Flame stabilization in a lifted non-premixed turbulent hydrogen jet with coaxial air

To understand hydrogen jet liftoff height, the stabilization mechanism of turbulent lifted jet flames under non-premixed conditions was studied. The objectives were to determine flame stability mechanisms, to analyze flame structure, and to characterize the lifted jet at the flame stabilization point. Hydrogen flow velocity varied from 100 to 300 m/s. Coaxial air velocity was regulated from 12 to 20 m/s. Simultaneous velocity field and reaction zone measurements used, PIV/OH PLIF techniques with Nd:YAG lasers and CCD/ICCD cameras. Liftoff height decreased with increased fuel velocity. The flame stabilized in a lower velocity region next to the faster fuel jet due to the mixing effects of the coaxial air flow. The non-premixed turbulent lifted hydrogen jet flames had two types of flame structure for both thin and thick flame base. Lifted flame stabilization was related to local principal strain rate and turbulent intensity, assuming that combustion occurs where local flow velocity and turbulent flame propagation velocity are balanced.     

Experimental and numerical investigation of premixed acetylene flame

In this paper, the mean velocity, turbulence intensity and temperature profiles in different cross-sections of premixed acetylene flame are given. A mathematical model for prediction of velocity, temperature and concentration fields of axisymmetric free premixed turbulent flame is presented in this paper. A second-order closure for turbulent reacting flows is used. Special attentions is paid to model behavior with the respect to the prediction correlation coefficients of turbulent diffusion of the scalar components. Conditional and unconditional statistics of the LDA signals were performed using jet and/or air seed. Compared to commonly used unconditional statistics, conditional statistics of velocity fluctuations can give us more data about intensity of turbulent mixing in the flame.     

Aerodynamic characteristics and thermal structure of nonpremixed reacting swirling wakes at low Reynolds numbers

The aerodynamic characteristics and thermal structure of uncontrolled and controlled swirling double-concentric jet flames at low Reynolds numbers are experimentally studied. The swirl and Reynolds numbers are lower than 0.6 and 2000, respectively. The flow characteristics are diagnosed by the laser-light-sheet-assisted Mie scattering flow visualization method and particle image velocimetry (PIV). The thermal structure is measured by a fine-wire thermocouple. The flame shapes, combined images of flame and flow, velocity vector maps, streamline patterns, velocity and turbulence distributions, flame lengths, and temperature distributions are discussed. The flow patterns of the no-control case exhibit an open-top, single-ring vortex sitting on the blockage disc with a jetlike swirling flow evolving from the central disc face toward the downstream area. The rotation direction and size of the near-disc vortex, as well as the flow properties, change in different ranges of annulus swirl number and therefore induce three characteristic flame modes: weak swirling flame, lifted flame, and turbulent reattached flame. Because the near-disc vortex is open-top, the radial dispersion of the fuel-jet fluids is not significantly enhanced by the annulus swirling flow. The flows of the reacting swirling double-concentric jets at such low swirl and Reynolds numbers therefore present characteristics of diffusion jet flames. In the controlled case, the axial momentum of the central fuel jet is deflected radially by a control disc placed above the blockage disc. This arrangement can induce a large near-disc recirculation bubble and high turbulence intensities. The enhanced mixing hence tremendously shortens the flame length and enlarges the flame width.     

Lifted methane-air jet flames in a vitiated coflow

The present vitiated coflow flame consists of a lifted jet flame formed by a fuel jet issuing from a central nozzle into a large coaxial flow of hot combustion products from a lean premixed H₂/air flame. The fuel stream consists of CH₄ mixed with air. Detailed multiscalar point measurements from combined Raman-Rayleigh-LIF experiments are obtained for a single base-case condition. The experimental data are presented and then compared to numerical results from probability density function (PDF) calculations incorporating various mixing models. The experimental results reveal broadened bimodal distributions of reactive scalars when the probe volume is in the flame stabilization region. The bimodal distribution is attributed to fluctuation of the instantaneous lifted flame position relative to the probe volume. The PDF calculation using the modified Curl mixing model predicts well several but not all features of the instantaneous temperature and composition distributions, time-averaged scalar profiles, and conditional statistics from the multiscalar experiments. A complementary series of parametric experiments is used to determine the sensitivity of flame liftoff height to jet velocity, coflow velocity, and coflow temperature. The liftoff height is found to be approximately linearly related to each parameter within the ranges tested, and it is most sensitive to coflow temperature. The PDF model predictions for the corresponding conditions show that the sensitivity of flame liftoff height to jet velocity and coflow temperature is reasonably captured, while the sensitivity to coflow velocity is underpredicted.     

