Ozone-Enhanced Flame Propagation of Methane/Ethylene/Air Mixtures at Subatmospheric Pressures

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Ozone-Enhanced Flame Propagation of Methane/Ethylene/Air Mixtures at Subatmospheric Pressures

Reuter, Christopher B. / Ombrello, Timothy M.

The combustion enhancement by ozone has been studied for single-component fuels in many different settings; however, the impact of ozone addition on a multicomponent fuel has been experimentally underexplored. This paper investigates the ozone-assisted flame propagation of a mixture of alkenes and alkanes in a low-pressure Hencken burner over a range of equivalence ratios, ozone concentrations, and pressures. One-dimensional numerical simulations of the flame speed using a detailed chemical kinetic model are also conducted for comparison to the experimental measurements. Both the experimental measurements and numerical simulations indicate that higher ozone concentrations result in increased flame speeds of methane/ethylene/air mixtures and that the relative flame speed enhancement by ozone is larger for off-stoichiometric conditions. Although quantitative agreement is achieved for the cases without ozone addition, the ozone-assisted flame speeds are generally overpredicted by the kinetic model. Finally, a computational analysis of the detailed flame structure is performed, and the coupling between fuel chemistry and the ozone H-abstraction reaction, $O_{3} + H = O_{2} + OH$ , is found to be crucial in determining the relative degree of flame speed enhancement of methane/ethylene/air mixtures by ozone.