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Stabilité de Flamme
Stabilité de Flamme
Stabilité de Flamme
Fuel
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a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: A flame stability diagrams in a partially premixed flame are typically expressed using the axis coordinates
Received 3 May 2007 of heat input rate and equivalence ratio. These diagrams are inadequate for identifying changes in com-
Received in revised form 2 July 2008 bustion conditions and flame stability when a reference fuel is substituted with other fuels under iden-
Accepted 3 July 2008
tical operating conditions. To improve the usefulness of the flame stability diagram for estimating this
Available online 26 July 2008
interchangeability, this study proposes a new type of diagram and validates it experimentally. In this
new diagram, the axis coordinates are air flow rate and Wobbe fuel flow rate, defined as the fuel flow rate
Keywords:
multiplied by the square root of the relative density. The diagram was validated in trials using various
Flame stability diagram
Interchangeability
fuels, including CH4, C3H8, and LFG–C3H8 mixed fuels, in a domestic gas-range and an interchangeability
Wobbe fuel flow rate test burner. The results of these trials show that the new diagram can provide useful information for
Partially premixed flame assessing interchangeability of combustion conditions and flame stability when one fuel is substituted
with another under identical operating conditions.
Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
0016-2361/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2008.07.005
3688 C.-E. Lee et al. / Fuel 87 (2008) 3687–3693
Nomenclature
in the fuel density may lead to a change in the fuel flow rate, which tional gas-range were modified to allow precise control of the flow
in turn leads to a change in the combustion conditions (heat input rate. In most conventional gas-ranges, it may be difficult to obtain
rate and equivalence ratio) of the substitute fuel. The diagram, as the inherent flame stability zone for various fuels: a flash-back
conventionally drawn, does not, however, show these changes. It does not happen because the diameter of the gas ports is less than
is therefore inadequate for predicting changes in combustion con- the flame quenching distance. In addition, the limits of lifting and
ditions and flame stability when one fuel is substituted with yellow tipping may change depending on the design capabilities of
another. the gas port and flow system. Thus, an interchangeability test (IT)
The main objective of this study was to propose and validate a burner, simulating one gas port on a gas-range, was used to accu-
new type of flame stability diagram using coordinate variables rately measure the flame stability limits, including flash-back. Fig.
independent of the properties of fuels. Ideally this new diagram 1b shows a schematic diagram of the flow system and the IT burner
would provide information on changes in combustion conditions used in this study. The IT burner nozzle consisted of a cylindrical
and flame stability when one fuel is substituted with another un- tube with an inner diameter of 12 mm, and the length of the nozzle
der identical operating conditions. This paper lays out the develop- was set at 100 cm to ensure fully developed velocity profiles at
ment of the new diagram, and describes the meaning of the the exit. To prevent external disturbances, an acrylic cylinder with
coordinates and additional marks used. The usefulness of an inner diameter of 25 cm and a length of 150 cm was installed at
the new flame stability diagram is discussed in comparison with the burner exit. The flow rates of fuels were controlled using mass
the conventional diagram. flow controllers connected to each gas cylinder. The air supplied
from the compressor was introduced into a reservoir and dryer,
2. Description of experiments where water vapor was extracted; the air was regulated with a
mass flow controller and then channeled into a mixing chamber.
In this study, the proposed flame stability diagram was com-
pared to the conventional diagram in experiments using pure 3. Results and discussion
CH4, pure C3H8, and LNG used in Korea. In addition, the new stabil-
ity diagram was tested on a mixed fuel of landfill gas (LFG) and 3.1. Review of the conventional flame stability diagram
C3H8, whose combustion characteristics and properties differ from
those of conventional fuels. Table 1 shows the compositions and Fig. 2 shows the flame stability diagrams of LNG and CH4 in the
properties of the fuels used, including higher heating value (HV), gas-range and IT burner. The flame stability zone is represented
relative density (c; sometimes called specific density and defined using the heat input rate on the x-axis and the equivalence ratio
by the ratio of the density of fuel to the density of air), Wobbe in- on the y-axis, and the heat input rate was expressed per unit area
dex (WI), stoichiometric air–fuel ratio ((A/F)stoi), and stoichiometric of burner flame port to allow direct comparisons of the gas-range
Wobbe air–fuel ratio ((A/WF)stoi). The stoichiometric Wobbe air– and the IT burner. Since the gas-range used was set with the fuel
fuel ratio (A/WF)stoi will be defined later. The LFG–C3H8 mixed fuel nozzle for LNG, only two fuels were used in this experiment: CH4
was used in previous studies [8–10] seeking to use LFG from the and LNG. The yellow tipping and the lifting limits for the gas-range
Gimpo landfill in Korea [13] as an alternative fuel to natural gas. and the IT burner vary with heat input rate in similar ways,
In Table 1, MF00(HV) and MF00(WI) mixed fuels were prepared with although some quantitative differences are observed. One note-
an HV and WI, respectively, nearly equivalent to those of standard worthy difference is that in the IT burner, the flash-back limits ex-
LNG in Korea. The MF00(WI) has a WI of nearly 54,000 kJ/N m3, ist at low heat input rates. On the other hand, there is no flash-back
while MF00(HV) has a heating value of nearly 45,000 kJ/N m3. These zone for the gas-range because the diameter of the gas ports is less
values of the mixed fuels are in good agreement with those of LNG, than the flame quenching distance. These results indicate that the
within a relative error of 3%. In the nomenclature of mixed fuel gas-range and the IT burner have similar flame stability limits, ex-
names, the value of the subscript denotes the volume percentage cept for the flash-back limit. They further indicate that the use of
of CH4 in the LFG used as the source of the LFG–C3H8 mixed fuel, the IT burner for estimating fuel interchangeability is very useful
and the volume percentage of C3H8 in parentheses refers to the vol- because it allows measurement of the flash-back limit, and it
ume of C3H8 required to prepare the corresponding mixed fuel. avoids the complex flame–flame interactions observed with the
Fig. 1a shows a schematic diagram of the modified gas-range multi-ports of the gas-range.
