Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Flame Temperature Imaging Of A Low Nox Burner Via Laser Rayleigh Scattering, Nicholas A. Smith

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Federal and global legislation are requiring increasingly stringent emission regulation on household appliances and in particular water heater burners. Emissions like NOx (NO and NO2) are a growing concern due to their adverse health effects and contribution to tropospheric ozone, acid rain, and smog formation. As NOx is more closely controlled, appliance manufacturers are developing low emission burners for use in water heaters.

Flame temperature is strongly correlated to NOx production. Hence, characterizing flame temperatures in new burners is a key part of improving upon burners used today and the development of future burners. Temperature measurements applied to a new, …

An Investigation Of The Effects Of Surfactant Monolayers On Natural Convection Heat Transfer And Evaporative Mass Transfer, Steven Bower

All Dissertations

Laboratory experiments are presented that reveal the effects of surfactant monolayers on natural convection heat transfer and evaporation from bodies of water; more specifically, the situation is studied where the bulk temperature of the water is greater than the temperature of the air so that evaporative convection occurs. Four sets of experiments were performed in a laboratory environment on insulated tanks of different widths and depths for the following surface conditions: 1) clean surface, 2) oleyl alcohol covered surface, 3) stearic acid covered surface, and 4) stearyl alcohol covered surface. An infrared (IR) camera was used to verify the existence …

Rayleigh Test Apparatus Design Report, Josef Duller, Owen Raybould, James Nicovich

Mechanical Engineering

The Rayleigh Test Apparatus is a device that will be used to test the thermodynamic properties of Nitrous Oxide to assess the feasibility of using this fluid as a coolant for a hybrid rocket aero spike. The aero spike is intended to redirect the propulsion flow as it leaves the engine to create a more efficient flow pattern at low and high altitudes. However, there are issues of overheating which leads to melting of the aero spike. For this reason, the use of nitrous oxide (N2O) as a coolant is being explored. N20 is being considered because it is already …