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On the Formation of Nitrogen Oxides During the Combustion of ...

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5 Results<br />

5.2.3 Comparison with Microgravity Experiments on Droplet Arrays<br />

There are severe technical limitations on experimental setups regarding <strong>the</strong><br />

realization <strong>of</strong> a representative single droplet combustion, combining droplet<br />

pre-vaporization and NO x formation. Thus, <strong>the</strong> experimental part <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> study<br />

at hand was carried out to compare and, where possible, validate <strong>the</strong> numerical<br />

results on single droplets by resolving this issue on droplet arrays. Utilizing<br />

<strong>the</strong> environments <strong>of</strong> parabolic flight, drop tower, and sounding rocket<br />

flight, a significant number <strong>of</strong> experiments were conducted under microgravity<br />

conditions (see Tab. B.1). Figure 5.12 clarifies <strong>the</strong> difference in sequence<br />

between physical experiments and numerical simulation. Flame extinction<br />

and exhaust gas homogenization are not included in <strong>the</strong> simulation model,<br />

and thus production <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>rmal NO during this period is not accounted for.<br />

Experiment<br />

Prevaporization<br />

Ignition<br />

Droplet<br />

burning<br />

Extinction<br />

Homogenization<br />

Gas<br />

analysis<br />

Simulation<br />

Model<br />

Prevaporization<br />

Ignition<br />

Droplet<br />

burning<br />

No modeling<br />

Gas<br />

analysis<br />

Time t<br />

Figure 5.12: <strong>Combustion</strong> Sequence in Experiments and Numerical Simulation. This<br />

schematic is not to scale. The numerical simulations are stopped when <strong>the</strong><br />

droplet diameter drops below <strong>the</strong> value 1/1000D 0 .<br />

A number <strong>of</strong> separate numerical simulations were conducted to include <strong>the</strong><br />

heat loss <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> combustion chamber induced by <strong>the</strong> insertion <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> cold<br />

droplet array holder into <strong>the</strong> combustion chamber (see Chaps. 3.1.2 and 3.1.3)<br />

in <strong>the</strong> data post-processing. Their purpose is to relate <strong>the</strong> emission indices<br />

EI NOx | exp,T∞ =f (Ψ), as measured with <strong>the</strong> actual temperature history <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> experiments<br />

(Fig. D.4), to one single preheating level. This temperature level in<br />

turn is set to <strong>the</strong> reference temperature <strong>of</strong> T ∞ = 500 K. The whole procedure<br />

helps to uncouple <strong>the</strong> effects <strong>of</strong> preheating on vaporization and NO x formation.<br />

The approach is similar to <strong>the</strong> one outlined in Baessler et al. [31, 32] but<br />

different in that single droplet simulations are used instead <strong>of</strong> calculations <strong>of</strong><br />

laminar premixed flames. Equations (5.6) and (5.7) provide <strong>the</strong> necessary link<br />

via <strong>the</strong> correction factor f EINOx . The single droplet model (Chapter 4.5) is used<br />

to determine f EINOx from <strong>the</strong> full-scale droplet diameter D and <strong>the</strong> boundary<br />

174

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