Abstract
To introduce an alternative fuel to a combustion system or develop a more sophisticated system used in aeronautical and other engineering fields, the combustion characteristics of the fuel must be fully understood. Therefore, some effects of radical species, which are involved and play a significant role in the combustion process, must be understood to arrive at a new technology, such as for super-lean combustion or low-quality fuel utilization, which in turn would lead to solutions for recent energy issues. We have developed an original experimental apparatus which can selectively supply radicals appearing in the combustion process by making use of a plasma torch and can be used to understand their effectiveness. A series of trial experiments conducted with di-methyl ether as the test fuel demonstrate that the experimental method proposed is valid and practical, and can be used to evaluate the role of radical species for the ignition/combustion of various gaseous fuels.
