High-speed imaging and stereoscopic particle-image velocimetry for turbulent combustion and explosion research

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Rising energy costs and concerns over carbon emissions are two key challenges that society must face in the next century. One promising solution to these challenges is the use of alternative fuels in gas-turbine engines (GTE) for power generation and aviation applications. Our group works with Rolls Royce Canada (RRC) on alternative gaseous fuels for GTE used in power-generation applications and with Pratt & Whitney Canada on mixtures of biojet and jet fuels. In order to validate and improve the design tools used to model the combustion inside of these GTEs with alternative fuels, we are studying a range of laminar and turbulent flames that build confidence in the submodels over a range of scales. This work is being extended to engine-relevant pressures in ongoing projects in which we are building a high-pressure flame facility with optical diagnostic access. The proposed high-speed stereoscopic PIV system builds off of a laboratory infrastructure created using previous CFI and RTI funding and will enable the three-dimensional flowfield in the turbulent flame experiments to be resolved, providing improved validation data and reduced uncertainty in the resulting design tools of our industrial partners. In addition to enabling this important diagnostic capability for our engine-relevant combustion experiments, the high-speed cameras will also support several projects in the area of metal combustion. Metal powders have long been used as energetic additives in explosives and propellants, which our group has a strong history of studying, and are now being considered for their potential use as recyclable carriers of renewable energy in an alternative concept to the hydrogen economy or batteries that promises higher power densities and lower costs. Our group's work on the propagation of flames in such powders under micro-gravity conditions and in large-scale flames and explosions in field trials are unique within Canada and at the leading edge of international research in this area. The equipment will also support work on hydrodynamic instabilities occuring in confined magnetized target fusion reactors. Access to the high-speed imaging and stereo-PIV hardware and software proposed here are critical to these diverse research programs.