Simultaneous measurements of velocity and CH distributions. Part 1: jet flames in co-flow

Velocity field and CH distribution are measured simultaneously using particle-image velocimetry (PIV) and planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) of CH in piloted, turbulent, jet flames in coflow. The CH distribution is found to correspond well with the location of the stoichiometric velocity, U_S, both instantaneously and on average. In addition, the CH distribution is observed to align with high-strain rate regions; however, significantly higher values of the maximum strain rates, compared to the mean value, are frequently observed. The residence time in the flame surface as represented by CH, τ_F, remains nearly constant with axial distance downstream and is found to scale as τ_F ∼ d/U_b, where d and U_b are nozzle exit diameter and bulk nozzle-exit velocity, respectively. The mean value of the compressive principal strain rate is observed to decrease along the axial direction and shows a good correlation to a S ∼ (x/d)^−0.7 relation for a wide range of jet Reynolds numbers. Finally, the two-dimensional dilatation is not seen to be a good marker of the flame position, unlike the case for premixed flames.     

Turbulent consumption speed via local dilatation rate measurements in a premixed bunsen jet

The mean local reaction rate related to the average expansion across the front and computed from the mean velocity divergence is evaluated in this work. Measurements are carried out in a air/methane premixed jet flame by combined PIV/LIF acquisitions. The procedure serves the purpose of obtaining values of a turbulent flame speed, namely the local turbulent consumption speed S_LC, as a function of the position along the bunsen flame. With the further position that the flamelet assumption provides a proportionality between turbulent burning speed normalized with the laminar unstretched one and the turbulent to average flame surface ratio, the proportionality constant, i.e., the stretching factor becomes available. The results achieved so far show the existence of a wide region along which the bunsen flame front has a constant stretching factor which apparently depends only on the ratio between turbulent fluctuations and laminar flame speed and on the jet Reynolds number.     

Upstream flow dynamics of a laminar premixed conical flame submitted to acoustic modulations

This study is concerned with the response of conical flames to acoustic modulations. It deals with the dynamics of the velocity field in the fresh gases feeding the flame. Experiments are carried out to determine the gain and phase shift between the excitation signal and the axial velocity signal. This information, combined with PIV data, is used to identify the propagation mode in the fresh stream. Experiments indicate that three ranges can be defined based on a Strouhal number St involving the burner diameter and the upstream flow velocity. When this number is sufficiently low (St?1), the response consists in a convective wave featuring a phase velocity close to that of the mean flow. As St is augmented (1?St?Stc), where Stc depends on the flame geometry, the phase difference between the velocity oscillation and the imposed signal nearly vanishes in a finite region adjacent to the burner exhaust indicating that the perturbation propagates at the speed of sound. Further away from the burner, velocity perturbations exhibit convective features again. In the third frequency range, corresponding to higher modulation frequencies (St?Stc), velocity perturbations are dominated by acoustics in most of the experimental domain. It is shown that this behavior results from the upstream influence of the flame wrinkling. The region of influence may be deduced by considering the velocity potential associated with the flame motion. When this perturbation potential takes large values, the flow is dominated by the convective wave. This suitably reproduces experimental observations.     

Non-premixed flame characteristics and exhaust gas concentrations behind rifled bluff-body cones

Four bluff-body cones with/without rifled v-grooves were installed behind a non-premixed traditional combustion nozzle to intensify the bluff-body effects and swirl flow. The spiral rifles transformed axial momentum (or axial velocity) into tangential momentum (or tangential velocity). The interaction between the fuel tangential component and axial air flow increased turbulence intensity (T.I.). The Schlieren photography was utilized to visualize the flame structures and classify three flame patterns—jet flame, recirculation flame, and turbulence flame. The jet flame occurs when fuel-jet velocity is high and air-jet velocity (u_a) is low. However, the turbulence flame exists at the high air-jet velocity. The flame lengths were measured using the direct photography scheme. The flame length at high u_a is significantly shorter than that at low u_a. Furthermore, the increase of rifle number (i.e., increasing T.I.) induces the high maximum temperature and low nitric-oxide concentration.     