system used to measure the flame stability zone. Because a con- The conventional flame stability diagram has several benefits
ventional gas-range usually adopts the Bunsen combustion mode, and drawbacks. The conventional diagram use coordinate axes of
it is difficult to measure the air flow rate entrained by the fuel heat input rate and equivalence ratio to provide the flame stability
jet. Therefore, in this study, the fuel and air ports of the conven- limits. Thus, they are useful for estimating the optimal operating
C.-E. Lee et al. / Fuel 87 (2008) 3687–3693 3689
conditions for individual fuels and for explaining the difference in The derivation procedure and meanings of the coordinates are
the stable flame zone of each fuel in terms of heat input rate and introduced briefly in the following section.
equivalence ratio. In terms of interchangeability, however, the dia-
gram does not provide information on changes in combustion con- 3.2. Introduction of the new flame stability diagram
ditions. For example, when a fuel is substituted with another fuel
under identical supply pressure and combustion system, the heat The Bernoulli equation for a steady, frictionless, incompressible
input rate (or fuel flow rate) and equivalence ratio of the substitute flow between a fuel vessel and a nozzle is expressed in Eq. (1). If
fuel may change because of differences in fuel properties, such as the potential energy is neglected and the fuel velocity in the vessel
density and composition. This means changes in the values on is assumed to be zero, the volumetric fuel flow rate can be derived
the coordinate axes of the diagram. Thus, it is not possible to com- from Eq. (1) to yield Eq. (2):
pare directly the flame stability limits between the reference fuel
and the substitute fuel. In addition, as seen in Fig. 2, the stable V 2v pv V2 p
flame zone under conditions of low heat input rate is significantly þ þ gz ¼ n þ n þ gz ð1Þ
2 qf 2 qf
large, even though the variable range of air flow rate is very small. qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
This can be attributed to the equivalence ratio used on the y-axis, Q f ¼ An V n ¼ An 2Dp=qf ð2Þ
because the equivalence ratio, defined as the ratio of the actual
fuel–air ratio to the stoichiometric fuel–air ratio, increases to infin- where Dp ¼ pv pe .
ity as the air flow rate approaches an infinitesimal value. Assuming that the supply pressure of the fuel and the area of
To improve upon these limitations of the conventional diagram, the fuel nozzle are constant (Dp ¼ constant; An ¼ constant), Eq.
we propose a new type of flame stability diagram that can explain (3) indicates that the transformed fuel flow rate QWf, defined as
the change in combustion conditions (fuel flow rate, heat input the fuel flow rate (Qf) multiplied by the square root of the relative
pffiffiffiffiffi
rate, and air–fuel ratio) and in flame stability when one fuel is density ( cf ), is always constant, even when one fuel is substituted
substituted with another under identical operating conditions. with another:
3690 C.-E. Lee et al. / Fuel 87 (2008) 3687–3693
pffiffiffiffiffi
0 Q Wf ¼ Q f cf ð4Þ
LNG For example, if one fuel is substituted with another fuel under iden-
CH4 tical fuel supply pressure and combustion system, the Wobbe fuel
Lifting flame zone flow rate (QWf) will be constant regardless of the fuel type because
1 the fuel flow rate will be inversely proportional to the square root
of the relative density. Thus, the Wobbe fuel flow rate is adopted
Equivalence ratio
and the primary air flow rate for the x- and y-axis coordinates.
This theory was reproduced by measuring the Wobbe fuel flow
Stable flame zone rate of LNG, CH4, and C3H8 and the air flow rate as a function of the
2
fuel supply pressure in a domestic gas-range (Fig. 3). It can be ob-
served that the values of QWf and Qa are always constant at a spe-
cific supply pressure, regardless of the fuel type.
