This report documents the results of a project funded by DoD's Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) on the science behind development of predictive models for soot emission from gas turbine engines. Measurements of soot formation were performed in laminar flat premixed flames and turbulent non-premixed jet flames at 1 atm pressure and in turbulent liquid spray flames under representative conditions for takeoff in a gas turbine engine. The laminar flames and open jet flames used both ethylene and a prevaporized JP-8 surrogate fuel composed of n-dodecane and m-xylene. The pressurized turbulent jet flame measurements used the JP-8 surrogate fuel and compared its combustion and sooting characteristics to a world-average JP-8 fuel sample. The pressurized jet flame measurements demonstrated that the surrogate was representative of JP-8, with a somewhat higher tendency to soot formation. The premixed flame measurements revealed that flame temperature has a strong impact on the rate of soot nucleation and particle coagulation, but little sensitivity in the overall trends was found with different fuels. An extensive array of non-intrusive optical and laser-based measurements was performed in turbulent non-premixed jet flames established on specially designed piloted burners. Soot concentration data was collected throughout the flames, together with instantaneous images showing the relationship between soot and the OH radical and soot and PAH. A detailed chemical kinetic mechanism for ethylene combustion, including fuel-rich chemistry and benzene formation steps, was compiled, validated, and reduced. The reduced ethylene mechanism was incorporated into a high-fidelity LES code, together with a moment-based soot model and models for thermal radiation, to evaluate the ability of the chemistry and soot models to predict soot formation in the jet diffusion flame. The LES results highlight the importance of including an optically-thick radiation model to accurately predict gas temperatures and thus soot formation rates. When including such a radiation model, the LES model predicts mean soot concentrations within 30% in the ethylene jet flame.

"The principal objective of this study was to investigate the fundamentals of various soot processes within turbulent non-premixed flames using non-intrusive laser diagnostics. Unconfined burners with different fuels in atmospheric-pressure air were selected to collect data in well-defined turbulent flames. Laser scattering at two angles and extinction experiments were conducted and interpreted based on an optical theory which can properly account for the actual fractal morphology of soot aggregates ... with the ultimate objective of advancing the predictions of fine-particulate matter in practical combustion applications"--Introduction, leaves 16-17.

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 aim of this study is to advance the present capability for modelling soot production and thermal radiation from turbulent jet diffusion flames. Turbulent methane / air jet diffusion flames at atmospheric and elevated pressure are studied experimentally to provide data for subsequent model development and validation. Methane is only lightly sooting at atmospheric pressure whereas at elevated pressure the soot yield increases greatly. This allows the creation of an optically thick, highly radiating flame within a laboratory scale rig. Essential flame properties needed for model validation are measured at 1 and 3 atm. These are mean mixture fraction, mean temperature, mean soot volume fraction, and mean and instantaneous spectrally resolved radiation intensity. These two flames are modelled using the parabolic CFD code GENMIX. The combustion / turbulence interaction is modelled using the conserved scalar / laminar flamelet approach. The chemistry of methane combustion is modelled using a detailed chemistry laminar flame code. The combustion model accommodates the non-adiabatic nature of the flames through the use of multiple flamelets for each scalar. The flamelets are differentiated by the amount of radiative heat loss that is included. Flamelet selection is carried out through the solution of a balance equation for enthalpy, which includes a source term for the radiative heat loss. A new soot model has been developed and calibrated by application to a laminar flame calculation. Within the turbulent flame calculations the soot production is fully coupled to the radiative loss. This is achieved through the use of multiple flamelets for the soot source terms and the inclusion of the radiative loss from the soot (as well as the gases) in the enthalpy source. Spectral radiative emission from the flames has been modelled using the RADCAL code. Mean flame properties from the GENMIX calculations are used as an input to RADCAL.