Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Omid Askari

Committee Member

Shanti Bhushan

Committee Member

Heejin Cho

Committee Member

Yu Lv

Date of Degree

8-6-2021

Original embargo terms

Visible to MSU only for 6 months

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Mechanical Engineering

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D)

College

James Worth Bagley College of Engineering

College

James Worth Bagley College of Engineering

Department

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Department

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Abstract

Since being discovered, combustion of fuels, especially fossil fuels in the last centuries, has been the dominant source of energy for human life. However, over the years, the adverse effects and shortcomings caused by the vast utilization of these energy sources have been observed; the three most important of which are unreliable resources, unfavorable natural outcomes, and limited performance. Using biofuels is one of the well-established proposed solutions to the scarcity and environmental issues of fossils as they are sustainable sources of energy with acceptable and even superior combustion characteristics. As a second-generation biofuel, anisole has shown promising results with high flame speed and high knock resistance. Therefore, the first chapter of this thesis is focused on experimental investigation of anisole laminar burning speed and stability properties so that it can be used as a benchmark for future kinetic mechanism validations. Stability is another important parameter in combustion systems, especially in diffusion jet flame combustion as used in many applications like thrusters or burners. Different methods are applied to improve the stability of such diffusion flames in propulsion systems, e.g., changing geometrical or flow characteristics of the burner. Most of these efforts have not been practically successful, due to the cost and compatibility issues. Another technique which minimizes such problems is to use electron impact excitation, dissociation and ionization and generate highly concentrated charged/excited species and active radicals. These methods include microwave, dielectric barrier, and repetitive nanosecond pulsed (RNP) discharge and the latter has shown promising results as one of the most effective low-temperature plasma (LTP) methods. In chapters 3 to 5, the benefits and issues associated with using RNP discharge in a single-element concentric methane-air inverse diffusion jet flame are discussed. It has been shown that RNP discharge with adequate discharge properties (voltage and repetition) can increase the stability of the flame and expand the flammability of the jet toward leaner compositions. However, the effectiveness is significant in a certain voltage-frequency ranges which results a non-thermal spark discharge mode. Hence, different modes of discharge were investigated and a parametric study on the transition between these modes were done.

Sponsorship

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Federal Award No. NNX15AK39A issued through the Mississippi NASA EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Development (RID) Program

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