Energy Sources, 23:345 361, 2001

Copyright 2001 Taylor & Francis 0090-8312 / 01 $12.00 1 .00

Laminar Burning Velocity of Some Coal Derived Fuels

MOHSEN RADWAN MOSTAFA ISMAIL MOHAMED YOUNES SELIM HOSAM SALEH
Faculty of Engineering Helwan University Mattaria, Cairo, Egypt

HINDAWI SALEM
Faculty of Engineering Cairo University, Egypt
The laminar burning velocity of seven different coal-derived liquid fuels have been measured in a constant-volume combustion vessel using transient pressure technique. The test conditions included the type of fuel, equivalence ratio, initial mixture temperature, and pressure. The results showed that coal-derived liquid fuels generally exhibit lower laminar burning velocity than iso-octane fuel. The maximum laminar burning velocity occurred at nearly stoichiometric mixture, but burning velocity decreases as the mixture becomes more lean or more rich. Over the range of the studied test conditions, a correlation was developed to fit the laminar burning velocity data with the main governing parameters. Keywords
time history coal-derived fuels, combustion bomb, laminar burning velocity, pressure-

Introduction
The world energy resources and the rate of their consumption, when related to the estimated population growth, indicate very clearly the necessity of searching for alternative fuels. The attention devoted to coal is related to its large natural resources as well as to its competitive stable prices. However, one of the main drawbacks of coal is that it produces ash upon combustion in addition to its difficulty of handling. Thus it is rendered unsuitable for use in engines and some practical power units. As a consequence, efforts have been made to produce

Received 16 February 2000; accepted 21May 2000. Address correspondence to Dr. Mohamed Younes Selim, Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, United Arab Emirates University, P O Box 17555 - Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates. E-mail: Mohamed.Selim @uaeu.ac.a e

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liquid coal-derived fuels, e.g., Sefer et al. (1985). Coal-derived fuels are important to be considered because they are expected to have long term contributions. Coal-derived fuels have been tested in engines from the performance and exhaust emission point of view, e.g., Davies & Freese (1981) and Needham & Doyle (1985). However, one of the main combustion characteristics of these fuels, the burning velocity, is still lacking. Knowledge of the burning velocity enables the determination of several factors affecting the combustion chamber design, such as rate of pressure rise, peak cylinder pressure, exhaust gas temperature, and exhaust emissions. It has also been suggested that the ignition delay time, engine knock, and wall quench layer thickness (Blizard & Keck, 1974; Lewis & Von Elbe, 1987 ) are functions of the laminar burning velocity. The experimental data of the laminar burning velocity and heat release rate-temperature profile are not only of practical importance for design and analysis of practical power units, but are also of fundamental importance for developing and assessing theoretical models of laminar flame propagation (Aung et al., 1997). Hence the main objective of the present work is to provide accurate measurements of laminar burning velocity of seven different coal-derived liquid fuels. The laminar burning velocity data of this type of coal-derived fuels have not been presented before. The examined fuels are obtained from the Synthetic Fuel Center for the United States Department of Energy, the South West Research Institute, Texas. The characteristics of the tested fuels are given in Table 1. In the present work, the laminar burning velocity of spherical flames in a cylindrical combustion chamber has been measured using the transient pressure measuring technique. The reliability of the present test set-up for providing accurate measurements of the laminar burning velocity have been extensively tested. The test conditions cover some reference fuels (e.g., propane and iso-octane) at different conditions. The laminar burning velocity of coal-derived fuels was determined over a wide range of operating conditions, equivalence ratio, initial pressure, and initial temperature. An analytical correlation was also derived to fit the laminar burning velocity measurements at the different operating conditions.

