University of Iowa
The Combustion and Fuel Cell Laboratory at The University of Iowa conducts fundamental research in the areas of combustion and propulsion engineering, and fuel cell and gas separation. The mission is to advance the state of knowledge, to disseminate the results of research, and to educate graduate and undergraduate students in the subject areas.
There are five test rigs in the laboratory:
- One test rig of Confined Coaxial Jet Flame (0.15-m in diameter and 0.6-m in length), and two test rigs on loan from NASA: Enclosed Laminar Flame (ELF) and Microgravity Analysis for Gas-Injected Combustion (MAGIC)
- Low Pressure Test Chamber (0.76-m in diameter and 0.91-m in length)
- Supercritical Spray Chamber (0.1-m in diameter and 0.4-m in length for pressure up to 68-bar)
- Supercritical Fluid Test Channel (0.015x0.015x0.15-m for pressure up to 68-bar)
- Single-Cell Fuel Cell (in-house design and fabricated modular fuel cell test rig)
The measurement capabilities include probe measurements of temperature (thermocouple and thin filaments) and species concentration (GC), laser Doppler anemometry of velocity (single-channel), flow imaging and planar laser induced fluorescence for qualitative and quantitative imaging (a pulsed Nd:YAG laser in conjunction with a dye laser, a gated ICCD, low cost He-Ne and Ar-ion lasers; 0.125-m and 0.6-m monochromator/spectrometer), electronic loader and flow rate controlled for fuel cell experimentation.
Computer simulation capabilities include several in-house developed CFD codes, as well as in-house subroutines for use with two commercial CFD codes, for calculation of diffusion and premixed flames and for fuel cells. |