A Burner Platform for Examining the Effects of Non-Equilibrium Plasmas on Oxidation and Combustion Chemistry

Abstract

In this communication, we describe the development of a new plasma/flame facility and burner platform that appears promising for directly investigating the effects of high-voltage, nanosecond-duration, repetitively pulsed plasma discharges on moderate- and high-temperature reaction chemistry. Such a configuration is ideal for identifying key processes and key species that can alter fuel oxidation, hydrocarbon intermediate formation, and radical formation/heat-release under combusting conditions. Initial results using emission spectroscopy demonstrate that the excited-state species such as OH*, CH*, and are significantly enhanced in the presence of repetitive nanosecond pulse discharges. This new plasma-flame facility also lends itself to kinetic modeling due to its simple quasi-one-dimensional geometry and uniformity of the nanosecond pulse discharge.

Keywords:

• Emission spectroscopy
• Laminar flames
• Plasma-assisted combustion
• Premixed flames

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The support of AFOSR MURI grant FA9550-09-1-0602 (Chiping Li, program monitor) is greatly appreciated.

Notes

¹It is noted that the gas temperature inferred from the N₂ emission is a spatially-integrated value. The reported temperature does not preclude potential “hot spots”; however, the single-pulse emission images captured with the ICCD (e.g., Figure 2) indicate a relatively uniform plasma distribution.