96/02997 - Relationships among nitric oxide, temperature, and mixture fraction in hydrogen jet flames

Simultaneous point measurements of NO, the major species, mixture fraction, temperature, and OH are obtained in nonpremixed turbulent hydrogen jet flames, using the combination of spontaneous Raman scattering, Rayleigh scattering, and laser-induced fluorescence. Results are presented for an undiluted hydrogen flame at Reynolds number 10,000 and for flames with 20% and 40% helium dilution. Radial dependence of conditional mean NO mole fraction (conditional on mixture fraction) is shown to be small at upstream locations and negligible at the downstream locations that contribute most to the overall NO emission. Near the flame base, where NO formation rates and concentrations are sensitive to local strain, fluctuations of the NO mole fraction conditional on mixture fraction are 40 to 50% of conditional mean. When average NO levels are calculated conditional on both mixture fraction and temperature, a significant temperature dependence is found. However, this double conditioning does not substantially reduce NO fluctuations relative to the mean values. These results combined with previously reported data on the present hydrogen flames provide a detailed basis for evaluation and refinement of turbulent combustion models for thermal NO{sub x} formation in jet flames.