Stabilization of nearly stoichiometric CO2- and N2-diluted premixed methane/oxygen swirling flames is investigated in an atmospheric test rig equipped with an axial-plus-tangential swirler exhausting in a cylindrical injection tube eventually ended by a diverging quarl. The investigated flames are stabilized aerodynamically away from the solid elements of the combustor without the help of any central bluff body in the injector. The flowrates through the axial and tangential slits of the swirler can be adjusted separately. Effects of swirl and quarl angle on the flowfield and flame shape are analyzed. Laser tomography on small oil particles reveals that fuel, oxidizer and diluents injected in separated channels are well mixed at the injector outlet. Velocimetry measurements and flame images show that the axial-plus-tangential swirler allows a flexible control of the flame leading edge position with respect to the injector outlet. For a fixed injector geometry with a given quarl angle and swirl number, it is found that N2- and CO2-diluted flames feature the same topology if the injected combustible mixtures feature the same adiabatic flame temperature, while they may feature different bulk injection velocities and laminar burning velocities. The operability range of well stabilized CO2-diluted flames is however reduced.

The need for high lateral spatial resolution in thermal science using Scanning Thermal Microscopy (SThM) has pushed researchers to look for more and more tiny probes. SThM probes have consequently become more and more sensitive to the size effects that occur within the probe, the sample, and their interaction. Reducing the tip furthermore induces very small heat flux exchanged between the probe and the sample. The measurement of this flux, which is exploited to characterize the sample thermal properties, requires then an accurate thermal management of the probe-sample system and to reduce any phenomenon parasitic to this system. Classical experimental methodologies must then be constantly questioned to hope for relevant and interpretable results. In this paper, we demonstrate and estimate the influence of the laser of the optical force detection system used in the common SThM setup that is based on atomic-force microscopy equipment on SThM measurements. We highlight the bias induced by the overheating due to the laser illumination on the measurements performed by thermoresistive probes (palladium probe from Kelvin Nanotechnology). To face this issue, we propose a new experimental procedure based on a metrological approach of the measurement: a SThM "dark mode." The comparison with the classical procedure using the laser shows that errors between 14% and 37% can be reached on the experimental data exploited to determine the heat flux transferred from the hot probe to the sample.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract