UC Irvine Combustion Laboratory Presents at the
DOE's University Turbine Systems Research Program

May 5, 2016



Professor Vincent McDonell presented research sponsored by the Department of Energy's University Turbine Systems Research program at their annual review meeting, held in late 2015 at Georgia Tech University. An overview of work completed towards predicting the onset of flashback for turbulent jet flames at elevated temperature and pressure conditions was provided. Extensive experimental data have been obtained for natural gas and hydrogen containing fuels at pressures up to 9 atm and mixture temperatures up to 500 degrees Kelvin. UCICL's Alireza Kalantari, Ph.D. candidate, and Dr. Elliot Sullivan-Lewis, Associate Manager, have been conducting the experiments in parallel with extensive non-dimensional group analysis that has been found to collapse the data into a general expression for flashback propensity as a function of the conditions studied. The expression can help designers develop criteria for a pre-mixer design that avoids flashback under conditions found in practical gas turbine systems.