- Author
-
Grumer, J.
|
Cook, E. B.
|
Richmond, J. K.
|
Kubala, T. A.
- Title
- Combustion at Elevated Pressures in a Spherical Vessel.
- Coporate
- Bureau of Mines, Pittsburgh, PA
- Report
-
Report of Investigations 5896,
1961,
23 p.
- Keywords
-
combustion
|
pressure
|
combustion waves
|
flame speed
|
pressure rise
|
burning velocity
- Identifiers
- spherical vessel; flame size-time records; analysis of light0time records; analyses of pressure oscillations
- Abstract
- An instrumented spherical vessel has been used for many years to study laminar combustion waves. Concurrent measurements of flame speed and pressure- rise rates have led to evaluations of burning velocities, the pressure dependence of the burning velocity, and the expansion ratios of the gases passing through the combustion wave. For the most part, these studies have involved flames initially at atmospheric or subatmospheric pressure. The old spherical vessel used by the Bureau of Mines was not designed for use at elevated pressures. Moreover, being made of wrought iron, it was susceptible enough to corrosion to prohibit its use with many combustible mixtures that figure in industrial research. In mid-1956, under sponsorship of the Office of Naval Research, the Bureau undertook the development of a stainless steel spherical vessel capable of withstanding explosions of gaseous mixtures at initial pressures as high as 20 atm. and initial temperatures as high as 2500 C. The design called for a double array (cross) of closely spaced small windows for observation of the flame as it traversed the vessel and a piezoelectric transducer to measure concurrently pressure-rise rates. Because no commercial contractor was willing to bid on the construction of such a vessel, it was built at the Bureau's Bruceton machine shop.