A drawback of the new diagram is that the utilization of QWf and
3 Qa as axis coordinates cannot provide direct information on the
equivalence ratio or the air–fuel ratio for some combustion condi-
Yellow tip zone tions, compared to the conventional diagram. Nevertheless, in the
new diagram, the air–fuel ratio (A/F) can be calculated by multiply-
pffiffiffiffiffi
4 ing (Qa/QWf) and cf , as shown in Eq. (6). The boundary correspond-
0 5000 10000 15000 20000 ing to the stoichiometric air–fuel ratio can be also expressed as the
Heat input rate (kW/m2) pffiffiffiffiffi
stoichiometric air–fuel ratio (A/F)stoi divided by cf , as shown in Eq.
(b) IT burner (7). This value is termed the stoichiometric Wobbe air–fuel ratio (A/
Fig. 2. Comparison of flame stability diagrams of LNG and CH4 on gas-range and IT
WF)stoi and is presented in the new diagram:
burner using the existing flame stability diagram. pffiffiffiffiffi
ðA=FÞ ¼ ðQ a =Q f Þ ¼ ðQ a =Q Wf Þ cf ð6Þ
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffi
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi Q f qf Q f qf =qa pffiffiffiffiffi ffi
pffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffiffi
qa Q Wf qa ðQ a =Q Wf Þstoi ¼ ðA=FÞstoi = cf ¼ ðA=WFÞstoi ð7Þ
2 Dp ¼ ¼ ¼ ð3Þ
An An An As shown in Table 1, although the MF(WI) has higher (A/F)stoi
In this study, this transformed fuel flow is termed the Wobbe compared to that of LNG, the supplied fuel flow rate of the MF(WI)
fuel flow rate, as shown in Eq. (4): is less than that of LNG because the relative density of the MF(WI)
Table 1
Components and properties of the fuels used in this study
LNG CH4 C3H8 MF55(HV) (C3H8 30.0%) MF35(HV) (C3H8 36.4%) MF55(WI) (C3H8 50.0%) MF35(WI) (C3H8 57.8%)
CH4 (%) 89.78 100.00 0.0 38.15 22.26 27.25 14.77
C2H6 (%) 7.48 0.00 0.0 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
C3H8 (%) 2.02 0.00 100.0 30.00 36.40 50.00 57.80
C4H10 (%) 0.70 0.00 0.0 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
CO2 (%) 0.00 0.00 0.0 26.25 34.07 18.75 22.61
N2 (%) 0.02 0.00 0.0 4.90 6.36 3.50 4.22
O2 (%) 0.00 0.00 0.0 0.70 0.91 0.50 0.60
HV (kJ/N m3) 44067.29 40259.66 99727.74 45175.86 45293.26 60762.12 63588.96
c 0.61 0.56 1.53 1.13 1.27 1.24 1.36
WI (kJ/N m3) 56333.23 53988.35 80665.76 42564.36 40136.69 54536.86 54564.86
(A/F)stoi 10.36 9.56 23.89 10.79 10.79 14.53 15.20
(A/WF)stoi 13.24 12.82 19.33 10.17 9.56 13.04 13.04
C.-E. Lee et al. / Fuel 87 (2008) 3687–3693 3691
0.0
Equivalence ratio
Wobbe fuel flow rate, QWf (cm3/s)
C3H8
300 1.5
140
120
2.0 Stable flame zone
100
80
60 LNG 2.5
40 CH4
20 C3H8
3.0
0
100 150 200 250 Yellow tip zone
Supply pressure (mmAq) 3.5
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
Fig. 3. Wobbe fuel flow rates and air flow rates of LNG, CH4, and C3H8 according to Heat input rate (kW)
the supply pressure on gas-range.
Fig. 4. Flame stability regions of LNG, CH4, and C3H8 on IT burner using existing
flame stability diagram.
is larger than that of LNG for the same supply pressure. Therefore,
the MF(WI) requires an air flow rate similar to that of LNG for com- input rate and equivalence ratio) that occur when the reference
plete combustion. These phenomena are well explained by fuel is substituted with another fuel. This diagram is therefore
(A/WF)stoi with a similar value for the MF(WI) and LNG. In addition, inadequate for identifying the combustion conditions and flame
the (A/WF)stoi value shows a proportional relationship with the stability when the reference fuel is substituted with other fuels un-
Wobbe index, as the heating value of a hydrocarbon fuel is typi- der identical operating conditions.
