor Graham J. Nathan, School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Adelaide
Associate Professor Bassam B. Dally, School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Adelaide

Research Topic

Development of temperature imaging and its application in Turbulent Diffusion Flame

Research Abstract

The role of soot in combustion is important due its environmental and health impact, in addition to its role in radiative heat transfer. In order to understand the complex soot formation process, there is a need for adequate models that are rigorously tested by reliable data sets which consist of parameters prevalent in sooting and fuel-rich flames. A multitude of interdependent parameters are of fundamental importance; however, temperature field distribution remains one of the most significant parameters in understanding and describing the chemical reactions and physical processes in combustion systems.

It is advantageous to collect data using a non-intrusive method, such as an optical technique, to avoid perturbation of the flame. Several laser diagnostic techniques have been employed in the past, however strong absorption and spectral interference due to the presence of soot and its precursors prevent these techniques from being applied reliably to turbulent flames containing soot. Of the laser-based thermometry techniques, two-line atomic fluorescence (TLAF) is one of the most suitable for sooting environments. The TLAF technique is based on the optical excitation of two electronic transitional states and the sequential detection of the spectrally shifted emission. This has the advantage of enabling optical filtering to reduce interferences from spurious scattering.

Despite the potential of TLAF in sooting flames, much of the previous work has been focussed on clean flames. Of the few studies that have applied TLAF to sooting flames, only time-averaged results have been reported. With some notable exceptions, virtually all of the past work on TLAF has been performed in laminar premixed flames and thus the limitation of collecting mean temperature has been adequate. In the context of turbulent non-premixed flames, such averaged data is insufficient however.

This work aims to develop and improve on the previous temperature measurements using TLAF technique. Whilst still in a development stage, this work has shown a significant potential to allow the collection of large dimension single-shot images with superior signal-to-noise ratio in sooting non-premixed environment

 Research Interests

• Combustion, fluid mechanics

Recent Publications

• Qamar, N. H. F., Alwahabi, Z. T., Chan Q. N., Nathan, G. J. and Roekaerts, D. (2007), Measurements of soot volume fraction in TNF Delft flame, ‘Proceedings of the Australian Combustion Symposium 2007', The University of Sydney, Sydney, December 9-11 2007 , pp. 42-45.
• Alwahabi, Z. T., Reppel, J., Nathan, G. J., Chan, Q. N. and King, K. D. (2007), Structure of precessing jet methane flames from planar hydroxyl radical distributions Proceedings of the Australian Combustion Symposium 2007', The University of Sydney, Sydney, December 9-11 2007, pp.38-41.
• Medwell, P. R., Chan, Q. N., Kalt, P. A. M., Alwahabi, Z. T., Dally, B. B. and Nathan, G. J. (2008), Development of Two-Line Atomic Fluorescence (TLAF) Technique for Temperature Measurement, ‘5th Australian Conference on Laser Diagnostics in Fluid Mechanics and Combustion', The University of Western Australia, Perth, December 3-4 2008, pp. 116-118.
• Medwell, P. R., *Chan, Q. N.*, Kalt, P. A. M., Alwahabi, Z. T., Dally, B. B. and Nathan, G. J. (2008), Non-Linear Regime Two-Line Atomic Fluorescence (NTLAF) Technique for Temperature Measurement, ‘5th Australian Conference on Laser Diagnostics in Fluid Mechanics and Combustion', The University of Western Australia, Perth, December 3-4 2008, pp. 119-122.
• Medwell, P. R., *Chan, Q. N.*, Kalt, P. A. M., Alwahabi, Z. T., Dally, B. B. and Nathan, G. J. (2009), Development of Temperature Imaging using Two-Line Atomic Fluorescence, Applied Optics, Vol. 48 (6), pp. 1237-1248.
• Qamar, N. H. F., Alwahabi, Z. T., *Chan Q. N.*, Nathan, G. J., Roekaerts, D. and King K. D., (2009), Soot Volume Fraction in a Piloted Turbulent Jet Non-premixed Flame of Natural Gas, Combustion and Flame, Accepted for Publication. 

 Awards

• WDDT Grant to attend 5th Australian Conference for Laser Diagnostics in Fluid Mechanics and Combustion in University of Western Australia, Perth, 3-4th December 2008.
• Travel Support from the ANZ Section of the Combustion Institute to attend 32nd International Symposium on Combustion in McGill University, Montreal, 3-8th August 2008.
• Travel Support from the ANZ Section of the Combustion Institute to attend Proceedings of the Australian Combustion Symposium in University of Sydney, Sydney, 9-11th December 2007.