Experimental Set-Up
There are many existing measuring techniques to find the laminar burning velocity. However, many authors, e.g., James (1987 ), Andrews & Bradley (1972), Metghalchi & Keck (1982), and Rallis & Garforth (1980 ), have shown that the closed combustion vessel techniques that employ either high-speed Schlieren photography or transient pressure measurement techniques are both versatile and accurate. In the present work, the bomb method together with the transient pressure technique was adopted to determine the laminar burning velocity. The present test rig permits the control of the initial conditions of equivalence ratio, pressure, and temperature. Figure 1 illustrates a schematic of the test set-up, which comprises a combustion section, an air supply system, a fuel admission system, an ignition system, and instrumentation. The combustion section is an electrically heated double-walled steel cylindrical chamber with 250 mm inner diameter and 315 mm height. Both inner and outer cylinders have 6 mm thickness. Four equispaced high-speed bladed fans are used to insure complete mixing of the fresh incoming mixture. A piezo electric pressure transducer is mounted centrally to the bomb, to be close to the spherical flame, to measure the pressure-time, see Figure 1. The bomb section is also furnished by a circumferential vacuum and pressure gauge to measure the initial pressure of the mixture. An iron-constantan thermocouple was used to measure the initial temperature of the mixture.

Combustion Characteristics of Coal Derived Fuels Table 1

Characteristics of Coal-Derived Liquid Fuels
Coal case 5A Coal case 12 SRC-II med. CN SRC-II low CN SRC-II middle dist. EDS middle distillate

347

Fuel Composition, vol. % Kerosene petroleum Diesel petroleum Coal SRC-II HC kerosene Properties: Gravity, API Specific gravity Distillation , D-86, F IBP/5 % recovered 10/20 30/40 50/60 70/80 90/95 EP Recovery, % Residue Loss Viscosity, Cstat 40c Flash point, F Pour point, F Hydrocarbon type, vol. Olefins Saturates Aromatics Elemental analysis, wt% Carbon Hydrogen Oxygen Nitrogen Sulphur H/C atom ratio Heat of combustio n Gross, MJ/kg Net, MJ/kg Cetane number

50/50 blend D-2 and EDS

17.3 66.7 16.0 0

19.3 45.7 13.0 2.0

0 65.0 35.0 0

0 50.0 50.0 0

0 0 100.0 0

31.1 0.8702

32.8 0.8612

26.8 0.8939

23.3 0.9141

12.3 0.9840

21.4 0.9254

27.9 0.8877

378/432 453/472 487/499 512/528 546/576 626/667 690 98.5 1.5 0.0 3.08 176 21

326/416 434/455 468/480 491/504 521/547 603/652 683 98.5 1.5 0.0 2.61 166 10

346/409 424/446 464/476 489/502 522/543 577/610 638 98.5 1.2 0.3 2.83 176 0

329/387 420/438 455/470 485/500 517/538 570/600 626 99.0 1.0 0.0 2.95 176 -6

368/400 412/428 / 473/ / 553/577 613 99.0 1.0 0.0 3.68 176 54

412/424 431/440 449/461 473/489 509/534 573/612 649

382/419 430/440 454/469 485/503 524/551 586/600 613

2.53 199 54

2.48 168 18

1.4 63.7 34.9

1.3 64.4 34.3

49.5 1.8 48.7

57.8 1.4 40.7

91.2 0.7 8.1

6.5 18.3 75.2

0.0 36.9 63.1

86.47 12.38 0.15 Est 0.1 1.71

86.6 12.55 0.12 Est 0.08 1.73

86.03 86.02 11.47 10.86 0.39 Est 0.44 Est 0.33 0.43 1.59 1.50

86.15 8.64 0.82 0.26 1.19

88.5 10.9 0.032 0.028 0.01

87.31 12.04 0.16

44.441 41.886 34.8

45.32 42.73 42

45.56 42.89 41.1

44.08 41.64 31.4

42.87 40.56 25.4

41.84 40.01 16.2

43.701 41.388 23.5

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Figure 1. Schematic diagram of combustion bomb.

