Combustion adiabatic flame temperature

Oxidizers. The characteristics of the oxidizer affect the baUistic and mechanical properties of a composite propellant as well as the processibihty. Oxidizers are selected to provide the best combination of available oxygen, high density, low heat of formation, and maximum gas volume in reaction with binders. Increases in oxidizer content increase the density, the adiabatic flame temperature, and the specific impulse of a propellant up to a maximum. The most commonly used inorganic oxidizer in both composite and nitroceUulose-based rocket propellant is ammonium perchlorate. The primary combustion products of an ammonium perchlorate propellant and a polymeric binder containing C, H, and O are CO2, H2, O2, and HCl. Ammonium nitrate has been used in slow burning propellants, and where a smokeless exhaust is requited. Nitramines such as RDX and HMX have also been used where maximum energy is essential. 

Figure 4 illustrates the trend in adiabatic flame temperatures with heat of combustion as described. Also indicated is the consequence of another statistical result, ie, flames extinguish at a roughly common low limit (1200°C). This corresponds to heat-release density of ca 1.9 MJ/m (50 Btu/ft ) of fuel—air mixtures, or half that for the stoichiometric ratio. It also corresponds to flame temperature, as indicated, of ca 1220°C. Because these are statistical quantities, the same numerical values of flame temperature, low limit excess air, and so forth, can be expected to apply to coal—air mixtures and to fuels derived from coal (see Fuels, synthetic). 

Fig. 4. Variation of adiabatic flame temperature with heat of combustion where + i+i°yk— CO- Note change of scale at 46.5 MJ /kg (20,000...

The insensitivity of adiabatic flame temperature to heat of combustion does not necessarily apply to the operational flame temperature, T, which is the flame temperature found in an actual furnace (remembering that this refers to some average temperature). The higher excess air requirements at higher C/H ratios coupled with greater thermal loads on longer flames generally results in markedly lower operational temperatures as the C/H ratio increases. 

Flame Temperature. The adiabatic flame temperature, or theoretical flame temperature, is the maximum temperature attained by the products when the reaction goes to completion and the heat fiberated during the reaction is used to raise the temperature of the products. Flame temperatures, as a function of the equivalence ratio, are usually calculated from thermodynamic data when a fuel is burned adiabaticaHy with air. To calculate the adiabatic flame temperature (AFT) without dissociation, for lean to stoichiometric mixtures, complete combustion is assumed. This implies that the products of combustion contain only carbon dioxide, water, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur dioxide. 

Actual temperatures in practical flames are lower than calculated values as a result of the heat losses by radiation, thermal conduction, and diffusion. At high temperatures, dissociation of products of combustion into species such as OH, O, and H reduces the theoretical flame temperature (7). Increasing the pressure tends to suppress dissociation of the products and thus generally raises the adiabatic flame temperature (4). 

Adiabatic flame temperatures agree with values measured by optical techniques, when the combustion is essentially complete and when losses are known to be relatively small. Calculated temperatures and gas compositions are thus extremely useful and essential for assessing the combustion process and predicting the effects of variations in process parameters (4). Advances in computational techniques have made flame temperature and equifibrium gas composition calculations, and the prediction of thermodynamic properties, routine for any fuel-oxidizer system for which the enthalpies and heats of formation are available or can be estimated. 

Design of explosion suppression systems is clearly complex, since the effectiveness of an explosion suppression system is dependent on a large number of parameters. One Hypothesis of suppression system design identifies a limiting combustion wave adiabatic flame temperature, below which combustion reactions are not sustained. Suppression is thus attained, provided that sufficient thermal quenching results in depression of the combustion wave temperature below this critical value. This hypothesis identifies the need to deliver greater than a critical mass of suppressant into the enveloping fireball to effect suppression (see Fig. 26-43). 

