Browsing by Subject "Wave Rotor"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Experimental investigation on traversing hot jet ignition of lean hydrocarbon-air mixtures in a constant volume combustor
    (2013-12) Chinnathambi, Prasanna; Nalim, M. Razi; Yu, Huidan (Whitney); Zhu, Likun; Anwar, Sohel
    A constant-volume combustor is used to investigate the ignition initiated by a traversing jet of reactive hot gas, in support of combustion engine applications that include novel wave-rotor constant-volume combustion gas turbines and pre-chamber IC engines. The hot-jet ignition constant-volume combustor rig at the Combustion and Propulsion Research Laboratory at the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) was used for this study. Lean premixed combustible mixture in a rectangular cuboid constant-volume combustor is ignited by a hot-jet traversing at different fixed speeds. The hot jet is issued via a converging nozzle from a cylindrical pre-chamber where partially combusted products of combustion are produced by spark- igniting a rich ethylene-air mixture. The main constant-volume combustor (CVC) chamber uses methane-air, hydrogen-methane-air and ethylene-air mixtures in the lean equivalence ratio range of 0.8 to 0.4. Ignition delay times and ignitability of these combustible mixtures as affected by jet traverse speed, equivalence ratio, and fuel type are investigated in this study.
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    Hot jet ignition delay characterization of methane and hydrogen at elevated temperatures
    (Pro Quest, 2017-08) Kojok, Ali Tarraf; Nalim, M. Razi; Larriba-Andaluz, Carlos; Zhu, Likhun
    This study contributes to a better understanding of ignition by hot combustion gases which finds application in internal combustion chambers with pre-chamber ignition as well as in wave rotor engine applications. The experimental apparatus consists of two combustion chambers: a pre chamber that generates the transient hot jet of gas and a main chamber which contains the main fuel air blend under study. Variables considered are three fuel mixtures (Hydrogen, Methane, 50\% Hydrogen-Methane), initial pressure in the pre-chamber ranging from 1 to 2 atm, equivalence ratio of the fuel air mixture in the main combustion chamber ranging from 0.4 to 1.5, and initial temperature of the main combustion chamber mixture ranging from 297 K to 500 K. Experimental data makes use of 4 pressure sensors with a recorded sampling rate up to 300 kHz, as well as high speed Schlieren imaging with a recorded frame rate up to 20,833 frame per seconds. Results shows an overall increase in ignition delay with increasing equivalence ratio. High temperature of the main chamber blend was found not to affect hot jet ignition delay considerably. Physical mixing effects, and density of the main chamber mixture have a greater effect on hot jet ignition delay.
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    Numerical Simulation of Pressure Wave Supercharger with Pockets Operating at Different Speeds
    (2020-12) Sutar, Pawan; Nalim, M. Razi; Larriba-Andaluz, Carlos; Adams, Eric
    Pressure wave supercharger is an application of wave rotor technology that utilizes compression waves produced by high-pressure engine exhaust gas to compress the fresh intake air within the channels. The phenomena within the wave rotor channels are governed by compression and expansion waves initiated when the channel ends are periodically exposed to differing pressure ports. Two incoming fluids are brought into contact for a very short amount of time to facilitate efficient energy and momentum transfer, thereby exchanging pressure dynamically between the fluids by means of unsteady pressure waves. Since the energy transfer is based on unsteady pressure waves, correct matching of waves and ports is essential for optimum results. Mistiming of the waves in the channels is detrimental to the efficient exchange of pressure and low-pressure exhaust scavenging, which ensures minimum exhaust gas recirculation. Due to varying speed and load conditions of the unit to be supercharged, it is not always possible to maintain the rotor speed constant at the design point. To mitigate the effects of wave mistiming due to varying speed, a well-designed combination of wall-pockets was used in Comprex® pressure wave supercharger. The wall-pockets are the recesses provided in the endplates of pressure wave superchargers to create necessary pressure zones at desired locations. This thesis details an extensive qualitative and computational investigation of the performance of pressure wave superchargers with pockets. Numerical simulations of pressure wave superchargers have been performed using the wave rotor analysis codes employed at the Combustion and Propulsion Research Laboratory at IUPUI. This work also pays close attention to inspecting the numerical schemes and modeling of different physical phenomena used in each code. A comparative verification of the wave rotor analysis codes has been conducted to ensure that the same fundamental numerical scheme is correctly implemented in each code. The issue of low-pressure scavenging has been demonstrated by simulating the four-port (pocketless) pressure wave supercharger operating at lower speeds. The wall-pockets have been modeled using a simple lumped volume technique. The gas state in the lumped volume of pockets is estimated using the continuity and energy equations such that the net mass and energy fluxes between each pocket and the wave rotor channels are close to zero. The lumped volume models of pockets have been implemented in the four-port wave rotor configurations to simulate the pressure wave superchargers with pockets. The simulation results show that the pockets assist to maintain sufficient pressure in the desired zones to facilitate proper low-pressure scavenging during lower rotor speed operations. The Comprex simulation results have been observed to be in good agreement with experimental data and qualitative analysis. Specific observations on the performance of each code and comprehensive simulation results have been presented.