An automotive coil ignition system was employed to generate a spark between two steel electrodes located at the center of the bomb section. The electrodes extend from the left side to the right side of the chamber, one is fixed and the other is positioned with an accuracy of 0.01 mm using a micrometer. Spark gaps were adjusted by trial so that minimum ignition energies were obtained in order to minimize the effects of spark disturbances. The flame is started at the center of the cylindrical bomb so that it propagates radially to obtain a spherical flame. During experiments, the test section is evacuated to a complete vacuum and then charged with the required amount of the test fuel and the hot air to reach the required initial pressure of the test condition. The mixture was prepared as follows: the charged air was heated in a lagged air tank by a gas burner prior to mixing with the test fuel, Figure 1. The required amount of test fuel was injected first at the throat of the venturi using an accurate syringe. An electric heater, to prevent condensation of fuel on its inner surface, was used to externally heat the venturi. After injection, the hot air was charged to the cylinder. The air fuel ratio was adjusted by measuring the partial pressure for both the injected fuel and the hot air. The mixture passes through a controlled electric heater to adjust the desired temperature of the mixture. The bomb and all piping connections are externally heated so that the temperature inside the bomb and piping is always higher than the evaporation temperature for the fuels, which may be seen in Table 1. It should be noted here that the fuel is always admitted to the bomb under a vacuum, which will ensure that the fuel is always in vapor form. The gases were mixed using fans within the chamber and then allowed to become quiescent prior to ignition. After combustion was complete, the chamber was vented and purged with air to remove condensed water vapor prior to evacuating and refilling the chamber for the next test.

Instrumentation
The laminar burning velocity for all modes of spherical flame is defined as the velocity, relative to and normal to the flame front, with which unburned gas moves into the front and is transformed to product mixtures under laminar flow conditions (Lewis & Von Elbe, 1987). The present model has been designed and programmed to calculate the laminar burning velocity according to the pressure-time history and based on the thermodynamic analysis by Lewis & Von Elbe (1987 ) and Manton et al. (1953 ). The model is briefly presented in the next section. The transient pressure measurement technique has been adopted in the present work to determine the burning velocities. The measuring circuit, Figure 1, used to record the pressure-

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349

Figure 2. Pressure-time history for isooctane combustion .

time history, consists mainly of a piezoelectric pressure transducer, charge amplifier, storage oscilloscope connected to a plotter, and a personal computer. The computer facilitates data storage and processing, through the use of an A/D converter. The pressure data are sampled over a period of 130 ms by a personal computer using PCL-818 High Performance Analog to Digital converter to digitize the signal with a sampling frequency of 0.1 ms/point. Figure 2 shows a typical pressure-time history obtained by the present circuit.

Burning Velocity Thermodynamic Model

The model used to calculate the laminar burning velocity, SL, is the model suggested by Lewis and Von Elbe (1987 ) and used by many authors, e.g., Metghalchi & Keck (1982). The main end equation of the model is the following one, which calculates the laminar burning velocity from the pressure-time data:

SL 5
where

dri dt r i r b

pi p

1 c

(1)

ri 5 dr i dt 5 R 3 pe 2

R p2 pi

pi p2

pe 2

pi

13

(2)

pi pe 2 p pi
1c

pi
1 3

2 3

dp dt

(3)

rb 5

R 12

p i Tu p e 2 p Ti p e 2 p pi
c u2

(4)

Tu T i 5

(5)

