A Study of Thermal and Chemical Quenching of Premixed Flame by Flame-Surface Interaction

화염-표면 상호작용에 의한 예혼합 화염의 열소염 및 화학소염에 관한 연구

Incomplete combustion due to quenching in a narrow confinement has been a major problem for realization of a reliable micro combustion device. In most micro combustors, effects of flows are absent in the quenching because the flow is laminar and no severe stretch is present. In such circumstance, quenching is caused either by heat loss or by removal of active radicals to the wall surface of the confinement. An experimental investigation was carried out to investigate the relative significance of these two causes of quenching of a premixed flame. A premixed jet burner with a rectangular cross section at the exit was built. At the burner exit, the flame stands between two walls with adjustable distance. The gap between the two walls at which quenching occurs was measured at different wall surface conditions. The results were analyzed to estimate the relative significance of heat loss to the wall and the removal of radicals at the surface. The measurements indicated that the quenching distance was independent of the wall surface characteristics such as oxygen vacancy, grain boundary, or impurities at low temperature. At high temperature, however, the surface characteristics strongly affect the quenching distance, implying that radical removal at the wall plays a significant role in the quenching process.