If the reaction is conducted both adiabatically and witli stoichiometric air. tlie resulting temperature is defined as tlie theoretical adiabatic flame temperature (TAFT). It represents tlie nia.xinuuii temperature tliat tlie products of combustion (flue) can acliieve if the reaction is conducted both stoichionietrically and adiabatically. For tliis condition, all tlie energy liberated from combustion at or near standard conditions (AH°c and/or AH°29s) appears as sensible heat in raising tlie temperature of tlie flue products, AHp, tliat is ... 

Adiabatic Reaction Temperature (T ). The concept of adiabatic or theoretical reaction temperature (T j) plays an important role in the design of chemical reactors, gas furnaces, and other process equipment to handle highly exothermic reactions such as combustion. T is defined as the final temperature attained by the reaction mixture at the completion of a chemical reaction carried out under adiabatic conditions in a closed system at constant pressure. Theoretically, this is the maximum temperature achieved by the products when stoichiometric quantities of reactants are completely converted into products in an adiabatic reactor. In general, T is a function of the initial temperature (T) of the reactants and their relative amounts as well as the presence of any nonreactive (inert) materials. T is also dependent on the extent of completion of the reaction. In actual experiments, it is very unlikely that the theoretical maximum values of T can be realized, but the calculated results do provide an idealized basis for comparison of the thermal effects resulting from exothermic reactions. Lower feed temperatures (T), presence of inerts and excess reactants, and incomplete conversion tend to reduce the value of T. The term theoretical or adiabatic flame temperature (T,, ) is preferred over T in dealing exclusively with the combustion of fuels. 

Adiabatic flame temperature The highest possible temperature of combustion obtained under the conditions that the burning occurs in an adiabatic vessel, that it is complete, and that dissociation does not occur. 

For a gas containing combustibles, the adiabatic flame temperature is given by... 

It is further found that the adiabatic flame temperature is approximately 1300 °C for mixtures involving inert diluents at the lower flammable limit concentration. The accuracy of this approximation is illustrated in Figure 4.19 for propane in air. This approximate relationship allows us to estimate the lower limit under a variety of conditions. Consider the resultant temperature due to combustion of a given mixture. The adiabatic flame temperature (7f ad), given by Equation (2.22) for a mixture of fuel (Xp), oxygen (Xo2) and inert diluent (Xd) originally at 7U, where all of the fuel is consumed, is... 

Using the assumption of a minimum flame temperature needed for ignition of the mixture, determine the minimum fuel mass loss rate per unit surface area (m l) to cause flame propagation through the boundary layer. The heat of combustion that the volatile wood produces (Ahc) is 15 kJ/g. (Hint the adiabatic flame temperature at the lower flammable limit for the mixture in the boundary layer must be at least 1300 °C.)... 

We do expect Y0l (0) to be zero at the surface for combustion within the boundary layer since the flame reaction is fast and no oxygen is left. This must be clearly true even if the chemistry is not so fast. Moreover, since we are heating the surface with a nearby flame that approaches an adiabatic flame temperature, we would expect a high surface temperature. For a liquid fuel, we must have... 

The parameters essential for the evaluation of combustion systems are the equilibrium product temperature and composition. If all the heat evolved in the reaction is employed solely to raise the product temperature, this temperature is called the adiabatic flame temperature. Because of the importance of the temperature and gas composition in combustion considerations, it is appropriate to review those aspects of the field of chemical thermodynamics that deal with these subjects. 

Consider a fuel burning in inert airs and oxygen where the combustion requirement is only 0.21 moles of oxygen. Order the following mixtures as to their adiabatic flame temperatures with the given fuel. 

The flame speed for a combustible hydrocarbon-air mixture is known to be 30cm/s. The activation energy of such hydrocarbon reactions is generally assumed to be 160kJ/mol. The true adiabatic flame temperature for this mixture is known to be 1600 K. An inert diluent is added to the mixture to lower the flame temperature to 1450 K. Since the reaction is of second-order, the addition of the inert can be considered to have no other effect on any property of the system. Estimate the flame speed after the diluent is added. 

