Fundamental Gas Flames

Terms and Concepts

• Bunsen burner
• premixed flame
• burning velocity
• diffusion flame
• soot
• flame radiation
• turbulent diffusion flames
 Bunsen burner
C3H8 + 5 O2 → 3 CO2 + 4 H2O
Premixed flame
Burning velocity

Burning velocity

Gas velocity
Burning velocity
 Diffusion flame, nonpremixed flame

Gas transport Gas transport

Diffusion flame - soot

• Carbon particles
• Formation in fuel rich conditions
• Flame = burning soot
• Radiation

Soot formation from CH4

Source: DTU/CHEC
Diffusion flame – ”mixed is burnt”

Gas transport Gas transport

Industrial diffusion flames are turbulent

Laminar Turbulent
 3 T’s of combustion

• Time

• Temperature

• Turbulence
Visualization of Laminar and Turbulent flow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqqtOb30jWs

Laminar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NplrDarMDF8

Turbulent
- Effective mixing
 Flame length as a function of exit velocity at the nozzle

- With increasing exit velocity (increasing Re-number),

more fuel and air is mixed faster
 Characteristics of turbulence
• Effective mixing • 3D
• Eddy – fluid parcel • Time-dependent

Gustavo Assi
 Turbulence - chemistry interaction

Heat 1  = i
Heat 2
Heat 3 Smallest eddies
- most of dissipation
- size limited by the
Heat n
Kolmogorov length scale

Large eddies
- receive kinetic energy from
mean flow
- size limited by the geometry
of e.g. the furnace

• Eddy: transport of a “parcel” of fluid (for example fuel or oxidizer)

• Dissipation of kinetic energy to heat ε → mixing on molecular level
• Reactions occur on molecular level !
Industrial diffusion flames are turbulent

Laminar Turbulent
Mixing considerations in industrial scale furnaces

Example: black liquor recovery boiler

~85 m

~15 x 15 m
 Mixing considerations in industrial scale furnaces
Example: black liquor recovery boiler

Combustion air
- Staging
(m/s) - Distribution over cross section (O2 vol-%)
>50

20 m

3m

0.2 m
Fundamental Gas Flames

Terms and Concepts

• Bunsen burner
• premixed flame
• burning velocity
• diffusion flame
• soot
• flame radiation
• turbulent diffusion flames