The effect of pressure on soot aggregate morphology in laminar diffusion flames, specifically pertaining to primary soot particle size and soot aggregate fractal parameters, was investigated in methane-air and nitrogen-diluted ethylene flames. Soot aggregate samples were collected by thermophoretic sampling within a high-pressure combusting chamber. Soot samples were imaged via transmission electron microscopy followed by an automated imaging detection method. The experiments covered pressures from 7 to 30 bar at vertical flame heights of 3, 6, and 8 mm in methane-air flames, and 3 to 6 bar at heights of 2, 5, 10, and 15 mm in nitrogen-diluted ethylene flames. It was observed that mean primary soot particle size increased with increasing pressure for both fuel types at virtually all flame locations. The fractal dimension was found to vary with pressure for both fuel cases, suggesting that a universal soot aggregate fractal value may not be justified in high-pressure flames.

The focus of this AASERT grant was the development of two novel measurement approaches for soot property characterization: laser-induced incandescence and intrusive probe sampling of soot particles from diffusion flames. Characterization of the laser-induced incandescence technique for soot particle measurements in laminar diffusion flames resulted in the development of a new quantitative measurement technique for soot volume fraction and marked the first use of this technique for quantitative measurements. In particular, the relationship between laser fluence and the temporal character of the laser-induced incandescence signal was carefully examined and documented. Based on the laminar flame work, the technique was extended to soot particle measurements in turbulent diffusion, spray and droplet flames with similar quantitative results. Concurrently, an intrusive probe sampling system to collect soot particles from laminar diffusion flames was developed. This sampling system provided collection sample sizes up to 2 grams of soot. Large soot samples were required to allow for appropriate surface area characterization which was conducted using a BET measurement approach. jg p1.

Laminar axisymmetric propane air diffusion flames were studied at pressures 0.1 to 0.725 MPa (1 to 7.25 atm). To investigate the effect of pressure on soot formation, radially resolved soot temperatures and soot volume fractions were deduced from soot radiation emission scans collected at various pressures using spectral soot emission (SSE). Overall flame stability was quite good as judged by the naked eye. Flame heights varied by 15% and flame axial diameters decreased by 30% over the entire pressure range.Analysis of temperature sensitivity to variations in E lambda(m) revealed that a change in E lambda(m) of +/-20% produced a change in local temperature values of about 75 to 100 K or about 5%.Temperatures decreased and soot concentration increased with increased pressure. More specifically, the peak soot volume fraction showed a power law dependence, fv ∝ Pn where n = 2.0 over the entire pressure range. The maximum integrated soot volume fraction also showed a power law relationship with pressure, f ̄v ∝ Pn where n = 3.4 for 1 ≤ P ≤ 2 atm and n = 1.4 for 2 ≤ P ≤ 7.25 atm. The percentage of fuel carbon converted to soot increased with pressure at a rate, etas ∝ Pn where n = 3.3 and n = 1.1 for 1 ≤ P ≤ 2 atm and 2 ≤ P ≤ 7.25 atm respectively.