Autoignition of iso-octane was examined using a rapid compression facility (RCF) with iso-octane, oxygen, nitrogen, and argon mixtures. The effects of typical homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) conditions on the iso-octane ignition characteristics were studied. Experimental results for ignition delay times, τ ign, were obtained from pressure time-histories. The experiments were cond...

The effects of NO and NO2 produced by using a plasma jet (PJ) of a N2/O2 mixture on ignition of hydrogen, methane, and ethylene in a supersonic airflow were experimentally and numerically investigated. Numerical analysis of ignition delay time showed that the addition of a small amount of NO or NO2 drastically reduced ignition delay times of hydrogen and hydrocarbon fuels at a relatively low in...

The effect of steady strain on the transient autoignition of n-heptane at high pressures is studied numerically with detailed chemistry and transport in a counterflow configuration. Skeletal and reduced n-heptane mechanisms are developed and validated against experiments over a range of pressure and stoichiometries. Two configurations are investigated using the skeletal mechanism. First, the ef...

To realize large-percentage biomass co-firing with coal in existing coal-fired boilers, the combustion behavior of biomass is expected to be similar or comparable to that of coal. When co-firing with coal, biomass is not necessarily to be ground as fine as the dedicated coal particles, because of its higher reactivity. With the objective of achieving promising performance of co-firing with dedi...

The ignition delay times of methane/air mixture diluted by N2 and CO2 were experimentally measured in a chemical shock tube. The experiments were performed over the temperature range of 1300-2100 K, pressure range of 0.1-1.0 MPa, equivalence ratio range of 0.5-2.0 and for the dilution coefficients of 0%, 20% and 50%. The results suggest that a linear relationship exists between the reciprocal o...

C3F7H (FM-200) has recently been introduced as an alternative for Halon 1301 (CF3Br) fire suppression agent. In this paper, as part of an effort to study the effects of C3F7H on high temperature ignition of gaseous fuels, we are expanding on our earlier evaluations of ignition inhibition characteristics of C3F7H. Of particular interest is a better or improved understanding of the fundamental me...

An empirical model for the ignition of aluminum particle clouds is developed and applied to the study of particle ignition and combustion behavior resulting from explosive blast waves. This model incorporates both particle ignition time delay as well as cloud concentration effects on ignition. The total mass of aluminum that burns is found to depend on the model, with shorter ignition delay tim...

Our research program focuses on identifying reaction processes important for plasma enhancement of combustion systems. Recommendations for temperature and energy dependencies of key ion-molecule reactions are made based on the laboratory measurements described above. Thermodynamic data such as heat capacity, entropy, and enthalpy are not available as a function of temperature for many of the io...