Effect of Turbulence On Forced Ignition of Jet-A/Air Mixtures

Consistent ignition of reactive mixtures in turbulent conditions continues to be a challenge, particularly for large, multi-component fuels. Prior work has shown that turbulence can affect ignition parameters such as flame speed, mixture temperature, and minimum ignition energy. However, these works have primarily considered small, single-component fuels. This work studies the effect of turbulence on forced ignition of jet-A/air mixtures with f between 0.3 and 0.7. The ignition probability of these mixtures was measured for bulk velocities between 5 and 7 m/s and turbulence intensities between 3% and 9%. A FLIR SC6700 infrared camera was used to measure the radiation intensity emitted by the flame kernels. Increases in turbulence intensity between 3% and 4% cause the probability of ignition to generally increase. This increase is attributed to the negative flame stretch that develops as a result of the turbulence. This observation is significant because it shows that turbulence can facilitate ignition for jet-A/air mixtures. In contrast, increasing turbulence beyond 5% causes ignition probabilities to decrease. This reduction occurs due to the increased role of heat diffusion and the associated reduction in kernel temperature. The sensitivities of ignition behavior to turbulence intensity and fuel chemistry are reasonably captured using the Peclet number. Further agreement in ignition behavior is achieved by considering Pe/TI2. Ignition probability data for two additional fuels were compared using Pe/TI2. Reasonable agreement within a 95% confidence interval was observed for CH4 mixtures but not for C3H8 mixtures.

Experimental Study on Ignition Characteristics of RP-3 Jet Fuel Using Nanosecond Pulsed Plasma Discharge

A study on forced ignition characteristics of RP-3 jet fuel-air mixture was conducted around a constant volume combustion vessel and a nanosecond pulsed plasma discharge power supply. Experiments were carried out at different initial pressures (pu = 0.2, 0.3, 0.5 atm), equivalence ratios (ϕ = 0.7, 0.8, 1.1), steam concentrations (ZH2O = 0%, 10%, 15%) and oxygen concentrations (ZO2 = 13.5%, 16%, 21%). The relationship between ignition probability and ignition energy is investigated. The experimental results show that the decrease in pressure, equivalence ratio, oxygen concentration and the increase in steam concentration all lead to an increase in minimum ignition energy (MIE). In order to further analyze the experimental data, one existing fitting equation is reformed with the initial conditions taken into account. Multivariate fitting is carried out for different conditions, and the fitting results of ignition probability are in good agreement with the experiments. The MIE results under different experimental conditions are figured out with the new fitting equation. The impact indexes, which stand for the effects of different factors, are also calculated and compared in present work.

Sensitivities of Porous Beds and Plates to Ignition by Firebrands

The increasing occurrence of severe wildfires, coupled with the expansion of the wildland urban interface has increased the number of structures in danger of being destroyed by wildfires. Ignition by firebrands is a significant avenue for fire spread and structure loss; thus, understanding processes and parameters that control the ignition of fuel beds by firebrands is important for reducing these losses. In this study the effect of fuel bed characteristics (i.e., particle size and porous or solid fuel bed) on ignition behavior was considered. Modelling and analysis was conducted to better understand parameters that are dominant in controlling ignition. The fuel beds, made from Douglas-fir shavings, Douglas-fir plates, or cardboard plates, were heated with a cartridge heater (i.e., surrogate firebrand) to observe ignition. Smaller particles were observed to ignite more readily in porous beds than larger particles when heat transfer from the heater is primarily through conduction. This occurs in large part due to differences in contact area between the fuel bed and the heater coupled with thermal properties of the fuel bed. As particle sizes increased, ignition was more likely to occur at extended times (>100 s) due to the increased importance of radiation heat transfer. Douglas-fir plates were primarily observed to ignite at times where conduction was the dominant mode of heat transfer (<10 s). Heat flux delivered to the fuel bed was observed to be a more accurate predictor of ignition likelihood and ignition time than heater temperatures. The characteristic ratio of transport and chemical timescales can be used, in conjunction with the measured heat flux and thermal diffusivity of the fuel beds, as a first approximation to predict ignition for the porous fuel beds. This suggests that future work focusing on these parameters may produce a general characterization of fuel bed ignition probability across fuel beds materials and morphologies.

Comparison of fire extinguishing performance of four halon substitutes and Halon 1301

The Halon 1301 fixed gas fire extinguishing system used in ship engine rooms has been banned from production all over the world, because halon destroys the ozone layer. Therefore, it is necessary to find an environmentally friendly, compatible and efficient alternative firefighting system. In this study, we performed fire extinguishing tests in an ISO9705 standard room for four alternative fire extinguishing agents, as well as Halon 1301. The fire extinguishing efficiency of each agent was determined based on its cooling effect, dilution effect of oxygen concentration, the extinguishing time of the oil pool fire and the re-ignition probability of the wood stack. The test results provide data support for the selection of alternatives of Halon 1301 from the aspect of fire extinguishing efficiency. Among these results, Novec 1230 had the best ability to put out the oil pool fire, and HFC-227ea suppressed the wood stack fire the best. The difference between the cooling ability of each fire extinguishing agent was small, and the inert gas (IG-541) displayed the best ability to dilute oxygen. Hot aerosol required the longest time to extinguish fire. Consequently, under the existing design standards, HFC-227ea had the better firefighting efficiency, more suitable to replace Halon 1301.

