• Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.11-20
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• 2012

The Blow-off characteristics of LPG/air lean pre-mixed flames were experimentally investigated using a double and a multiple concentric coflow burners. Experiments were conducted to understand the effects of recirculation motion, thermal interaction between flames, and stratified flame configuration. Here, the stratified premixed flame is a "new concept" of a flame that sequentially contains fuel rich, stoichiometric, and fuel lean reaction zones in a flame. The blow-off from a lean premixed flame was significantly suppressed with recirculation motion. The recirculation motion by itself, however, was not sufficient to prevent the blow-off when the equivalence ratio became low. The existence of a inner premixed flame could also help to prevent the blow-off of lean premixed flame; however, the blow-off suppression effect was rather diminished by weakened recirculation motion with the presence of inner flame. The inner flame could be separated from an outer flame on a multiple concentric coflow burner, causing recirculation motion as well as thermal interaction between flames to become effective; therefore, the blow-off was further suppressed. The lean premixed flame could be stabilized with a fuel rich premixed flames that was produced with the supply of fuel through an inner nozzle. The penetration of lean premixed gas from outside into the fuel stream produced a lifted rich premixed flame. Chemiluminescence images of OH, CH, and $C_2$ radicals confirmed the structure of a stratified premixed flame. The stable premixed flames could be obtained at the very fuel lean condition by applying the stratified premixed flame concept.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.170-177
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• 2005

The fuel-lean premixed flame has been considered one of the most efficient ways to reduce $NO_X$ emission during a combustion process. However, it is difficult to achieve stable fuel-lean premixed flames over the wide range of equivalence ratios: therefore, the application of fuel-lean flames to a practical combustion system is rather limited. In this study, the stability characteristics of fuel-lean flames stabilized by fuel-rich flames are investigated experimentally using a slot burner as a part of the basic research for practical application such as lean burn engines. Spontaneous emission of radical species were examined to understand the stability mechanisms of rich-lean premixed flames. The presence of fuel-rich flames could significantly lower the lean limit of fuel-lean flames. The stability of a fuel-lean flame is enhanced with the increase of fuel flow rate in a fuel-rich flame; how ever, it is not sensitive to the equivalence ratio of fuel-rich flames in the range of 1.2-2.4. The mechanisms of stable rich-lean premixed flames could be understood based on the characteristics of triple flame.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.1372-1377
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• 2003

The stabilization of propane/air lean premixed flames by a heated cylindrical rod is investigated experimentally. The flame stability limits, heat flux, surface temperatures, equivalence ratios, and mixture velocities are measured in order to understand the role of heat flux or surface temperature on the flame stabilization of lean premixed flames. The flame stability limits are lowered by a heated cylindrical rod and extended even below the flammability limit of propane/air mixture when sufficient heat flux is provided. The flame stability limit decreases with the increase of heat flux or surface temperature and decreases with the higher mixture velocity. The diameter of cylindrical rod, however, dose not significantly affect the flame stability limit. The laminar flame speed has been measured for ultra lean propane/air premixed flames. The flame stabilization by a heated cylindrical rod provides the useful tool for the measurement of flame speed under very fuel-lean conditions.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.19-24
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• 2002

Recent studies of a triple flame suggested that the presence of triple point (triple line in this planar configuration) could explain the mechanisms of stable fuel-lean premixed flames with equivalence ratio lower than the flammability limit. In the present study, for better understanding of the stability mechanisms of fuel rich-lean premixed flames, the fuel-rich flames were replaced with hot coils that will provide heat flux into the fuel-lean flames. It is found that the fuel-lean premixed flames could be stabilized without any triple point (triple line): however, the equivalence ratio limit for stable fuel-lean flame in this case is higher than that of the present work with the presence of fuel-rich flames. These results demonstrate that heat flux coming from fuel-rich flames should be considered in order to properly understand the roll of a triple flame for stable fuel rich-lean flames.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.12a
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• pp.83-88
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• 2003