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where SL = laminar burning velocity pe = pressure of the burned gases at thermodynamic equilibrium pi = initial pressure before combustion ri = radius of cylinder at any instant before combustion rb = radius of cylinder at any instant after combustion Ti = initial mixture temperature before combustion p = pressure at time t at which the burning velocity is calculated (in order of 1.1 Pi for this model) R = combustion bomb radius g = specific heat ratio t = time Tu = unburned gas temperature In this model, the indices i (for initial) and e (for end) refer to the gas before ignition and after combustion is complete. Indices u (for unburned gases) and b (for burned gases) refer to the progress of the wave from the center to the wall. Before ignition, the combustible gas mixture is at the pressure Pi and the temperature Ti. After ignition, the burned gas occupies a core surrounded by unburned gas that has been compressed isentropically to the temperature Tu. The pressure throughout the vessel is p. The main input to the burning velocity model is (p/pi ) and it is chosen not to exceed 1.1 to avoid the pressure rise effect (constant volume combustion). Within this range of pressure ratio, the combustion may be assumed to be at constant pressure. During this period, the flame radius is calculated and plotted with time and the flame circle volume divided by the bomb volume was found to be below 7%. The pressure gradient at the required value of (p/pi ) is calculated from the pressure-time record. The burning velocity is plotted with time during combustion and found to increase with time as the pressure increases during combustion. Then the maximum value of burning velocity is estimated directly from the results at p = 1.1 pi according to the Lewis and Von Elbe model. The present model has been tested using the results of the laminar burning velocity of a regular type of gaseous fuel, propane, at an initial pressure of 1 bar and an initial temperature of 300 K, which was measured by different measuring techniques, e.g., Palm-Leis & Strehlow (1959), Yamaoka & Tsuji (1984), Gray et al. (1952), Anderson & Fein (1949), and Faeth et al. (1993) (by photographing the flame), and found to fit well within the experimental error with a maximum burning velocity of 42 cm/s at a relative fuel air ratio slightly < 1 (see Figure 3). Other preliminary experiments were carried out with a regular type of liquid fuel such as isooctane. Figure 4 shows the influence of the equivalence ratio of isooctane air mixture on the laminar burning velocity at an initial temperature of 350 K. The influence of the mixture temperature on the laminar burning velocity at an equivalence ratio of 1 and initial pressure of 1 bar has also been carried out. A comparison of the burning velocity data obtained to the available isooctane data from the literature given in Keck (1981) and Gulder (1984) were found to agree with the present result.

Test Conditions
The laminar burning velocity for the coal-derived fuels is presented and discussed in the next sections. A wide range of different operating parameters affecting the laminar burning velocity has been studied. These operating parameters include:

Combustion Characteristics of Coal Derived Fuels

351

Figure 3. Laminar burning velocity of propane.

Figure 4. Effect of equivalence ratio on laminar burning velocity for isooctane.

1. The equivalence ratio (f ); it is varied from 0.8 to 1.3 with a step of 0.05. 2. The initial mixture temperature (Ti); it is varied from 300 to 400oC with a step of 25oC. (The minimum initial temperature is chosen to ensure that the admitted fuel is in fully vaporized form at the atmospheric pressure.)

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3. The initial mixture pressure ( Pi); it is varied from 0.5 to 1 bar with a step of 0.1 bar. 4. The fuel composition.

Preliminary experiments were carried out to ensure that the present combustion bomb with its aggregates and instrumentation are functioning properly and precisely. Ten identical experiments were carried out using isooctane at the same equivalence ratio, initial pressure, and initial temperature. The ten experiments were recorded to evaluate the laminar burning velocity and the standard deviation was found to be 0.028. The maximum error in measuring the amount of fuel by the syringe is 0.01 cc while the minimum amount of test fuel is 1 cc, which results in a maximum relative error of 1%. Error in measuring the initial pressure is 0.02 bar with minimum pressure of 0.5 bar and results in a relative error of 4%. Initial temperature measured with an error of 3 oC with a minimum value of 300oC results in 1% relative error. Equivalence ratio is measured with a relative error of 6%, as calculated based on fuel volume, pressure, and temperature. Laminar burning velocity is estimated from pressure gradient and the model equations shown above. This includes an error in pressure transducer reading, time measurement error of the A/D converter, error in calculating pressure gradient, errors in equivalence ratio, initial temperature, and initial and instantaneous pressures. The summation of errors gives an error of < 8% in the estimation of the laminar burning velocity. The isooctane results as a typical liquid fuel are presented for comparison with the present coal-derived liquid fuels. These data have been used to develop an analytical correlation to characterize the laminar burning velocity of each type of the used fuel at different operating conditions. The isooctane results and their analytical correlation showed good agreement with other investigators, which gives confidence in the present results and their correlations.

Results and Discussion

The results of laminar burning velocity of the tested fuels are presented and analyzed in the next sections. The results are compared with the data of isooctane fuel as a regular type of liquid fuel.

