The aim of our work was to study turbulent premixed flames in subatmospheric conditions. For this purpose, turbulent premixed flames of lean methane/air mixtures were stabilized in a nozzle-type Bunsen burner and analyzed using Schlieren visualization and image processing to calculate turbulent burning velocities by the mean-angle method. Moreover, hot-wire anemometer measurements were performed to characterize the turbulent aspects of the flow. The environmental conditions were 0.85 atm, 0.98 atm, and 295 ± 2 K. The turbulence–flame interaction was analyzed based on the geometric parameters combined with laminar flame properties (which were experimentally and numerically determined), integral length scale, and Kolmogorov length scale. Our results show that the effects of subatmospheric pressure on turbulent burning velocity are significant. The ratio between turbulent and laminar burning velocities increases with turbulence intensity, but this effect tends to decrease as the atmospheric pressure is reduced. We propose a general empirical correlation as a function between S T / S L and u ′/ S L based on the experimental results obtained in this study and the equivalence ratio and pressure we established.

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The effect of ethane on combustion and natural gas autoignition was studied in the present paper. Two fuel mixture of natural gas with high ethane content were considered, 75% CH4 – 25% C2H6 (mixture 1), and 50% CH4 – 50% C2H6 (mixture 2). Natural gas combustion incidence was analyzed through the calculation of energy properties and the ignition delay time numerical calculations along with an ignition mode analysis. Specifically, the strong ignition limit was calculated to determine the effect of ethane on natural gas autoignition. According to the results, ignition delay time decreases for both mixtures in comparison with pure methane. The strong ignition limit shifts to lower temperatures when ethane is present in natural gas chemical composition.

This work presents an experimental investigation on the combustion behavior of a mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide in hot and diluted streams, like those obtain under flameless combustion regimes. A jet in a hot coflow burner was used to carry out the experiments. This burner consists of a central fuel jet surrounded by a combustion products stream, which comes from a premixed flame under lean conditions. In this way, it is possible to obtain high temperature and low oxygen concentration in the jet flame. Here, a mixture of 40% H2, 40% CO and 20% CO was issued through the jet nozzle. This composition corresponds to a renewable fuel known as syngas. Three oxygen composition in the oxidant stream were evaluated: 2.0%, 4.7% and 6.9%. Temperature and species concentration values were measured along axial and radial lines under a fix Reynolds’s number. The results suggest that when oxygen concentration increases, CO and NO emissions of the total process decreases.

The global energy demand enhances the environmental and operational benefits of natural gas as an energy alternative, due to its composition, mainly methane (CH4), it has low polluting emissions and benefits in energy and combustion systems. In the present work, the laminar burning velocity of methane was determined numerically and experimentally at two pressure conditions, 0.85 atm and 0.98 atm, corresponding to the city of Medellín and Caucasia, respectively, located in Colombia. The environmental conditions were 0.85 atm, 0.98 atm, and 295±1 K. The simulations and experimental measurements were carried out for different equivalence relations. Experimental laminar burning velocities were determined using the burner method and spontaneous chemiluminescence technique, flames were generated using burners with contoured rectangular ports to maintain laminar Reynolds numbers for the equivalence ratios under study and to reduce the effects of stretch and curvature in the direction of the burner's axis. In general, the laminar burning velocity fits well with the numerical results. With the results obtained, a correlation is proposed that relates the laminar burning velocity with the effects of pressure, in the form SL=aPb, where a and b are model constants. Sensitivity analysis was performed using the GRI-Mech 3.0 mechanism which showed that the most sensitive reaction was H+O2=O+OH (R38). Additionally, it was found that the reactions H+CH3 (+M)=CH4 (+M) (R52), 2CH3 (+M)=C2H6 (+M) (R158), and O+CH3=H+CH2O (R10) dominate the consumption of CH3 which is an important radical in the oxidation of methane, this analysis is carried out for equivalence ratios of 0.8 and 1.0, and atmospheric pressures of 0.85 atm and 0.98 atm