A new approach to model turbulent lifted CH4/air flame issuing in a vitiated coflow using conditional moment closure coupled with an extinction model

In this article, conditional moment closure model (CMC) with detailed chemistry is used to model lifted turbulent methane flame in a high temperature and vitiated coflow and to predict flame lift-off height. The flow and mixing field are predicted by a 2D in-house code employing a k–ε turbulence model (RANS) with modified constant C_ε2. The first-order CMC model on its own could not capture the behavior of the lifted flame. Large eddy simulations (LES) coupled with second-order CMC model would be a promising alternative but the objective here was to improve low-cost simulations based on RANS and first-order CMC to address realistic problems. Hence, an extinction model has been incorporated in the first-order CMC to improve its predictions and is referred in this paper as CMCE. In the CMCE model, flame is assumed to be extinguished when the ratio of flow time scale to the chemical time scale falls below a critical value. Predicted lift-off height by the CMCE model agrees very well with the experimental results. There is a significant improvement in temperature and species distributions in both axial and radial directions with the implementation of the CMCE model. Further, the model is extended to predict the flame lift-off height for various coflow temperatures and jet velocities by using scaling ratios. With these modifications, the lift-off heights predicted by the CMCE model match well with the experimental results for a wide range of jet velocities and coflow temperatures. Results from both CMC and CMCE models are compared against the experimental data to show the importance of the extinction model. Flame stabilization process indicates that flame stabilizes on the contour of mean stoichiometric mixture fraction where axial mean velocity equals the turbulent burning velocity.     

Impact of co-flow air on buoyant diffusion flames flicker

This paper describes experimental investigation of co-flow air velocity effects on the flickering behaviour of laminar non-lifted methane diffusion flames. Chemiluminescence, high-speed photography, schlieren and Particle Imaging Velocimetry (PIV), have been used to study the changes in the flame/vortex interactions as well as the flame flickering frequency and magnitude by the co-flow air. Four cases of methane flow rates at different co-flow air velocities are investigated. It has been observed that the flame dynamics and stability of co-flow diffusion flames are strongly affected by the co-flow air velocity. When the co-flow velocity has reached a certain value the buoyancy driven flame oscillation was completely suppressed. The schlieren and PIV imaging have revealed that the co-flow of air is able to push the initiation point of the outer toroidal vortices beyond the visible flame to create a very steady laminar flow region in the reaction zone. Then the buoyancy driven instability is only effective in the plume of hot gases above the visible flame. It is observed that a higher co-flow rate is needed in order to suppress the flame flickering at a higher fuel flow rate. Therefore the ratio of the air velocity to the fuel velocity, γ, is a stability controlling parameter. The velocity ratio, γ, was found to be 0.72 for the range of tested flow rates. The dominant flickering frequency was observed to increase linearly with the co-flow rate (a) as; f = 0.33a + 11. The frequency amplitudes, however, were observed to continuously decrease as the co-flow air was increasing.     

Propagation and stability characteristics of laminar lifted diffusion flame base

Numerical calculations of the flame propagation speed and the Damköhler number (Da) at laminar lifted flame base were carried out. The results are intended for further understanding the propagation and the Damköhler mechanisms for flame stabilization, with the former based on a tribrachial flame propagating against the local flow velocity and the latter based on the competition between the reaction time and local residence time of the peak reaction zone. Propane fuel without and with dilution (40% helium and argon, by volume) was used, while the reaction scheme adopted was the one-step irreversible Arrhenius kinetics (see Li et al., Combust. Flame 157 (2010) 1484–1495) which proved successful in predicting the flame lift-off height and effects of thermal expansion and multi-component diffusion. The results reported in this paper show that the flame base propagation speed is up to approximately four times of the one-dimensional stoichiometric flame speed of the fuels used, depending on where the propagation front is defined. These results are compared with previously published experimental and theoretical results from laminar and turbulent diffusion flames. It is found that the flame base propagation speed (V_p) increases in the downstream direction as a result of increasing jet velocity (V_o) under most flame conditions, providing a stabilizing mechanism. However, there exist conditions where V_p decreases while the flame stabilizes. The flame base Damköhler number (Da) always increases as the flame liftoff height increases (resulting from increasing jet velocity). Da is here defined as ratio of peak reaction rate of the reaction kernel (RR) to the flame stretch rate (k) determined at the intersection of the reaction kernel (approximately coinciding with the 2000 K isotherm) and the stoichiometric contour. The value of Da appears to be of the order of 10^?3 for the three fuels studied, and the increasing trend of Da with the lift-off height also helps to explain the flame stabilization.     