Effect of Equivalence Ratio

The effects of equivalence ratio on the laminar burning velocity of the different types of coalderived liquid fuels are shown in Figures 5 a, b, and c at an initial pressure and temperature of 1 bar and 573 K, respectively. On each graph, the laminar burning velocity of isooctane was superimposed for comparison. The figures show that the relation between the equivalence ratio and the laminar burning velocity tends to take the bell shape. The burning velocity starts with low values near a lower flammability limit in the lean mixture side and then increases as equivalence ratio increases until it reaches a maximum value at nearly the stoichiometric mixture. On the rich side, it begins to decrease again. The maximum burning velocity occurs at an equivalence ratio of 1, which is similar to the conventional hydrocarbon fuels. The lower values of the laminar burning velocity in the lean side could be explained due to the excess air, which dilutes the reactant mixture ahead of the flame front. On the other hand, laminar burning velocity decreases in the rich side due to incomplete combustion, which leads to a decrease in the flame temperature that tends to slow down the reaction rate. Comparison of data with those of isooctane shows that the laminar burning velocity of isooctane is always greater than that of any of the coal-derived fuels. This appears to be due to no aromatic content of isooctane, which is one of the iso-paraffin groups, which have a high pyrolysis and cracking rate. Most fuels having higher contents of aromatics are expected to

Combustion Characteristics of Coal Derived Fuels

Figure 5a

Figure 5b

Figure 5c

Figure 5. Effect of equivalence ratio on laminar burning velocity for coal-derived fuel.

353

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have low pyrolysis and cracking rates that leads to a slow down of the combustion process as has been shown by Bradley et al. (1991). The aromatic contents and the other characteristics of the coal-derived liquid fuel are given in Table 1. It has been shown by Blizard & Keck (1974 ) and others that the ignition delay period is a function of the laminar burning velocity. Higher burning velocity SL leads to smaller ignition delay such that

r 5

Le S u

(6)

where Le is the characteristic radius entrained by the flame front and Su is the laminar velocity for fuel air mixture. Radwan et al. (1991) have measured the ignition delay for the same type of coal-derived liquid fuels used here. It was found that the ignition delay runs in step with the Cetane number such that a higher Cetane number leads to a shorter delay. The coalderived fuel found with lowest burning velocity is SRC-II middle distillate and it has the lowest Cetane number, and Coal case 5A was found to have the highest burning velocity and highest Cetane number. So the higher the Cetane number the lower the ignition delay and the higher the burning velocity. Generally, it is found that the burning velocity is higher for the fuels, which have a lower ignition delay. It is also found that the laminar burning velocity is running in step with the heat of combustion of used fuels such that the highest burning velocity is found to be for Coal case 5A, which has a high heat of combustion. The SRC-II middle distillate has the lowest heat of combustion and also the lowest burning velocity, and all other fuels have in-between heat of combustion and in-between burning velocity. Also, all fuels used have lower heat of combustion compared to isooctane.

Effect of Initial Mixture Temperature

The effect of initial temperature (temperature of unburned mixture before ignition) on the laminar burning velocity of isooctane and different types of coal-derived liquid fuels is presented in Figures 6 a, b, and c at an equivalence ratio and initial pressure of 1 and 1 bar, respectively. Generally, the figures show that increasing the initial mixture temperature leads to an increase in the laminar burning velocity. This can be explained in the manner of the Arrhenius equation

SL ~

RR

(7)

where RR m K and K = Z.T z eE/RT where RR is the reaction rate, K is the specific reaction rate, T is the absolute temperature, R is the universal gas constant, E is activation energy, and Z and x are empirical constants. The equation showed that the higher the temperature, the higher the reaction and cracking rate, so these lead to a speed up of the combustion process.

Effect of Initial Mixture Pressure

The effect of initial mixture pressure (pressure of unburned mixture before ignition) on the laminar burning velocity of isooctane and the different types of coal-derived liquid fuels is depicted in Figures 7 a, b, and c. Measurements with varied initial mixture pressure were performed at a constant equivalence ratio and temperature of 1 and 573 K, respectively. The

Combustion Characteristics of Coal Derived Fuels

Figure 6a

Figure 6b

Figure 6c

Figure 6. Effect of initial temperature on laminar burning velocity for coal-derived fuel.

355

356 M. Radwan et al.

Figure 7a

Figure 7b

Figure 7c

Figure 7. Effect of initial pressure on laminar burning velocity for coal-derived fuel.

