Fuel physical property determination method and fuel physical property determination device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9322818-B2
Application number	US-201214003303-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 7, 2012
Priority date	Mar 7, 2011
Publication date	Apr 26, 2016
Grant date	Apr 26, 2016

Abstract

The fuel physical property determination method relating to the first aspect of the present invention includes: a test fuel flame-imaging step of obtaining imaging data by imaging flames formed by supplying a pre-mixed gas containing a test fuel and an oxidant agent, to a test tube in which an internal flow path thereof has a diameter set smaller than a flame-quenching distance at normal temperature; and a physical property determination step of determining a physical property of the test fuel by comparing the imaging data obtained in the test fuel flame-imaging step and imaging data obtained by imaging flames ignited by supplying a pre-mixed gas containing a standard-mixed fuel and an oxidant agent, to the test tube, the standard-mixed fuel having a known physical property.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A fuel physical property determination method to determine a physical property of a test fuel, the method comprising:
a test fuel flame-imaging step of obtaining first imaging data by imaging flames formed inside a test tube by supplying a pre-mixed gas containing the test fuel and an oxidant agent, to the test tube which includes an internal flow path and in which a temperature distribution is formed; and
a physical property determination step of determining the physical property of the test fuel by comparing the first imaging data obtained in the test fuel flame-imaging step and second imaging data obtained by imaging flames ignited inside the test tube by supplying a pre-mixed gas containing a standard-mixed fuel and an oxidant agent, to the test tube, the standard-mixed fuel having a known physical property,
wherein the internal flow path of the test tube has a diameter set to be smaller than a flame-quenching distance at normal temperature, and
in the physical property determination step, data denoting a generation position of the flames in the first imaging data and data denoting a generation position of the flames in the second imaging data are used when the first and second imaging data are compared.

2. The fuel physical property determination method according to claim 1 , further comprising
a standard-mixed fuel flame-imaging step of obtaining the second imaging data by imaging flames formed inside the test tube by supplying the pre-mixed gas containing the standard-mixed fuel and the oxidant agent, to the test tube.

3. The fuel physical property determination method according to claim 2 ,
wherein the standard-mixed fuel flame-imaging step is performed while changing a composition of the standard-mixed fuel, until the first imaging data obtained in the test fuel flame-imaging step and the second imaging data obtained in the standard-mixed fuel flame-imaging step correspond to each other, and
in the physical property determination step, the physical property of the test fuel is determined to be the physical property of the standard-mixed fuel based on the second imaging data corresponding to the first imaging data.

4. The fuel physical property determination method according to claim 2 ,
wherein the pre-mixed gas containing the test fuel and the oxidant agent is supplied to one of disposed test tubes, thereby forming flames,
the pre-mixed gas containing the standard-mixed fuel and the oxidant agent is supplied to the other of the test tubes, thereby forming flames, and
the first and second imaging data are obtained by imaging a plurality of flames at the same time.

5. The fuel physical property determination method according to claim 4 , further comprising
a temperature distribution-forming step of forming the same temperature distribution in the test tubes,
wherein the first and second imaging data of the plurality of flames are obtained in a condition in which temperature distributions in the test tubes are the same in a longitudinal direction thereof.

6. The fuel physical property determination method according to claim 1 ,
wherein both of an area in which cold flames are expected to be generated and an area in which hot flames are expected to be generated are imaged.

7. The fuel physical property determination method according to claim 1 ,
wherein the physical property is an octane number.

8. The fuel physical property determination method according to claim 1 ,
wherein the physical property is a cetane number.

9. The fuel physical property determination method according to claim 1 ,
wherein the test tube has the temperature distribution in which the temperature of the test tube gradually increases in a longitudinal direction of the test tube.

10. A fuel physical property determination device to determine a physical property of a test fuel, the device comprising:
a test tube including an internal flow path;
a temperature distribution-forming device to form a temperature distribution in the test tube;
a supply device to supply a first pre-mixed gas containing the test fuel and an oxidant agent, to the test tube;
an imaging device to obtain first imaging data by imaging flames formed inside the test tube by supplying the first pre-mixed gas to the test tube; and
a processing storage device to determine the physical property of the test fuel by comparing the first imaging data obtained by the imaging device and second imaging data obtained by imaging flames formed inside the test tube by supplying a second pre-mixed gas containing a standard-mixed fuel and an oxidant agent, to the test tube, the standard-mixed fuel having a known physical property,
wherein the internal flow path of the test tube has a diameter set to be smaller than a flame-quenching distance at normal temperature, and
the processing storage device is configured to use data denoting a generation position of the flames in the first imaging data and data denoting a generation position of the flames in the second imaging data when the first and second imaging data are compared.

11. The fuel physical property determination device according to claim 10 ,
wherein the imaging device is configured to obtain the second imaging data by imaging flames formed inside the test tube by supplying the second pre-mixed gas containing the standard-mixed fuel and the oxidant agent, to the test tube.

12. The fuel physical property determination device according to claim 11 ,
wherein the imaging device is configured to repeatedly obtain the first and second imaging data, until the first and second imaging data correspond to each other, and
the processing storage device is configured to change a composition of the standard-mixed fuel, and to determine that the physical property of the test fuel is the physical property of the standard-mixed fuel when the first and second imaging data correspond to each other.

13. The fuel physical property determination device according to claim 11 ,
wherein the test tube includes a first test tube and a second test tube, and
the imaging device is configured to obtain the first imaging data by imaging flames formed by supplying the first pre-mixed gas to the first test tube, and to obtain the second imaging data by imaging flames formed by supplying the second pre-mixed gas to the second test tube.

14. The fuel physical property determination device according to claim 13 ,
wherein the temperature distribution-forming device is disposed so that temperature distributions in the first and second test tubes are the same in a longitudinal direction thereof.

15. The fuel physical property determination device according to claim 10 ,
wherein the imaging device is configured to obtain imaging data so as to include both of a first area in which cold flames are expected to be generated and a second area in which hot flames are expected to be generated.

16. The fuel physical property determination device according to claim 10 ,
wherein the physical property is an octane number.

17. The fuel physical property determination device according to claim 10 ,
wherein the physical property is a cetane number.

18. The fuel physical property determination device according to claim 10 ,
wherein the temperature distribution-forming device forms the temperature distribution in which the temperature of the test tube gradually increases in a longitudinal direction of the test tube.

Assignees

• Maruta Kaoru
• Nakamura Hisashi
• Kato Soichiro
• Matsui Kunio
• Sase Akira
• SAURA Tsuyoshi
• Univ Tohoku
• Ihi Corp
• Ihi Inspection & Instrumentation Co Ltd

Inventors

• Maruta Kaoru
• Nakamura Hisashi
• Kato Soichiro
• Matsui Kunio
• Sase Akira
• SAURA Tsuyoshi

Classifications

• G01N33/28 Primary

  Oils {, i.e. hydrocarbon liquids} (edible oils or edible fats G01N33/03) · CPC title

• G01N33/2829 Primary

  Mixtures of fuels · CPC title

• G01N33/22 Primary

  Fuels; Explosives · CPC title

• G01N25/22

  on combustion or catalytic oxidation, e.g. of components of gas mixtures · CPC title

• G01N31/12

  using combustion (G01N25/20 takes precedence) · CPC title