Autoignition of turbulent hydrogen jet in a coflow of heated air

Autoignition of hydrogen, leading to flame development under turbulent flow conditions is numerically investigated including a detailed chemical mechanism. The chosen configuration consists of a turbulent jet of hydrogen diluted with nitrogen which is issued into a coflow of heated air. Numerical simulations are performed with the Conditional Moment Closure model, to capture the transient evolution of the flow. Turbulence closure is achieved using the k–? model. Simulations revealed that the injected hydrogen mixes with coflowing air, autoignites and a stable diffusion flame is established. Sometimes, flashback of the ignited mixture is observed, whereby the flame travels upstream and stabilizes. It is found that the constants assumed in various modeling terms can severely influence the degree of mixing. Hence, certain modifications to these constants are suggested, and improved predictions are obtained. The sensitivity of autoignition length to the coflow temperature is investigated. The predicted autoignition lengths show a reasonable agreement with the experimental data and LES results.     

Flame-vortex interaction and mixing behaviors of turbulent non-premixed jet flames under acoustic forcing

This study examines the effect of acoustic excitation using forced coaxial air on the flame characteristics of turbulent hydrogen non-premixed flames. A resonance frequency was selected to acoustically excite the coaxial air jet due to its ability to effectively amplify the acoustic amplitude and reduce flame length and NO_x emissions. Acoustic excitation causes the flame length to decrease by 15% and consequently, a 25% reduction in EINO_x is achieved, compared to coaxial air flames without acoustic excitation at the same coaxial air to fuel velocity ratio. Moreover, acoustic excitation induces periodical fluctuation of the coaxial air velocity, thus resulting in slight fluctuation of the fuel velocity. From phase-lock PIV and OH PLIF measurement, the local flow properties at the flame surface were investigated under acoustic forcing. During flame-vortex interaction in the near field region, the entrainment velocity and the flame surface area increased locally near the vortex. This increase in flame surface area and entrainment velocity is believed to be a crucial factor in reducing flame length and NO_x emission in coaxial jet flames with acoustic excitation. Local flame extinction occurred frequently when subjected to an excessive strain rate, indicating that intense mass transfer of fuel and air occurs radially inward at the flame surface.     

A visualization study on the effect of forcing amplitude on tone-excited isothermal jets and jet diffusion flames

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the effects of axial forcing on the flow structures near the nozzle exit in coaxial isothermal jets and jet diffusion flames. The jet was excited by adding a periodic velocity fluctuation ranging from 0 to 400% of the mean jet velocity at the tube resonating frequency. The phase-averaged axial velocity fluctuation at the jet centre was measured with a one-component LDV and phase-locked visualization using a light chopper and a phase-conditioning circuit was performed. The changes of large-scale structures in the near field of the jet are described from the visualization of horizontal and vertical cross-cut Mie scattering images. The flow structures of the forced isothermal jet are classified into three regions on the basis of the emergence of azimuthal structures and the periodic behaviour of vortex structures. The jittering of azimuthal structures was characterized by a forcing amplitude ratio and the velocity difference between the jet and the co-flowing fluid. In case of the forced reacting jet, flame heights were measured from video tape recordings of the sooting images of the flame. The dependence of flame height on the forcing amplitude ratio shows the existence of a flame-length elongation and reduction region. The flame elongation is found to be related to the suppression of the flame flickering by forcing. From the Mie scattering images and flame-length measurements, it is suggested that the intense mixing observed in the fully forced laminar jet and the reduction of the flame length is closely related to the development of azimuthal structures. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The structure and flame propagation regimes in turbulent hydrogen jets