Combustion Characteristics of Coal Derived Fuels

357

figures show that as the initial pressure increases, the laminar burning velocity tends to decrease. Generally, the burning velocity of the hydrocarbon-air mixtures can be expressed as

SL ~

Pn i

(8)

where Pi is the initial mixture pressure and n is small in magnitude ( 0.5) and is negative (Goldenberg & Pelevin, 1958). It has been shown recently that in most hydrocarbon air flames, the diffusion of hydrogen atoms into the preheat zone is the primary triggering mechanism for the chain-branching reactions which support flame propagation. It is well known that the hydrogen atom undergoes two primary competing reactions during any hydrocarbon oxidation process. These are the chain-branching reaction

H 1
and the recombination reaction

O2

OH 1

(9)

H 1

O2 1

H O2 1

(10)

Furthermore, the chain-branching reaction has a first-order pressure sensitivity (because it is a second-order reaction) and has a large activation energy, which means that its rate increases very rapidly with the increased temperature. On the other hand, the recombination reaction has a second-order pressure sensitivity (because it is a third-order reaction) and has essentially no temperature sensitivity at all. In the preheat zone of the flame, hydrogen atoms diffuse towards the cold gas and at the same time react. In the higher temperature regions of the flame, the chain branching reaction dominates and recombination is slow. However, as one travels toward the incoming gas, the temperature drops and at some point the two reactions become competitive. In the colder regions, the recombination reaction dominates and destroys hydrogen atoms. If the pressure level at which the flame is burning increases, the rate of the recombination reaction increases relative to the chain branching reactions and therefore tends to lower the burning velocity. In other words, we should expect that for low burning velocity flames, the competition between recombination and chain branching reactions in the preheat zone is important.

Analytical Correlation
The analytical correlation is necessary, especially in CFD simulations, and therefore this section will express the present data in a form of an analytical correlation. The correlation of laminar burning velocities SL will be expressed as a function of (f , Ti, Pi ). Figures 5, 6, and 7 propose the correlation to be in the following form:

SL 5

A1 u u

(11)

where the positive sign applies for the region of lean fuel-air mixtures, while the negative sign applies for the region of rich fuel-air mixtures.

SL 5

A 2 T To

(12)

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M. Radwan et al. SL 5 A3 P P o
2

(13)

where A1, A2, A3, b, c, and d are constants and they mainly depend on the type of fuel. This relation form agreed with most of previous investigators (Goldenberg & Pelevin, 1958). From the previous equations the present analytical formula can be produced describing the overall dependence of the laminar burning velocity on the temperature, pressure, and equivalence ratio. This can be expressed in the form

SL 5

S LoA u

u
o

T To

P Po

(14)

where subscript o refers to the reference conditions for f , T, P of 1, 573 K and 1 bar, respectively, and SLo refers to the value of the burning velocity at this reference state. A, b, m, and n are constants that depend on the fuel characteristics. To calculate the values of these constants, the experimental data were fed into a regression computer program prepared for this purpose. It utilizes a multivariable linear regression technique. It may be noted that all the calculations have been performed under the following range of validity: T = 573 K to 673 K, P = 0.5 to 1.0 bar. The resulting values of different constants in the above correlation for various operating parameters for isooctane are listed in Table 2. Values of the burning velocity calculated from the obtained correlation were compared with the experimental data as presented in Figure 8a for isooctane. From Table 2, it may be seen that the experimental data are scattered around the ideal line with a maximum deviation (difference between measured value and correlated value) of 28% for isooctane when the range 0.8 f 1.3 is used. However, when the correlation is divided into two ranges, a maximum deviation of 4.5% is observed in the lean mixture range f 1 and 7.5% in the rich mixture range f 1. So in the present correlation the equivalence ratio range 0.8 f 1.3 is divided into two subranges, a lean mixture range where f 1 and a rich mixture range where f 1, see Table 2 and Figure 8a. The figure indicated that the above correlation predicts the data with higher accuracy for the range f 1 and f 1 individually. The present pressure and temperature exponents for isooctane are in close agreement with those obtained by Gulder (1984), where both were obtained for combustion in constant volume bomb and related to the pressure range of combustion ( p =1.1pi). Since the burning velocity data for the used coal-derived liquid fuels has the same trend of the burning velocity profile for isooctane fuel, so the present correlation is used to characterize the coal-derived fuels data. The calculated constants for various operating conditions for each fuel are listed in Table 3 for the lean mixture side ( f 1) and Table 4 for the rich mixture side ( f 1).

