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Flame Extinguishment Experiment-2 (FLEX-2)


FLEX-2 Status

8th US National Combustion Meeting, May 19-22, 2013, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Papers:

• “Isolated alkane droplet combustion in microgravity: ”Cool Flames” T. Farouk and F.L. Dryer (Paper#1H17)

• Effect of varying the initial diameter of n-octane and n-decane droplets over a wide range on the spherically symmetric combustion process: International Space Station Experiments,” Y.C. Liu, K.N. Trenou, J. Rah, M.C. Hicks, C.T. Avedisian (paper# 2G11)

• “Methanol droplet combustion in oxygen-inert environments in microgravity,” V. Nayagam, D.L. Dietrich, M.C. Hicks, F.A. Williams (paper#2G10)

• “Computational modeling of the effects of support fibers on evaporation of fiber-supported droplets in reduced gravity,” N. Ghatta and B.D. Shaw (Paper#070HE-0020).




      Bi-component fuel droplet  
    Image of Bi-component fuel droplet  
    Burning droplet subjected to convective flow  
    Image of burning droplet subjected to convective flow  
    burning droplet  
    Color image of a burning droplet  
    FLEX Chamber Insert Assembly Apparatus  
    FLEX Chamber Insert Assembly Apparatus  
    Flight Unit Avionics Package installed on Ground Unit Optics Bench Simulator and Flight Unit Chamber Insert Assembly.  
    Flight Unit Avionics Package installed on Ground Unit Optics Bench Simulator and Flight Unit Chamber Insert Assembly.  
    Flight Unit Chamber Insert Assembly  
    Flight Unit Chamber Insert Assembly  
    Flight Unit Avionics Package installed on Ground Unit Optics Bench Simulator  
    Flight Unit Avionics Package installed on Ground Unit Optics Bench Simulator  
    Flight Unit Avionics Package installed on Ground Unit Optics Bench Simulator  
    Flight Unit Avionics Package installed on Ground Unit Optics Bench Simulator  
       
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MDCA/FLEX Overview Chart		  
   
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FLEX-2 Overview Chart		  
   
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MDCA-FLEX Short Overview Presentation 		 
   

January 2013

  Astronaut - CIR  
 
  Astronauts  
     
     
November 2012  
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January 2011: FLEX-2 hardware is being launched to the International Space Station on various launch carriers.  The HTV-2 launch delivered fuel deployment needles and needle holders.  The upcoming STS-133/ULF-5 launch will deliver fiber arms, check gas bottles, argon/helium bottles, igniter tip holders, a Fuel/Oxidizer Management Assembly (FOMA) control unit, and a High Bit Depth/Multispectral (HiBMS) imaging package.  The FLEX-2 experiments will likely begin operation around July 2011.


Description

The second in the FLEX series of experiments, the FLEX-2 investigation uses fuels and environmental conditions that mimic real combustor conditions.  The investigation will extend and advance the research into droplet combustion, studying the influence of sub-buoyant convective flows on combustion rates, determining the influence of a second burning droplet on a linear array, and beginning the study of practical fuels by burning bi-component and surrogate fuels.  As the research extends into increasingly complex fuels, FLEX-2 data can help verify models of real fuels used in transportation and industry.  Results of the FLEX-2 experimental data will help to develop verified detailed and reduced-order models of droplet combustion, particularly with flow-field and droplet-droplet interactions.


Objective

Extend the results of FLEX-1 to fuels and environmental conditions that mimic real combustor conditions

  • Investigate bi-component fuels – real fuels are multi-componen
  • Examine the influence of sub-buoyant convective flows – real combustors involve gas/droplet relative motion
  • Study practical fuels and fuel surrogates
  • Study binary droplet arrays – real combustors have droplet-droplet interactions
  • Develop and validate detailed and reduced-order transport, chemistry and soot models that are the foundation for real engine simulations


    • Relevance/Impact

    The combustion of liquid fuels is the overwhelming energy source in the transportation sector

  • Design future combustors to minimize carbon footprint (maximize fuel efficiency) and minimize pollutant emissions
  • The development of surrogates (mixtures of pure fuels that simulate the behavior of real fuels) will allow quantitative evaluation of the performance of future fuels (e.g., oil shales, biofuels, etc.) in combustors
  • Prior droplet results helped validate jet engine models by engine manufacturers


    • Development Approach

  • Flight design leverages off previous flight design heritage (MDCA/FLEX)
  • Multi-user, re-usable apparatus minimizing up-mass/volume, costs, and crew involvement

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    Project Management:


    Contacts at NASA Glenn Research Center

    Project Manager: John M. Hickman, NASA GRC
    john.m.hickman@nasa.gov
    216-977-7105

    Project Scientist: Dr. Daniel Dietrich, NASA GRC
    daniel.l.dietrich@nasa.gov
    216-433-8759

    Principal Investigator Team: Prof. Forman Williams, UCSD (lead)
    faw@ames.ucsd.edu

    Prof. Frederick Dryer, Princeton
    fldryer@princeton.edu

    Prof. Mun Choi, Drexel University
    choi@drexel.edu

    Prof. Benjamin Shaw, UC-Davis
    bdshaw@ucdavis.edu
    Flame Extinguishment Experiment-2 (FLEX-2) News

     

     

     

     
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