Research Scholars
Evgeny Mintusov, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Anna Serdyuchenko, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Igor Adamovich, Faculty advisor
I. Choi, Co-Researcher
A. Bao, Co-Researcher
W.R. Lempert, Co-Researcher
Biographies
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Anna Serdyuchenko was born May 3rd 1977 in Moscow, Russia. She finished Moscow State University with the specialty physicist and master thesis devoted to the application of the CARS for electric field measurements (2000). She continued her education as a PhD student at the Lebedev Physical Institute, Russian Academy of Science (2000-2001) and later in Ruhr-University of Bochum, Germany (2001-2006, PhD degree for the investigation of the RF methane discharge). She worked as a Post Doctoral Scholar at the University of Reno, Nevada (2006-2007). Now she is researcher at OSU, Department of Mechanical Engineering. Her scientific interests comprise optical diagnostics of gases and plasmas.
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Evgeny Mintusov was born February 9th 1981 in Moscow, Russia. He graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 2003 with the master thesis, prepared in the Physics of Non-equilibrium Systems Laboratory, Moscow, Russia. He continued his research and education in the same laboratory as a PhD student from 2003 -2006. He obtained his PhD degree for study on the thermally non-equilibrium control of flames by means of gas discharge plasma. Since May 2007, he has been working as a Post Doctoral Scholar at OSU, Department of Mechanical Engineering, specializing in non-equilibrium discharges and kinetics for the aims of plasma assisted combustion.
About the Research
The task of plasma-assisted ignition and oxidation is of special significance because of its numerous applications. The main idea of the related studies is the using of different plasmas for effective ignition control and for flame stabilization, i.e., in SCRAMJET engines, NOx amount reduction, jet engine restarting at high altitude, etc. Two main ways are known for achievement of such effects nowadays. The first one is the ignition of fuel-air mixture by thermal overheating inside the discharge region due to the high current density. The other way is the production of active species (atoms and radicals) inside the non-equilibrium plasma resulting in active plasmochemical transformations of fuel-air mixture. Obviously, effective ignition and combustion control demands an understanding of kinetic processes in plasma and mechanisms of its influence on a fuel-air mixture.
The aim of the present study is to distinguish the role of active species production in the discharge from thermal heating. The experimental setup consists of a gas mixture supply system, a quartz discharge cell with brass electrodes, and a high-voltage nanosecond pulses generator. Optical diagnostics applied are: Fourier-transform infrared spectrometer and UV monochromator with CCD-camera.
We observe significant increase of gas temperature in the discharge when using the fuel-air mixture instead of air. We explain this fact by the production of main active species (O atoms) in the discharge due to the quenching of electronically excited nitrogen on oxygen molecules. These atoms induce chain-branching reactions followed by temperature growth due to additional energy release from fuel oxidation.
Therefore, production of active species by nonequlibrium plasma increases the plasmochemical reactions rates and allows the ignition of mixtures at temperatures significantly lower than fuel autoignition temperature.
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