Experimental Investigation of Lean Methane-Air Laminar Premixed Flames at Engine-Relevant Temperatures

Lean premixed combustion is one of the most effective methods to constrain pollutant emissions for modern industrial gas turbines. An experimental study was performed on its propagation speed and internal structure at engine-relevant temperatures. A Bunsen burner was employed for the measurement with an optical schlieren system. The results show that the increase of preheating temperature dramatically accelerates the propagation of methane flames. The numerical results predicted by GRI-Mech 3.0, FFCM-1, and USC Mech II were also compared. The GRI-Mech 3.0 seems to overestimate the laminar flame speed at high operating conditions, while FFCM-1 underestimates the laminar flame speed compared to the present experimental data. The prediction by FFCM-1 shows good agreement with the overall existing data. The USC Mech II seems to overestimate the laminar flame speed at fuel-lean conditions while shows good agreement with present experimental measurements at stoichiometric conditions when the inlet temperature increases. It is also indicated that the flame is thinned at high-temperature conditions and the importance of CO production to the propagation speed increases. Finally, based on the experimental data, an empirical correlation of the laminar flame speed was developed in the range of T _u = 300-800 K and ϕ = 0.7-1.0, the maximum deviation of which was less than 8%. The results of this study may contribute to the optimization of advanced gas turbine combustors.