FireDOC Search

Author
Koylu, U. O. | Sivathanu, Y. R. | Faeth, G. M.
Title
Carbon Monoxide and Soot Emissions From Buoyant Turbulent Diffusion Flames.
Coporate
Michigan Univ., Ann Arbor
Sponsor
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
Contract
NIST-GRANT-60NANB8DO833
Book or Conf
International Association for Fire Safety Science. Fire Safety Science. Proceedings. 3rd International Symposium. July 8-12, 1991, Elsevier Applied Science, New York, Edinburgh, Scotland, Cox, G.; Langford, B., Editors, 625-634 p., 1991
Keywords
fire research | fire safety | fire science | carbon monoxide | combustion physics | toxic hazards | soot | turbulent flames | diffusion flames
Abstract
Carbon monoxide concentrations and mixture fractions were measured in the fuel-lean (overfire) region of turbulent acetylene, propylene, ethylene, propane and methane diffusion flames burning in still air. Three burners (having exit diameters of 5, 50 and 234 mm) were used to study conditions ranging from buoyant jet flames to pool-like fires. Carbon monoxide generation factors (mass of CO emitted per unit mass of fuel carbon burned) were uniform throughout the overfire region for a given flame condition. Additionally, CO generation factors of sooting fuels approached asymptotic values for flame residence times roughly an order of magnitude longer than the normal smoke point residence time, similar to earlier measurements of soot generation factors for similar conditions. Finally, processes of carbon monoxide and soot emission appear to be closely related due to the good correlation between their emission factors in the asymptotic regime: 0.34 (standard deviation of 0.09) kg CO/kg soot. However, nonsooting methane/air flames still emitted low levels of CO so there there is a component of CO emissions that is not associated with soot.