We have developed and built a small porous-plug burner based on the original McKenna burner design. The new burner generates a laminar premixed flat flame for use in studies of combustion chemistry and soot formation. The size is particularly relevant for space-constrained, synchrotron-based X-ray diagnostics. In this paper, we present details of the design, construction, operation, and supporting infrastructure for this burner, including engineering attributes that enable its small size. We also present data for charactering the flames produced by this burner. These data include temperature profiles for three premixed sooting ethylene/air flames (equivalence ratios of 1.5, 1.8, and 2.1); temperatures were recorded using direct one-dimensional coherent Raman imaging. We include calculated temperature profiles, and, for one of these ethylene/air flames, we show the carbon and hydrogen content of heavy hydrocarbon species measured using an aerosol mass spectrometer coupled with vacuum ultraviolet photoionization (VUV-AMS) and soot-volume-fraction measurements obtained using laser-induced incandescence. In addition, we provide calculated mole-fraction profiles of selected gas-phase species and characteristic profiles for seven mass peaks from AMS measurements. Using these experimental and calculated results, we discuss the differences between standard McKenna burners and the new miniature porous-plug burner introduced here.@en

In practical combustion-based devices, such as internal combustion (IC) engines and gas turbines for power generation, there exists significant interaction between gas-phase combustion and metal surfaces. The nature of this heterogeneous interaction is complex, involving both physical and chemical effects. The metal surface is generally much cooler than impinging flames, and significant heat flux to the metal wall ensues during the flame–wall interaction (FWI). In this work, we investigate FWI in the side-wall quenching canonical configuration obtained with two-beam femtosecond/picosecond 1D-CARS thermometry. The experiments are performed using a generic burner where the turbulence intensities are significantly enhanced by the employment of a turbulence generator grid (blockage 45%). Previously, these operating conditions have only been well-characterized at quasi-stationary conditions (Re = 5000) [Bohlin, A., Jainski, C., Patterson, B.D., Dreizler, A., Kliewer, C.J.: Multiparameter spatiothermochemical probing of flame–wall interactions advanced with coherent Raman imaging. Proc. Combust. Inst. 36, 4557–4564 (2017)]. In these new experiments, complex interplay between the laser diagnostic and the turbulent combustion in the near wall region is overcome, and data is produced, for instance, on the maximum instantaneous temperature gradients versus the position of the flame-front near the wall as determined with direct thermometry contour analysis. @en

In practical combustion devices featuring high power densities, the interaction between flames and walls may have a significant impact on the thermodynamic efficiency and the formation of pollutants (e.g. unburned hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide). The common understanding is that at the region near the wall ~ 1 mm, where the solid metal surface is generally much cooler than the impinging flames, steep temperature gradients exist which may result in incomplete combustion and local quenching of the flame. This has been investigated experimentally, by CARS monitoring of temperature- and major species profiles from premixed methane/air flames impinging against a cooled steel side-wall, performed at well-characterized quasi-stationary laminar conditions [1]. In these new experiments, we have employed the same generic burner and CARS imaging system [2], but now operating at significantly enhanced turbulence intensities induced by a turbulence generator grid (blockage ratio 45%, turbulence level 푢푢′/푢푢ത = 6-7%). The complex interplay between the laser diagnostic and the turbulent reacting flow in the near-wall region has been overcome, for instance, with the balanced detection between CARS signals originating from unreacted- and reacted mixtures imaged on the same detector frame, the removal of the laser beams reflecting from the surface, and the suppression of background flame luminosity within the clear aperture of the coherent imaging system. A quick-fitting routine enabling rapid convergence of two-beam femtosecond/picosecond CARS signal analysis has been developed. Correlated statistics have been produced, for instance, on the instantaneous temperature gradients near the wall (position with magnitude). This temperature data supports the recent findings of velocity measurements [3], and adds to the database on this burner system which can be used as a benchmark to improve the fidelity of numerical simulation on near-wall turbulent reacting flows.@en