Experimental and numerical analysis of the sooting propensity of binary fuel mixtures

Abstract

The sooting behaviour of binary fuel mixtures was evaluated both experimentally and through computer simulations. The soot volume fraction of laminar diffusion flames of mixtures of ethylene/propane, methane/ethylene, methane/propane, methane/ethane, methane/butane, ethane/propane and ethane/ethylene fuels was measured using two-dimensional line of sight attenuation. It was found that a synergistic effect could be demonstrated for the ethylene/propane, methane/ethylene, methane/ethane and ethane/ethylene mixtures. The synergistic effect translated into a higher soot concentration for a mixture fraction than for either of the pure fuels. The methane/propane, methane/butane and ethane/propane mixtures were not seen to have such an effect. Through experiments where the flame temperature was kept constant, it was determined that the synergistic effect in the methane/ethylene mixture was very temperature-dependent whereas the synergistic effect in the ethylene/propane mixture was not. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)