The concept of lean-premixed combustion in gas turbine combustor operation has become a standard in recent years as an effective means to meet stringent environmental standards on NOx emissions. Various types of air-fuel premixer, which affect greatly NOx emission and stability of lean-premixed low NOx combustor, were investigated experimentally to reduce the NOx emission. One type of the premixers is selected by experiments and applied it to 70kW class lean-premixed gas turbine combustor. The exit temperature and emissions of CO and NOx were measured with equivalence ratios at ambient pressure. From the results, the emissions of CO and NOx were influenced by the type of air-fuel premixer. As the mixing length of air and fuel is longer, the NOx and CO emission were decreased in the primary reaction zone. Compared with of conventional combustor, the lean-premixed low NOx combustor has low NOx emission characteristics.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.906-913
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• 2003

Lean premixed combustion has been considered as one of the promising solutions for the reduction of NOx emissions from gas turbines. However, unstable combustion of lean premixed flow becomes a real challenge on the way to design a reliable, highly efficient dry low NOx gas turbine combustor. Contrary to a conventional diffusion type combustion system, characteristics of premixed combustion significantly depend on a premixing degree of combusting flow. Combustion behavior in terms of stability has been studied in a model gas turbine combustor burning natural gas and air. Incompleteness of premixing is identified as significant perturbation source for inducing unstable combustion. Application of a simple convection time lag theory can only predict instability modes but cannot determine whether instability occurs or not. Low frequency perturbations are observed at the onset of instability and believed to initiate the coupling between heat release rate and pressure fluctuations.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.06a
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• pp.133-139
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• 2002

The lean premixed technique has been proven very efficient in reducing NOx emissions from gas turbine combustors. However combustion instability is susceptible to occur in lean premixed combustor. So laboratory-scale dump combustor was used to understanding the underlying mechanisms causing combustion instabilities. In this study, tests were conducted at atmospheric pressure and inlet air was up to $360^{\circ}C$ with natural gas. The observed instability was a longitudinal mode with a frequency of ${\sim}341.8Hz$. At selected unstable conditions, phase-resolved OH chemiluminescence images were captured to investigate flame structure with various equivalence ratio. Combustion instability was observed to occur at higher value of equivalence ratio(>0.69). This study was performed to investigate the effects of equivalence ratio and fuel split measuring NOx and acoustic wave. The results reveal the effect of fuel-air unmixedness on lean premixed combustor.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.25-31
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• 2004

Various types of the air/fuel pre-mixer have been designed and tested to investigate the combustion characteristics of the lean-premixed gas turbine combustor, such as NO emission and flame stability. One type of the pre-mixers has been selected and installed to a 70 kW lean-premixed gas turbine combustor. The concentrations of CO and NO were measured with varying equivalence ratios in the combustion chamber at ambient pressure. The result shows that the emissions of CO and NO are heavily affected by the shape of the pre-mixer. The NO and CO emissions decreased, as the mixing ratio of air and fuel increased. In addition, the NO emission of the lean-premixed low NOx combustor is more dependent on the equivalence ratio than that of the conventional combustor.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2012.11a
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• pp.53-54
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• 2012

In an IGCC plant, one of the most important issues on fuel flexibility in the lean premixed combustor is combustion instabilities. They are characterized by large amplitude pressure oscillations which are caused by unsteady heat release from the flames. The relationship between the unsteady heat release and flow oscillation can be qualitatively and quantitatively explained by flame transfer function. This paper introduces combustion instability modeling methods based on the flame transfer function approach.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2015.12a
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• pp.115-116
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• 2015

In the present approach, the flame-acoustics interaction is represented by FDF (Flame Describing Function) which is a important source term in the Helmholtz' equation. In this study, the combustion instability is analyzed by the forced mode strategy with the measured FDF. Numerical results indicate that the present approach reasonably well predicts the essential features of the combustion instability characteristics in the lean premixed combustor under the gas-turbine like environment.