cally proportional to the stoichiometric air–fuel ratio. Fig. 5 shows the conventional flame stability regions of Fig. 4
represented in the new diagram described with Wobbe fuel flow
3.3. Comparative usefulness of the conventional and the new diagrams rate along the x-axis and air flow rate along the y-axis. However,
for estimating interchangeability the flash-back limit in Fig. 4 is omitted because it does not occur
in the practical burner, as mentioned in Fig. 2. In this figure, the
Fig. 4 shows the flame stability regions of LNG, CH4, and C3H8 x-axis represents Wobbe fuel flow rate, defined as Eq. (4), and
represented by the conventional diagram using heat input rate the real volumetric flow rate of each fuel can be calculated by
along the x-axis and equivalence ratio (or primary air ratio) along dividing the Wobbe fuel flow rate by the square root of the relative
the y-axis. The experimental data were obtained from the IT burner density of the fuel. The heat input rate can be calculated by multi-
mentioned before. Flame characteristics were assessed with the plying the Wobbe fuel flow rate by WI, as expressed in Eq. (5). In
AGA Flame Code [2], which uses numerical scales to describe flame this new diagram, the change in heat input rate upon fuel substitu-
stabilities. The flame stability zone is defined as the space within tion can be identified directly by presenting it on the upper x-axis.
the following three limit curves: (1) the lifting limit (flames lifting However, the upper x-axis may be omitted if a property data like
from ports with no flame on 25% or more of the ports at a low Table 1 is presented. The y-axis represents air flow rate, which does
equivalence ratio), (2) the yellow tip limit (slight yellow streaming not usually change even when the reference fuel is substituted
in the outer mantles, or yellow fringes on the tops of inner cones at with other fuels. In addition, the dashed line of (A/WF)fuel denotes
a high equivalence ratio), and (3) the flash-back limit (flames tend the boundary of the stoichiometric Wobbe air–fuel ratio for each
to back to ports at a low heat input rate). The figure clearly shows fuel, defined in Eq. (7), and the lower region of the dashed line cor-
differences in each limit curve for LNG, CH4, and C3H8. These differ- responds to the rich combustion region. The air–fuel ratio at each
ences are discussed only briefly, since a detailed discussion of the point can be calculated by multiplying the gradient by the square
causes of the differences is outside the scope of this paper. The lift- root of the relative density, as shown in Eq. (6).
ing limit curves shift toward lower equivalence ratio going from The new flame stability diagram presents various benefits when
CH4 to LNG to C3H8. The lifting limit depends on the burning veloc- estimating interchangeability.
ity of the fuel, and it increases in the same order. For the same rea- First, the combustion conditions of the substitute fuel can be
son, the flash-back limit curves also move toward smaller heat seen or calculated easily from the information at a single point of
input rate going from CH4 to LNG and to C3H8. The yellow tip oc- the diagram because QWf and Qa are constant regardless of the fuel
curs in proportion to the number of carbon bonds in the fuel. type. For example, assume that LNG is substituted with another
Therefore, the yellow tip limit moves toward the lower equiva- fuel in combustion conditions adjusted for the center point of the
lence ratio going from C3H8 to LNG to CH4 (Fig. 4). Its significant LNG flame stability zone, i.e., Qa and QWf are fixed at 160 (y-axis)
shift to the lower equivalence ratio gives C3H8 the smallest stable and 25 cm3/s (x-axis), respectively. The change in heat input rate
flame zone of all the fuels tested. can be identified by reading values on the upper x-axis, and the
From this figure, it can be confirmed that the conventional change in fuel flow rate can be calculated by dividing QWf by
flame stability diagram, which uses heat input rate and equiva- the square root of the relative density of the substitute fuel. The
lence ratio as the axis coordinates, can be used to explain the change in air–fuel ratio can be calculated by multiplying the gradi-
intrinsic flame stability characteristics of each fuel and the differ- ent (Qa/QWf) by the square root of the relative density.
ences in stable flame zone for the different fuels. However, this dia- Second, the new diagram can indicate the extent of
gram does not indicate the changes in combustion conditions (heat interchangeability and modification direction to obtain optimal
3692 C.-E. Lee et al. / Fuel 87 (2008) 3687–3693
Equivalence ratio
G
8
Stable
3H
L N
F)
1.4
C
F)
flame zone
/W
600
4
H
/W
(A
C
F)
(A
/W
1.6
(A
500 Lifting flame zone Yellow tip zone
Air flow rate, Qa (cm3/s)
1.8
55
CH
F
M
F)
600
F)
/W
/W
Fig. 5. Flame stability regions of LNG, CH4, and C3H8 on IT burner using new flame
(A
(A
stability diagram. Lifting flame zone
500
Air flow rate (cm3/s)
CH
F
F)
M
F)
(A
Third, the new diagram avoids the graphical distortion in the con-
(A
rate conditions.
600
Flash back zone
500 Stable Acknowledgment
flame zone
400 This work was supported by the Inha University Research Fund.
Yellow tip zone
300
References
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