LAMINAR FLAME STRUCTURE AND BURNING VELOCITIES OF PREMIXED METHANOL AIR

Burning velocities at an initial temperature of 323 K, over a range of equivalence ratios from 0.7 to 1.3 and a range of pressures from 0.089 to 0.25 atm, have been measured for flat, premixed, laminar, methanolair adiabatic flames on a burner. Spatial profiles of gas temperature, velocity, and concentrations of CH3OH, O2, H2, CO2, and CO also were measured at equivalence ratios of 0.85, 1.0, and 1.25 at 0.089 atm and an initial temperature of 323 K. These measurements are compared with the predictions of two chemical kinetic schemes. The first, Scheme A, involves the breakdown of CH3OH to CH2OH alone. The second, Scheme B, involves production of CH2OH and CH3O. Both models also yield values of laminar burning velocity over the wider pressure range of 0.1 to 10 atm and at equivalence ratios of 0.85, 1.0, and 1.25. Comparisons of these values with those of experiment shows Scheme B to be superior and this extends also to the spatial concentration profiles of CO and CO2 measured on the burner. © 1991.