Fundamental flame studies of soot formation at high pressures and at low gravity

烟尘气溶胶通过改变大气的辐射特性，在区域和全球范围内影响地球的温度和气候。对全球变暖的贡献可能是巨大的，或许仅次于二氧化碳。此外，煤烟在冰雪上的沉积降低了表面反射率，从而捕获了辐射；这可能是全球变暖的四分之一原因。政府间气候变化专门委员会指出，烟尘气溶胶是导致气候变化的正辐射强迫的第三大贡献者。此外，暴露在烟尘气溶胶中每年导致全球数十万人死亡。对烟尘气溶胶的控制可以迅速产生区域和全球气候效益，并减少对人类健康的不良影响。控制燃烧烟尘的途径之一是防止或减少燃烧过程中的碳烟生成。很大一部分烟尘是从陆上、空中和海上运输中使用的内燃机排放的。对燃烧中碳烟形成过程的基本了解是这一控制方法的一个组成部分。然而，由于碳氢化合物火焰的高度复杂性质，燃烧中碳烟形成过程的细节仍然不确定。尽管大多数用于运输的燃烧设备在非常高的压力下运行，但我们对高压下的碳烟形成的了解非常有限，而且基本上缺乏实验数据和补充的预测模型。液体生物燃料的烟尘特性还不是很清楚，特别是在大多数发动机运行的高压环境下，这种缺乏了解的情况影响了在燃气轮机和其他陆上运输发动机中采用生物燃料和混合燃料。目前的提案旨在通过促进烟尘形成知识的提高和帮助控制烟尘排放的努力来解决这些问题。这将通过使用UTIAS提供的独特的高压燃烧设备和光学燃烧诊断工具进行精心计划的实验来实现。

Soot aerosols affect the Earth's temperature and climate, both regionally and globally by altering the radiative properties of the atmosphere. The contribution to global warming may be substantial, perhaps second only to that of carbon dioxide. In addition, the deposition of soot on snow and ice reduces the surface reflectivity thus trapping the radiation; this could be responsible for a quarter of the global warming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change indicated that the soot aerosol is the third largest contributor to the positive radiative forcing that causes climate change. Furthermore, exposure to soot aerosol is responsible for hundreds of thousands of global deaths each year. Controls on soot aerosol can produce rapid regional and global climate benefits as well as reductions of ill effects on human health. One of the approaches in control is prevention or reduction of soot generation in combustion. A significant portion of soot is emitted from combustion engines used in land, air and sea transportation. A fundamental understanding of the soot formation processes in combustion is an integral part of this control approach. However, the details of the soot formation process in combustion remain uncertain due to the highly complex nature of hydrocarbon flames. In spite of the fact that most combustion devices used for transportation operate at very high pressures, our understanding of soot formation at high pressures is very limited, and there is a fundamental lack of experimental data and complementary predictive models. Sooting characteristics of liquid bio-fuels are not known well, especially at high pressures where most engines operate, and this lack of understanding has implications in adopting bio-fuels and blends in gas turbines and other land transportation engines. The current proposal aims to address these issues by contributing to the advancement of knowledge in soot formation and helping with the soot emissions control efforts. This will be accomplished by carefully planned experiments using the unique high-pressure combustion facility and optical combustion diagnostics available at UTIAS.