Effect of spark gap on turbulent facilitated ignition through differential diffusion

S. S. Shy, M. T. Nguyen, S. Y. Huang, C. C. Liu

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

Abstract

This note is based on a recent brief communication published in Combustion and Flame (Shy et al. 2107) to discuss an unexpected result discovered by Wu et al. (2014). Contrary to traditional views, Wu et al. found that turbulence can facilitate ignition through differential diffusion when the effective Lewis number (Le) of mixtures is sufficiently greater than unity, where ignition experiments were conducted in a near-isotropic turbulence generated by a fan-stirred burner by applying small spark electrode gaps (dgap ≤ 0.8 mm). This implied that the associated minimum ignition energy (MIE) in intense turbulence could be smaller than that in quiescence. In this work, the effect of dgap on the turbulent facilitated ignition (TFI) for Le > 1 is measured and discussed. We apply the same hydrogen mixtures at the equivalence ratio φ = 5.1 (Le ≈ 2.3) and φ = 0.18 (Le ≈ 0.3) as Wu et al. in our large fan-stirred cruciform bomb capable of generating near-isotropic turbulence to measure values of MIE as a function of dgap at both quiescence and intense turbulence with the rms turbulent fluctuating velocity u′ = 5.4 m/s. When dgap is increased from 0.58 mm to about 6 mm, a drastic fall of values of laminar and turbulent MIE (MIEL and MIET) is found. TFI only occurs for Le > 1 (φ = 5.1) in support of Wu et al.’s finding, but it is restricted at smaller dgap = 0.58 mm. We discover that the MIEL and MIET curves versus dgap can cross each other at larger dgap, at which no TFI for Le > 1 at dgap ≥ 2 mm.

Original languageEnglish
StatePublished - 2017
Event11th Asia-Pacific Conference on Combustion, ASPACC 2017 - Sydney, Australia
Duration: 10 Dec 201714 Dec 2017

Conference

Conference11th Asia-Pacific Conference on Combustion, ASPACC 2017
Country/TerritoryAustralia
CitySydney
Period10/12/1714/12/17

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