High-Pressure Combustion Research

A unique Shock Tube Laboratory is available to simulate high-temperature, high-pressure combustion processes such as occur in diesel engine and gas turbine applications using advanced fuels. Two stainless steel shock tubes are used to characterize the high-temperature combustion properties of premixed and liquid fuels under homogeneous gas-phase conditions. This capability is maintained by the Environmental Engineering group.

Typical analyses conducted in our shock tube laboratory include ignition delays and chemical characterization of the post-combustion mixture. The bulk properties of the collected effluent are typically analyzed by reflectance spectroscopy and thermal desorption carbon analysis. Detailed chemical analysis of the combustion products is conducted using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), high-resolution GC-FID-MS (gas chromatography-flame ionization detection-mass spectrometry), or multidimensional GC-MS, in our Thermal Decomposition and Analytical Instrumentation laboratories.