Laser-Based Diagnostics for Transient Species in Hydrocarbon Flames
Abstract
Detection of chemically important transient species is crucial to understanding the mechanism of hydrocarbon combustion. Though they often occur in low concentrations, these species determine the pathways and rates of many reaction steps. In this report we describe our efforts to develop and quantify diagnostic methods to measure these species in flames. We will describe methods to detect CH, CH3, C2H2, CH2, and HO2; the first four species have successfully been observed in flames during this project. The detection techniques we use are laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) and absorption techniques including photoacoustic detection spectroscopy (PAD). The polyatomic molecules mentioned above are much more, difficult to detect than the diatomic molecules CH and OH, and we have developed and used new variations on the basic techniques to achieve the desired sensitivity. In this research, we improved diagnostic techniques for the radicals mentioned above, detected species not previously observed in the flame environment, and increased our knowledge of the important species in hydrocarbon combustion.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1989
- Accession Number
- ADA283636
Entities
People
- Richard Copeland
Organizations
- SRI International