Table 2
Values of Constants for the Iso-octane Laminar Burning Velocity Correlation

f
0.8 to 1.3 1 1

A
0.8523 0.9990 1.0309

b
0.2535 1.5049 1.6502

m
3.0720 1.6483 1.6483

N
0.6233 0.2310 0.2310

Maximum deviation 28% 4.5% 7.5%

Combustion Characteristics of Coal Derived Fuels

359

Figure 8a

Figure 8b

Figure 8. Correlated versus measured laminar burning velocity for isooctane and coal-derived fuel.

Table 3
Values of Constants for the Laminar Burning Velocity Correlation

f 1
Type of fuel Coal case 5A Coal case 12A SRC-II med CN SRC-II low CN SRC middle dist. EDS EDS +50 % D-2 A 1.0109 1.0075 0.9993 0.9993 0.9964 0.9912 1.0046 b 1.9743 1.9697 1.9322 1.9455 2.0326 1.96266 2.1896 m 2.9101 2.9660 2.9600 2.8523 2.9546 3.2748 3.4273 n 0.4457 0.4644 0.5331 0.5508 0.4253 0.5607 0.6607

Table 4
Values of Constants for the Laminar Burning Velocity Correlation

f
Type of fuel Coal case 5A Coal case 12A SRC-II med CN SRC-II low CN SRC middle dist. EDS EDS +50 % D-2 A 1.0456 1.0449 1.0300 1.0301 0.9921 1.0328 1.0575 b 2.0347 2.2076 2.0134 2.0134 2.0134 1.9298 0.2513

1 m 2.6650 2.7011 2.7427 2.7427 2.7427 2.9681 3.0445 n 0.3857 0.3996 0.4799 0.4799 0.4799 0.4856 0.5669

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M. Radwan et al. Table 5

Values of Laminar Burning Velocity at Reference Conditions

Fuel Isooctane Coal case 5A Coal case 12A SRC-II middle dist. Med cetane blend

SLo (cm/s)
123 94 89 82

Fuel SRC-II middle dist. low cetane blend SRC-II middle dist. EDS coal 50/50 blend EDS and D-2

SLo (cm/s)
77.3 64.6 85.5 77

Values of SLo for isooctane and coal-derived fuels are tabulated in Table 5. The obtained correlation was compared with the experimental data as presented in Figure 8b for coalderived liquid fuels. It may be seen that the experimental data are scattered around the ideal line with a maximum deviation of 4%. The figure indicated that the obtained correlation is able to well predict the laminar burning velocity data.

Conclusions
From the present study conducted on coal-derived diesel engine liquid fuels, and by comparison with the isooctane fuel results, the following conclusions may be drawn: 1. The combustion bomb measuring technique used in the present work proved to be suitable for laminar burning velocity measurements. 2. The maximum value for the laminar burning velocity occurs at the stoichiometric mixture. Richer or leaner mixtures result in a lower laminar burning velocity. 3. Coal-derived fuels, in general, exhibited a lower burning velocity in comparison with isooctane. 4. The lower laminar burning velocity of coal-derived fuel may primarily be attributed to its chemical characteristics. 5. Higher initial temperature leads to higher laminar burning velocity. 6. Higher initial pressure leads to lower laminar burning velocity. Thus any design or operational factor that affects the initial pressure and/or temperature will affect the laminar burning velocity. 7. Coal-derived fuels with lower heat of combustion have lower laminar burning velocity and vice versa. 8. An analytical correlation was developed to predict the laminar burning velocity of coal-derived fuel, which can be expressed in the form

SL 5

S LoA u

u
o

T To

P Po

where A, b, m, and n are constants that mainly depend on the type of fuel.

Combustion Characteristics of Coal Derived Fuels

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References
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