The Effect of Ozone Addition on Combustion: Kinetics and Dynamics" published in the Journal Progress in Energy & Combustion Science
Wenting Sun
Prof. Wenting Sun

A recently published review of ozone-enhanced combustion by AE professor Wenting Sun and his team of researchers is laying a foundation for future investigations in the field of emerging combustion technologies.

Published Feb. 28 in the Progress in Energy & Combustion Science, the article, "The Effect of Ozone Addition on Combustion: Kinetics and Dynamics" summarizes the analysis conducted by Sun and  his longtime collaborator, Dr. Tim Ombrello, a senior research aerospace engineer with the Air Force Research Laboratory's Aerospace Systems Directorate, and his current and former doctoral students, Bin Wu, and Xiang Gao, Ph.D. AE '17.

The paper continues work that Sun has conducted for more than a decade. Most recently, in 2016, Sun received a Young Investigators grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) to further his understanding of new techniques to control combustion at extreme conditions, such as those in hypersonic and high-altitude environments. Vehicles traveling in those environments have unique challenges that engineers have been tackling for years.

"You cannot turn on the combustion in those environments. They are too harsh, too extreme," Sun said.  "What we found was a new phenomenon, the spontaneous reaction between ozone and ethylene, could be applied to enhance the combustion process in extreme conditions. It can sustain the combustion in extreme conditions, which is something that will advance our work."

With an impact factor of 25, the Journal's publication of this investigation has paved the way for critical ethylene-ozone research in the future, Sun said.

"It [the article] summarizes so much work that's been done, so that researchers who want to get into this will have a handbook on what works and guidelines for how they can proceed," said Sun.