The Laminar Burning Velocities of Stoichiometric Methane–Air Mixture from Closed Vessels Measurements

Abstract

The present work aims to evaluate the performance of the constant-volume method by several sets of experiments carried out in three different closed vessels (a sphere and two cylinders) analyzing the obtained results in order to obtain accurate laminar burning velocities. Accurate laminar burning velocities can be used in the development of computational fluid dynamics models in order to design new internal combustion engines with a higher efficiency and lower fuel consumption leading to a lower degree of environmental pollution. The pressure-time histories obtained at various initial pressures from 0.4 to 1.4 bar and ambient initial temperature were analyzed and processed using two different correlations (one implying the cubic low coefficient and the other implying the burnt mass fraction). The laminar burning velocities obtained at various initial pressures are necessary for the realization of a complete kinetic study regarding the combustion reaction and testing the actual reaction mechanisms. Data obtained from measurements were completed and compared with data obtained from runs using two different detailed chemical kinetic mechanisms (GRI 3.0 and Warnatz) and with laminar burning velocities from literature. Our experimental burning velocities ranging from 35.3 cm/s (data from spherical vessel S obtained using the burnt mass fraction) to 37.5 cm/s (data from cylindrical vessel C1 obtained using the cubic law) are inside the interval of confidence as reported by other researchers. From the dependence of the laminar burning velocity on the initial pressure, the baric coefficients were obtained. These coefficients were further used to obtain the overall reaction orders. The baric coefficients (ranging between −0.349 and −0.212) and the overall reaction orders (ranging between 1.42 and 1.50) obtained in this study fall within the reference range of data specific to methane–air mixtures examined at ambient initial temperature.