Abstract
The deposition behavior of soot particles in a diffusion flame along a solid wall was examined experimentally by getting rid of the effect of natural convection utilizing microgravity environment. The microgravity environment was realized by using a drop tower facility. The fuel for the flame was an ethylene ($C_2H_4$) and the surrounding oxygen concentration 35% with the surrounding air velocity of $V_a$=2.5, 5, and 10 cm/s. Laser extinction method was adopted to measure the soot volume fraction distribution between the flame and burner wall. The results show that observation of soot deposition in normal flame was difficult from buoyancy and the relative position of flame and solid surface changes with time. The soot particle distribution region moves closer to the surface of the wall as the surrounding air velocity is increased. And the experiments determined the trace of the maximum soot concentration line. It was found that the distance between soot line and flame line is around 5 mm. That is, the soot particle near the flame zone tends to move away from flame zone because of thermophoretic force and to concentrate at a certain narrow area inside of the flame, finally, to adhere the solid wall.