Advanced modes of combustion that are controlled by plasma discharges could become key components of the circular carbon economy.

Humans have a very long history with fire and, over the past two centuries, with more controlled forms of combustion. Our evolving mastery of combustion is marked by many technological leaps, but now, the overarching aim of the research field is to find ways to mitigate combustion’s main drawback—the carbon dioxide it generates.

Soldiers marching lockstep across a bridge can cause the structure to collapse if the rhythm of their step matches the bridge’s natural vibration frequency. Combustion engineers must consider a similar effect when designing the gas turbines used in electricity generation and aero-engines.

Just as soldiers’ feet can cause bridge sway to reach the point of destruction, a gas turbine can be damaged, or even explode, if heat and pressure fluctuations produced by the flame couple with the acoustics of the combustion chamber. At a lesser degree, this‘thermoacoustic instability hampers efficient combustion, increasing noise and pollution emissions.

The Clean Combustion Research Center and the Boeing Company have collaborated on research projects since May 2015. The context of these projects is aircraft fire and explosion hazards; and their main objective is to provide a better understanding of the mechanisms involved during these dramatics events. Specifically, in two ongoing projects “Characterization of flame quenching processes in combustion arresters” and “Radio frequency ignition hazard”, groups headed by William Roberts and Deanna Lacoste will investigate how new materials and new sensors can change ignition and fire propagation threats in aircraft.

The Clean Combustion Research Center was honored to have Prof. Jonas Moeck working in our labs, in collaboration with Prof. Deanna Lacoste and her team of researchers on thermo-acoustic instabilities and flame dynamics this month.

Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Deanna Lacoste was appointed to her position at KAUST in November of 2016 from École Centrale Paris (France), where she had worked previously for 12 years. Her research focuses on plasma-assisted combustion and flame dynamics, with special emphasis on control of thermoacoustic instabilities by non-equilibrium plasma discharges. Lacoste is also interested in detonation and development of optical diagnostics for combustion and electrical discharges.