Experiments on flame propagation regimes in a turbulent hydrogen jet with velocity and hydrogen concentration gradients have been performed. Horizontal stationary hydrogen jets released at normal and cryogenic temperatures of 290, 80 and 35 K with different nozzle diameters and mass flow rates have been investigated. Sampling probe method and laser PIV techniques have been used to evaluate the distribution of hydrogen concentration and flow velocity. High-speed photography combined with a Background Oriented Schlieren (BOS) system was used for the visual observation of the turbulent flame propagation. In order to investigate different flame propagation regimes the ignition position was changed along the jet axis. It was found that the flame propagates in both directions, up- and downstream of the jet flow if hydrogen concentration is >11%, whereas in case [H₂] < 11%, the flame propagates only downstream. This means that at normal temperature the flame is able to accelerate effectively only if the expansion ratio σ of the H₂-air mixture is higher than a critical value σ* = 3.75 defined for a closed geometry.     

A numerical study on the effects of H2 addition in non-premixed turbulent combustion of C3H8–H2–N2 mixture using a steady flamelet approach

This study has been implemented in two sections. At first, the turbulent jet flame of DLR-B is simulated by combining the k–ε turbulence model and a steady flamelet approach. The DLR-B flame under consideration has been experimentally investigated by Meier et al. who obtained velocity and scalar statistics. The fuel jet composition is 33.2% H₂, 22.1% CH₄ and 44.7% N₂ by volume. The jet exit velocity is 63.2 m/s resulting in a Reynolds number of 22,800. Our focus in the first part is to validate the developed numerical code. Comparison with experiments showed good agreement for temperature and species distribution. At the second part, we exchanged methane with propane in the fuel composition whilst maintaining all other operating conditions unchanged. We investigated the effect of hydrogen concentration on C₃H₈–H₂–N₂ mixtures so that propane mole fraction extent is fixed. The hydrogen volume concentration rose from 33.2% up to 73.2%. The achieved consequences revealed that hydrogen addition produces elongated flame with increased levels of radiative heat flux and CO pollutant emission. The latter behavior might be due to quenching of CO oxidation process in the light of excessive cold air downstream of reaction zone.     

Laser raman measurements of temperature and species concentration in swirling lifted hydrogen jet diffusion flames

Simultaneous spatially and temporally resolved point measurements of temperature, mixture fraction, major species (H₂, H₂O, O₂, N₂), and minor species (OH) concentrations are performed in unswirled (S_g = 0), low swirl (S_g = 0.12), and high swirl (S_g = 0.5) lifted turbulent hydrogen jet diffusion flames into still air. Ultraviolet (UV) Raman scattering and laser-induced predissociative fluorescence (LIPF) techniques are combined to make the multi-parameter measurements using a single KrF excimer laser. Experimental results are compared to the fast chemistry (equilibrium) limit, to the mixing without reaction limit, and to simulations of steady stretched laminar opposed-flow flames. It is found that in the lifted region where the swirling effects are strong, the measured chemical compositions are inconsistent with those calculated from stretched laminar diffusion flames or stretched partially premixed flames. Sub-equilibrium values of temperature, sub-flamelet values of H₂O, and super-flamelet values of OH are found in an intermittent annular turbulent brush of the swirled flame but not in the unswirled flame. Farther downstream of the nozzle exit (x/D ≥ 50), swirl has little effect on the finite-rate chemistry.     

Predicting the main geometrical features of horizontal rectangular source fuel jet fires

The main geometrical features of horizontal jet fire with rectangular source fuel have seldom been revealed in the past, especially the rectangular orifice with same area but different aspect ratios. In order to better understand the rectangular jet fire, a set of numerical simulations were carried out by rectangular source fuel with same rectangular orifice area S (4 cm²) but different aspect ratios (orifice length to orifice width: L/W = 1, 2, 4) to investigate the flame shape, flame length and flame width. The simulated flame lengths and flame widths were compared with previous experimental data and calculated values using the Thornton model. The non-dimensional flame length and flame width were defined, in which the flame geometrical features were found in relation to the orifice aspect ratio and fuel jet velocity. Results show that the flame length and flame width increases with fuel jet velocity, while the flame length decreases with aspect ratio n for same orifice area, but the flame width increases simultaneously. The simulated data agree well with previous experimental data, but the predictions by Thornton model are larger than simulated and previous experimental values. The modified Thornton model is proposed considering both orifice shape and aspect ratio to apply to rectangular jet fire.