Volume 65

Performance Comparison of Plasma-Assisted Ignition Devices in Ammonia Combustion Deyan Kong, Qingwu Zhao, Jie Tian, Yong Cheng, Guohong Tian

Abstract

This paper presents a comparative study in plasma-assisted ammonia combustion (PAAC) characteristics ignited by different device configurations with same discharge parameters. Tested discharge devices include the nanosecond pin-to-pin discharge, the nanosecond surface dielectric barrier discharge with positive and negative electrode arrangements, which were denoted as nPTPD, nSDBD(+), and nSDBD(–), respectively. The applied discharge devices were connected to a pulse generator and separately mounted into a constant volume chamber test rig. The supplied energy to discharge devices, high frame video morphology, and pressure-derived combustion performance indicators were obtained and analysed to conduct the PAAC performance comparison. The results show nPTPD performs less supplied energy but faster and stronger PAAC than nSDBD. nSDBD(+) conducts higher supplied energy, faster but weaker PAAC than nSDBD(–).

Keywords Ammonia, plasma-assisted combustion, nanosecond pin-to-pin discharge, nanosecond surface dielectric barrier discharge