Measurements of burning velocities of dimethyl ether and air premixed flames at elevated pressures

Laminar burning velocities of dimethyl ether (DME) and air premixed flames at elevated pressures up to 10 atm were measured by using a newly developed pressure-release type spherical bomb. The measurement system was validated using laminar burning velocities of methane-air flames. A comparison with the previous experimental data shows an excellent agreement and demonstrates the accuracy and reliability of the present experimental system. The measured flame speeds of DME-air flames were compared with the previous experimental data and the predictions using the full and reduced mechanisms. At atmospheric pressure, the measured laminar burning velocities of DME-air flames are in reasonable agreement with the previous data from spherical bomb method, but are much lower than both predictions and the experimental data of the PIV based counterflow flame measurements. The laminar burning velocities of DME-air flames at 2, 6, and 10 atm were also measured. It was found that flame speed decreases considerably with the increase of pressure. Moreover, the measured flame speeds are also lower than the predictions at high pressures. In addition, experiments showed that at high pressures the rich DME-air flames are strongly affected by the hydrodynamic and thermal-diffusive instabilities. Markstein lengths and the overall reaction order at different equivalence ratios were extracted from the flame speed data at elevated pressures. Sensitivity analysis showed that reactions involving methyl and formyl radicals play an important role in DME-air flame propagation and suggested that systematic modification of the reactions rates associated with methyl and formyl formations are necessary to reduce the discrepancies between predictions and measurements. (c) 2004 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.