Search Results (4)

The polymeric insulation used in nuclear power plants (NPPs) carries the risk of molecular breakage due to oxidation and hydrolysis in the event of an accident. With this in mind, tubular specimens of flame-retardant ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (FR-EPDM) insulation were obtained by taking conductors out of a cable harvested from an NPP. Similar tubular specimens were made from a newly manufactured cable and those aged artificially using a method called the “superposition of time-dependent data.” The inner and outer surfaces of each tubular specimen were subjected to various instrumental analyses to examine their oxidation, moisture uptake, and cross-linking. As a result, it has become clear that oxygen penetrates the cable through gaps between the twisted conductor strands. Meanwhile, water vapor diffuses more often through the sheath than through gaps between the conductor strands. Of the two methods used to simulate design-based accidents in NPPs, the one used to simulate the designed loss-of-coolant accident is more severe to FR-EPDM than the one used to simulate the designed severe accident. In addition, the validity of the method called the “superposition of time-dependent data,” which is used to give artificial aging treatments to cable samples, was confirmed. Measurements of spin-spin relaxation time and residual dipolar coupling using time-domain nuclear magnetic resonance were found suitable to use to obtain information on the cross-linking of FR-EPDM insulation. Full article

The manner in which an ultra-lean hydrogen flame stabilizes and blows off is crucial for the understanding and design of safe and efficient combustion devices. In this study, we use experiments and numerical simulations for pure H₂-air flames stabilized behind a cylindrical bluff body to reveal the underlying physics that make such flames stable and eventually blow-off. Results from CFD simulations are used to investigate the role of stretch and preferential diffusion after a qualitative validation with experiments. It is found that the flame displacement speed of flames stabilized beyond the lean flammability limit of a flat stretchless flame ($\varphi =0.3$) can be scaled with a relevant tubular flame displacement speed. This result is crucial as no scaling reference is available for such flames. We also confirm our previous hypothesis regarding lean limit blow-off for flames with a neck formation that such flames are quenched due to excessive local stretching. After extinction at the flame neck, flames with closed flame fronts are found to be stabilized inside a recirculation zone. Full article

Non-gray radiation should be considered in the temperature and emissivity measurements of hydrocarbon flames. In this paper an improved ratio pyrometry by spectral analysis and color image processing is proposed. A Newton-type iterative method is utilized to analyze the spectrometer signals for the detection of monochromatic emissivity, and then the ratio pyrometry based on color image processing is corrected by the detected monochromatic emissivity without making approximations of the filter profiles of CCD camera. The experiments were conducted on a tubular heating furnace with coal gas and a propane flame. The spectral and spatial distributions of emissivity of hydrocarbon flame were detected, and the temperature measurement results at four conditions coincided with the thermocouple with relative errors less than 8.34%. The soot volume fractions in the turbulent diffusion hydrocarbon flame were approximately estimated from the detected emissivity, and are influenced by the O/C in the combustion. This study will provide a simple and effective method for the detection of non-gray radiation of hydrocarbon flames in the combustion industry. Full article

The structure of methane/air tubular diffusion flames with $65\%$ fuel dilution by either CO₂ or N₂ is numerically investigated as a function of pressure. As pressure is increased, the reaction zone thickness reduces due to decrease in diffusivities with pressure. The flame with CO₂-diluted fuel exhibits much lower nitrogen radicals (N, NH, HCN, NCO) and lower temperature than its N₂-diluted counterpart. In addition to flame structure, NO emission characteristics are studied using analysis of reaction rates and quantitative reaction pathway diagrams (QRPDs). Four different routes, namely the thermal route, Fenimore prompt route, N₂O route, and NNH route, are examined and it is observed that the Fenimore prompt route is the most dominant for both CO₂- and N₂-diuted cases at all values of pressure followed by NNH route, thermal route, and N₂O route. This is due to low temperatures (below 1900 K) found in these highly diluted, stretched, and curved flames. Further, due to lower availability of N₂ and nitrogen bearing radicals for the CO₂-diluted cases, the reaction rates are orders of magnitude lower than their N₂-diluted counterparts. This results in lower NO production for the CO₂-diluted flame cases. Full article