Combustion measurements based on optical diagnostics techniques, which allow noninvasive measurements of velocity, density, temperature, pressure, and species concentration, have recently become of major interest as tools not only for clarifying the combustion mechanism but also for validating the computational results for the combustion fields. In this study, the combustion characteristics of a pulverized coal flame are investigated using advanced optical diagnostics. A laboratory-scale pulverized coal combustion burner is specially fabricated. Velocity and shape of nonspherical pulverized coal particles, light emissions from a local point, and temperature in the flame are measured by shadow Doppler particle analyzer (SDPA), a specially designed receiving optics (multicolor integrated receiving optics, MICRO), and a two-color radiation pyrometer, respectively. The simultaneous measurement of OH planar laser-induced fluorescence (OH-PLIF) and Mie scattering image of pulverized coal particles is performed to examine spatial relation of combustion reaction zone and pulverized coal particle. The results show that the sizeclassified diameter and velocity of the pulverized coal particles in the flame can be measured well by SDPA. The measurements of the OH chemiluminescence and CH band light emission from a local point in the flame using MICRO and the simultaneous measurement of the instantaneous OH-PLIF and Mie scattering image of pulverized coal are effective for evaluating the pulverized coal flames and investigating their detailed flame structure.

Two-dimensional direct numerical simulation is applied to spray flames stabilized in a laminar counterflow, and the detailed behavior is studied in terms of the droplet group combustion. The stretch ratio of the laminar counterflow is 40 l/s. n-decane (C10H22) is used as a liquid spray fuel, and a one-step global reaction is employed for the combustion reaction model. The results show that with increasing the issued liquid fuel mass fraction, two types of spray combustion appear in front of and inside the high gaseous temperature region, i.e., “premixed-like combustion” and “diffusion-like combustion,” respectively. A droplet group combustion behavior is observed in the diffusion-like combustion region. This diffusion-like combustion, however, disappears when the issued droplet size becomes small, because the droplets complete their evaporation before entering into the high gaseous temperature region. The droplet group combustion tends to reduce the gaseous temperature. This is caused mainly by the suppression of combustion reaction due to the lack of oxygen and partially by the energy exchange through the convective heat transfer between droplets and gaseous phase. The gaseous temperature reduction is promoted by the latent heat of vaporization of the droplets. The use of the parcel approach has a risk of causing a delay of combustion reaction, since the partial fuel vapor pressure increases at limited locations, which suppresses the global droplet evaporation rate.

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A high-luminosity-light-collection system for highly spatial detection of chemiluminescence of radical species in flames has been developed. The system, multi-colour integrated Cassegrain receiving optics (MICRO) is based upon a Cassegrain-type configuration, which implies that it employs only reflective components (in combination with an optical fibre for light collection). It provides therefore spherical- and chromatic-aberration-free detection, which is of importance for high-spatial-resolution measurements and for the simultaneous monitoring of signals in different wavelength regions from a given spatial volume. The effective light-collection volume has been estimated to be only 1.6 mm × 0.2 mm × 0.2 mm by ray-tracing techniques, which is more than three orders of magnitude smaller than that provided by a corresponding simple single-lens system and comparable to that of laser-based techniques, e.g. Doppler anemometry. The system is also easily aligned since the active probe volume can be visualized by sending in visible light through the system in the reverse direction. In order to demonstrate the performance of the system, OH-radical chemiluminescence in a Bunsen flame was monitored using MICRO and compared with the ion-current signal from a Langmuir probe with a minute sensor tip. A good correlation between the fluctuations in the two signals could be obtained, proving the high spatial and temporal resolution of the MICRO system.

The purpose of this study is to elucidate of the primary air combustion zone in pulverized-coal combustion by means of advanced laser-based diagnostics with high temporal and spatial resolutions. An open-type burner is fabricated to apply various optical measurement techniques. Detailed and overall evaluation is performed by applying various optical measurement techniques to the flame, such as the velocity and shape of nonspherical pulverized-coal particles, temperature, and light emissions from a local point in the flame. It is observed that the particle mean diameter increases as the distance from the burner increases, and this is found to be caused by the decrease in the diameters of small particles and the increase in the diameters of large particles, which result in the char reaction and the particle swelling due to devolatilization, respectively. The size-classified streamwise velocities of pulverized-coal particles in the central region of the jet exhibit the same magnitude, whereas those in the outer region are different depending on the particle size. The behavior is well explained in terms of the particle inertia.

A three-dimensional numerical simulation of an isothermal flow past a solid sphere with outflow in a linear shear flow is performed to investigate the effects of the outflow on drag and shear lift. In addition, the effects of the outflow and the fluid shear on diffusion and reaction of reactant from the surface of the sphere are also discussed. The results show that the outflow reduces the drag, and, in the linear shear flow, acts to push the sphere to the lower fluid velocity side and promote the negative lift for the high particle Reynolds numbers. The diffusion and reaction of the reactant from the surface of the sphere are strongly affected by the outflow and the fluid shear because these factors cause the deformation of vortices appearing behind the sphere.

To develop accurate models for the numerical simulation of coal combustion field, detailed experimental data using laser techniques, which can figure out the basic phenomena in a coal flame, are necessary. In particular, soot is one of the important intermediate substances in a coal flame. This paper is the first paper in the world reporting soot particle size distributions in a coal flame. The spatial distribution of the primary soot particle diameter were measured by the combination of the time-resolved laser induced incandescence (TiRe-LII) method and the thermophoretic sampling (TS) method. The primary soot particle diameter distribution was expressed by the log normal function based on the particle diameter measurement using SEM images obtained from the TS samples. The relative function between the signal decay ratio obtained by TiRe-LII and the primary soot particle diameter was defined based on the log normal function. Using the relative function, the spatial distributions of the primary soot particle diameter with the soot volume fraction were obtained. The results show that the small isolated soot regions instantaneously exist in the entire combustion field. This characteristics is different from spray combustion field. From the ensemble-averaged TiRe-LII images, it was found that the soot volume fraction and the primary soot particle diameter increases with increasing the height above the burner in any radial distance. It was also found that the volumetric ratio of small particles decreases with increasing radial distance at the region close to the burner exit. However, the variation of the soot particle diameter distribution along the radial direction becomes small in the downstream region. This tendency is caused by the turbulent mixing effect. It is expected that the accurate soot formation model will be developed in the near future by using the data reported in this paper.