QUENCHING OF FLAME

ANAYLSIS
during combustion
PRESENTED BYMANAS SRIVASTAV
211316024

INTRODUCTION
Quenching in terms of combustion refers to extinguishing a flame, e.g. flame
can be extinguished by thermal effects (heat loss), chemical suppression and
aerodynamic effects.
The quenching of hydrocarbon flames on cold surfaces is considered to be a
potential source of unburned hydrocarbon (UHC) emissions from internal
combustion engines.
Quenching due to coating -The HC emission increases due to catalytic
coatings in IC engine, because they deplete the air-fuel availability inside the
boundary layer by activating them.
A flame is quenched because of two mechanism that permit flame propagationdiffusion of species and diffusion of heat is getting affected.

WHY to Analyze Quenching of flames

The main ways in which UHC is thought to be produced in the turbulent
diffusion flames is quenching of flames on cold walls.
One possible avenue for UHC reduction is through the use of catalytic
converters , but the conversion efficiency rapidly decreases to low levels (less
than 20 %)
The high exhaust temperature required for efficient conversions and the
sensitivity of catalysts to contaminants (cost factor).
The study of near wall flame propagation (quenching) is important because of
misfiring in internal combustion engines, optimization of combustion, and
reduction of unburned hydrocarbons in the combustion products

QUENCHING BY COLD WALL

On the visualization of combustion inside internal combustion engines, it was noticed
that there were dark regions (indicating low temperature )between the propagating
flame and the cold walls of the chamber.
And also smaller the tube, the grater is the surface area to volume ratio within the tube
and hence greater is the volumetric heat loss and also the number of the collision of
active radical species are destroyed.
Premixed flames get extinguished upon entering sufficiently small passageways, If the
passageway is large enough flame will propagate through it.
1. Quenching distance: A critical diameter of a tube or critical distance between
two flat plates through which a flame will not propagate.
2. Flashback: propagation of the flame back towards upstream of the burner.

 Daniel indicated that the flame quenching is an important

source of hydrocarbon emissions and observed that the HC
emission levels are proportional to the quench distance
Flashback will happen if the reactant flow rate sustaining a
laminar premixed flame is significantly reduced or shut-off
and the passageways upstream of the flame are larger than the
quenching distances.
Quenching distances are determined experimentally:
I. - Tube burners for quenching diameters.
II. - High aspect ratio slot burners (rectangular) for quenching distances
between two parallel flat plates.

Ignition and Quenching Criteria:

Ignition will occur only if enough energy is
added to the gas to heat a slab about as thick
as a steady propagating laminar flame to the
adiabatic flame temperature.
The rate of liberation of heat by chemical reactions inside the
slab must approximately balance the rate of heat loss from the
slab by thermal conduction.

 To compare quenching under different conditions it is useful to

non-dimensionalize quench distance ,the most commonly
accepted way is by using the diffusive flame thickness defined as
This gives a burning Peclet number

where SL is the laminar flame speed and

diffusivity
of the gas.

is the thermal

We know that
Pe = Inertia Force * Momentum Diffusivity
Viscous Force

Heat Diffusivity

Pe gives a measure of how the propagation speed of the flame

and thermal diffusion play key roles in determining quenching
behavior.
Pe no. is also used in when we have to analyze at different
different pressure and temperature condition.(In complex
calculation)

A Simple Quenching Analysis: -

 Energy

balance:

Equate heat produced by chemical reactions to heat loss by

conduction to walls:

Volumetric heat release rate

Where

is related to

Heat loss by conduction from the slab to the wall Fouriers law:

where both temperature gradient

temperatures at the wall.

where L is the slot width

and are evaluated at gas

The temperature gradient dT/dx is not straightforward to evaluate. A

lower bound would be:

where a linear distribution from centerline to the wall is assumed.

dT/dx is likely to be greater than this, so we introduce a constant b
defined as
where

By comparing the above equations, we get

and subsequently calculate to get

By using the relations for laminar flame speed and flame thickness,
we get the expression as

And finally,

i.e. if we are going to have bigger diameter of combustion chamber then

we have got some problem of quenching.
And also the (flame thickness) depends on the fuel air mixtures so
this diameter is also affected by the air-fuel mixture ratio.

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