Soot surface temperature measurements in pure and diluted flames at atmospheric and elevated pressures

Soot surface temperature was measured in laminar jet diffusion flames at atmospheric and elevated pressures. The soot surface temperature was measured in flames at one, two, four, and eight atmospheres with both pure and diluted (using helium, argon, nitrogen, or carbon dioxide individually) ethylene fuels with a calibrated two-color soot pyrometry technique. These two dimensional temperature profiles of the soot aid in the analysis and understanding of soot production, leading to possible methods for reducing soot emission. Each flame investigated was at its smoke point, i.e., at the fuel flow rate where the overall soot production and oxidation rates are equal. The smoke point was chosen because it was desirable to have similar soot loadings for each flame. A second set of measurements were also taken where the fuel flow rate was held constant to compare with earlier work. These measurements show that overall flame temperature decreases with increasing pressure, with increasing pressure the position of peak temperature shifts to the tip of the flame, and the temperatures measured were approximately 10% lower than those calculated assuming equilibrium and neglecting radiation. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.