Hot surface ignition and monitoring of an internal oxygen-ethanol hydrothermal flame at 260 bar

•A custom made sensor to ignite and monitor hydrothermal combustion is presented.•Annealing and calibration procedures for the sensor are described.•Temperature profiles are used to gather information about the combustion.•The qualitative evolution of the Damköhler number along the axis is depicted.

In this work a custom made sensor with an extended service life at temperatures up to 900 °C and able to sustain intermittent temperatures in excess of 1000 °C is used to ignite and monitor a hydrothermal combustion at 260 bar. Once calibrated, the sensor features a mean sensitivity of 27 μV/°C and an absolute systematic uncertainty of ±10 °C with 95% confidence from room temperature to 1000 °C. After ignition, the influence of the fuel injection geometry, the equivalence ratio and the fuel mass flow on the internal temperature profile are investigated and in the end, applications of the proprietary sensor in supercritical water oxidation and hydrothermal spallation drilling are highlighted.

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