As mentioned in the previous section, the condition for vapor phase combustion versus heterogeneous combustion may be influenced by pressure by its effect on the flame temperature (Tvol or Td) as well as by its effect on the vaporization temperature of the metal reactant (Th). For aluminum combustion in pure oxygen, combustion for all practical conditions occurs in the vapor phase. In air, this transition would be expected to occur near 200 atm as shown in Fig. 9.15 where for pressures greater than —200 atm, the vaporization temperature of pure aluminum exceeds the adiabatic flame temperature. This condition is only indicative of that which will occur in real particle combustion systems as some reactant vaporization will occur at temperatures below the boiling point... 

FIGURE 9.23 Adiabatic flame temperature for stoichiometric combustion of methane in mixtures of oxygen with nitrogen and oxygen with carbon dioxide, computed using NASA s Chemical Equilibrium Analysis (CEA) program [52]. 

Saita et al. [215] used hydriding combustion synthesis for a direct production of TiFe. In the experiments, an exothermic reaction of Ti with hydrogen (Ti -i- i = TiHj + 144 kJ) was utilized for HCS of TiFe because the adiabatic flame temperature of this reaction was estimated to be 2,000°C, which is sufficiently high for melting both iron and titanium. A 1 1 molar mixture of elemental Ti and Fe pow-... 

The heat of combustion amounts to 7483 cal/g of aluminum fuel and the adiabatic flame temperature calculated by the NASA chemical equilibrium program [6] is 4005 K. The combustion equation for aluminum and steam is... 

The heat of combustion amounts to 4272 cal/g of aluminum fuel and the adiabatic flame temperature calculated by the chemical equilibrium program is 3036 K. Thus, the heat released when aluminum is burned with steam is about 57% of the amount released when aluminum is burned with O2. Many experimental investigations have been carried out on the combustion of aluminum in atmospheres where the primary oxidizer was O2 [7-16], and also in atmospheres where the primary oxidizer was H2O and/or CO2 [16-19]. There is general... 

Temperatures estimated from the measured intensity distributions at each port location during an 02/Ar oxidizer run in the 24-inch long combustor are plotted in Fig. 8.4, along with the measured hemispherical emissive power in the wavelength range from 425 to 800 nm. (The hemispherical emissive power, E, is related to the radiant intensity, /, by = ttI. Radiant intensity is also referred to as radiance.) The stoichiometry, 0/F)/ 0/F)st, for this run was about f.fO. The measured combustion temperature was about 2900 K, as compared to an adiabatic flame temperature of about 3650 K. The intensity measurements indicate that ignition occurs about 12 in. downstream from the injector. The intensity is near its peak at the most downstream port location, which indicates that combustion is still underway at that location. 

Though the above equations are nonlinear and complex, 1 and tij may be computed for any combustion reaction for which thermochemical data are available. In the following, the reaction -t Oj at 2 MPa is used to demonstrate a representative computation, illustrating the procedure for the determination of T)-and rij and reiterating the principles of thermochemical equilibrium and adiabatic flame temperature. Eirst, the following reaction scheme and products are assumed ... 

Table 2.2 Adiabatic flame temperatures and mole fractions of the combustion products of H2 and O2 mixtures at 2 MPa.

The adiabatic flame temperature of GAP copolymer is 1370 K at 5 MPa and large amounts of C(g), H2, and Nj are formed as initial combustion products. Fuel components such as C(s), CO, and Hj predominate, with only very small amounts of CO2 and H2O being formed. 

Table 4.10 shows a comparison of the theoretical combustion properties of NC-NG-DEP and NC-NG-GAP propellants at 10 MPa. Though the molecular mass of the combustion products. Mg, remains relatively unchanged by the replacement of DEP with GAP, the adiabatic flame temperature is increased from 2557 K to 2964 K when 12.5 % DEP is replaced with 12.5 % GAP. Thus, the specific impulse is increased from 237s to 253s. The density of a propellant, p, is also an important parameter in evaluating its thermodynamic performance. The density is increased from 1530 kg m to 1590 kg m" by the replacement of DEP with GAP. Since GAP is also compatible with DEP, double-base propellants composed of four major ingredients, NG, NG, DEP, and GAP, are also formulated. 

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