Abstract
The effects of non-thermal plasma (NTP) on lean-premixed swirl-stabilized flames have been experimentally investigated. The plasma is applied to the flames through the dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) technique. The results show that the streamer applied by the non-thermal plasma extend the lean extinction limit by enhancing flame stability. The non-thermal plasma is also able to significantly decrease CO emission while NOx emission increase slightly due to increased flame temperatures. However, there are an optimal range in equivalence ratio (Phi), i.e. <= 5 ppm for CO emission and <= 15 ppm for NOx at 0.550 <= Phi <= 0.575, leading to extension of lean operation limits. These results indicate that applying non-thermal plasma on swirled premixed flames ought to be a useful tool for reduction in CO and NOx emissions simultaneously by high streamer.