Smoke Point in Co-flow Experiment
Urban, David L., Sunderland, Peter B., Yuan, Zeng-Guang
The Smoke Point In Co-flow Experiment (SPICE) determines the point at which gas-jet flames (similar to a butane-lighter flame) begin to emit soot (dark carbonaceous particulate formed inside the flame) in microgravity. Studying a soot emitting flame is important in understanding the ability of fires to spread and in control of soot in practical combustion systems space. Previous experiments show that soot dominates the heat emitted from flames in normal gravity and microgravity fires. Control of this heat emission is critical for prevention of the spread of fires on Earth and in space for the design of efficient combustion systems (jet engines and power generation boilers). The onset of soot emission from small gas jet flames (similar to a butane-lighter flame) will be studied to provide a database that can be used to assess the interaction between fuel chemistry and flow conditions on soot formation. These results will be used to support combustion theories and to assess fire behavior in microgravity. The Smoke Point In Co-flow Experiment (SPICE) will lead to a o improved design of practical combustors through improved control of soot formation; o improved understanding of and ability to predict heat release, soot production and emission in microgravity fires; o improved flammability criteria for selection of materials for use in the next generation of spacecraft. The Smoke Point In Co-flow Experiment (SPICE) will continue the study of fundamental phenomena related to understanding the mechanisms controlling the stability and extinction of jet diffusion flames begun with the Laminar Soot Processes (LSP) on STS-94. SPICE will stabilize an enclosed laminar flame in a co-flowing oxidizer, measure the overall flame shape to validate the theoretical and numerical predictions, measure the flame stabilization heights, and measure the temperature field to verify flame structure predictions. SPICE will determine the laminar smoke point properties of non-buoyant jet diffusion flames (i.e., the properties of the largest laminar jet diffusion flames that do not emit soot) for several fuels under different nozzle diameter/co-flow velocity configurations. Luminous flame shape measurements would also be made to verify models of the flame shapes under co-flow conditions. The smoke point is a simple measurement that has been found useful to study the influence of flow and fuel properties on the sooting propensity of flames. This information would help support current understanding of soot processes in laminar flames and by analogy in turbulent flames of practical interest.
Test conditions.
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Findings.
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01
The smoke-point phenomena is a classical metric for understanding heat release and spread rate of fires, commonly used in Earth fire modeling and to understand soot growth and emission.
Other · AI confidence 95% · Reported · Pending
“The smoke-point phenomena is a classical metric in the understanding of the heat release and spread rate of fires. It is commonly used in fire modeling on Earth and to understand the soot growth and emission by flames.”
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02
The LSP experiment demonstrated that the onset of the microgravity smoke point in a quiescent environment differs significantly from normal gravity conditions.
Other · AI confidence 95% · Reported · Pending
“The LSP experiment has shown that the onset of the microgravity smoke point in a quiescent environment is very different from that seen in normal gravity.”
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03
SPICE aims to extend understanding of smoke points by investigating the interaction of ambient flow with the smoke point to better predict heat release from non-buoyant flames in practical combustors.
Other · AI confidence 95% · Reported · Pending
“SPICE seeks to extend our understanding by looking at the interaction of ambi ent flow with the smoke point, enabling us to better predict heat release from non-buoyant flames in pr actical combustors (e.g. jet engines and furnaces).”