Ignition by Hot Free Jets

Abstract

This paper describes some of our experimental studies on the re-ignition caused by jets of hot gas that interact with unburned fuel/air mixtures. The problem is approached from two complementary sides: On the one hand, phenomenological studies are conducted, which ask for the conditions under which a hot jet may cause ignition. A dedicated experiment is described which allows to create well-controlled exhaust gas jets and ambient conditions. In this experiment, parameters influencing the ignition process are varied, and the dependence of jet behavior on these parameters (i.e. pressure ratio, diameter and length of the gap through which the exhaust gas has to pass before getting into contact with ambient fuel/air) is studied. In particular, the frequency of a jet causing re-ignition in the ambient gas is studied. On the other hand, we also perform studies which are more “analytical” in nature. These attempt a more in-depth understanding, by first decomposing the hot jet ignition phenomenon into the underlying physical processes, and then studying these processes in isolation. This approach is applied to measurements of mixture fraction fields. First, non reacting isothermal variable density jets are studied. Here, the density of the gas mixture varies as to mimic the density of hot exhaust gas at varying temperatures. A laser-based non-intrusive method is introduced that allows to determine quantitative mixture fraction fields; although applied here to cold jets only, the method is also applicable to hot jets. The results show the effect of turbulence on the mixing field in and at the free jet, and allow to derive quantities that describe the statistics of the turbulent jet, like probability density functions (PDFs) and geometrical size of fluctuations.