Utilizing the Available Open-Source Remotely Sensed Data in Assessing the Wildfire Ignition and Spread Capacities of Vegetated Surfaces in Romania

We bring a practical and comprehensive GIS-based framework to utilize freely available remotely sensed datasets to assess wildfire ignition probability and spreading capacities of vegetated landscapes. The study area consists of the country-level scale of the Romanian territory, characterized by a diversity of vegetated landscapes threatened by climate change. We utilize the Wildfire Ignition Probability/Wildfire Spreading Capacity Index (WIPI/WSCI). WIPI/WSCI models rely on a multi-criteria data mining procedure assessing the study area’s social, environmental, geophysical, and fuel properties based on open access remotely sensed data. We utilized the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis to weigh each indexing criterion’s impact factor and assess the model’s overall sensitivity. Introducing ROC analysis at an earlier stage of the workflow elevated the final Area Under the Curve (AUC) of WIPI from 0.705 to 0.778 and WSCI from 0.586 to 0.802. The modeling results enable discussion on the vulnerability of protected areas and the exposure of man-made structures to wildfire risk. Our study shows that within the wildland–urban interface of Bucharest’s metropolitan area, there is a remarkable building stock of healthcare, residential and educational functions, which are significantly exposed and vulnerable to wildfire spreading risk.

Numerical prediction of the ignition probability of a lean spray burner

The optimization of the igniter position is a critical issue in modern aviation gas turbines since it can help to minimize the amount of energy required for ignition and to guarantee a fast relight in case of flameout. From a numerical perspective, several spark discharges should be simulated for each spark position, to account for different realizations due to time-dependent turbulent motions. Unfortunately, standard simulations are impractical to use for this purpose, due to the need of carrying out several unsteady simulations, leading to a huge associated computational effort. This is why low-order models have been developed, providing an affordable estimation of the local ignition probability, by sacrificing the accuracy and the physical consistency of the prediction. In the present work, a previously developed low-order design model has been implemented in ANSYS Fluent 2019R1® and used to investigate the ignition performance of a single-sector, confined spray flame, where data from laser ignition experiments are available. A non-reactive Large Eddy Simulation, which is validated against experimental data, provides the base flow needed to feed the model. If the tuning parameters of the ignition model are well calibrated, it provides quite good results. In the test case here investigated, it is shown that ignition is possible in the outer recirculation zone and very unlikely elsewhere. Later, a discussion about the effect of the most relevant tuning parameters is carried out. It is shown that the model mostly succeed to identify the area of possible ignition, even if the lack of calibration could lead to a poorer agreement with the experimental data.

ESTIMATING FINE DEAD FUEL MOISTURE CONTENT UNDER EQUATORIAL CLIMATE CONDITIONS

The measurement of the fine dead fuel moisture content (FDFMC) is extremely important for forest fire prevention and suppression activities, as it has a great influence on the ignition probability and fire behavior. The Fine Fuel Moisture Code (FFMC) from the Fire Weather Index (FWI), is one of the most used models to estimate the FDFMC. Nevertheless, studies that assess the efficiency of this model in Brazil or in low latitude regions are rare. The present study aimed to evaluate the efficiency of the FFMC in an equatorial climate area and to develop a new model capable of estimating the FDFMC with greater precision. For this purpose, 861 random samples of fine dead fuel had their moisture content determined through oven drying. The obtained values were compared with those estimated by the FFMC and correlated with meteorological parameters to build a regression model. The results obtained show that the FDFMC was overestimated by the FFMC. The independent variables with the greatest influence on the FDFMC were, in decreasing order of significance: air relative humidity, air temperature, amount of rainfall in the last 24 hours and number of days without rainfall. The developed model presented good statistical parameters (r2 = 0.86; p <0.0001; RMSE = 0.22) and can be used, in areas with similar characteristics of the study area, to estimate the daily fire risk and to determine ideal conditions for prescribed burns.

Low-order modeling of high-altitude relight of jet engine combustors

A physics-based, low-order ignition model is used to assess the ignition performance of a kerosene-fueled gas-turbine combustor under high-altitude relight conditions. The ignition model used in this study is based on the motion of virtual flame particles and their extinction according to a Karlovitz number criterion, and a stochastic procedure is used to account for the effects of spray polydispersity on the flame’s extinction behavior. The effects of large droplets arising from poor fuel atomization at sub-idle conditions are then investigated in the context of the model parameters and the combustor’s ignition behavior. For that, a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes simulation of the cold flow in the combustor was performed and used as an input for the ignition model. Ignition was possible with a Sauter mean diameter (SMD) of 50 μm, and was enhanced by increasing the spark volume. Although doubling the spark volume at larger SMDs (75 and 100 μm) resulted in the suppression of short-mode failure events, ignition was not achieved due to a reduction of the effective flammable volume in the combustor. Overall, a lower ignition probability is obtained when using the stochastic procedure for the spray, which is to be expected due to the additional detrimental effects associated with poor spray atomisation and high polydispersity.