Analysis of flame shapes in turbulent hydrogen jet flames with coaxial air

Abstract

This paper addresses the characteristics of flame shapes and flame length in three types of coaxial air flames realizable by varying coaxial air and/or fuel velocity. Forcing coaxial air into turbulent jet flames induces substantial changes in flame shapes and NOx emissions through the complex flow interferences that exist within the mixing region. Mixing enhancement driven by coaxial air results in flame volume decrease, and such a diminished flame volume finally reduces NOx emissions significantly by decreasing NOx formation zone where a fuel/air mixture burns. It is found that mixing in the vicinity of high temperature zone mainly results from the increase of diffusive flux than the convective flux, and that the increase of mass diffusion is amplified as coaxial air is increased. Besides, it is reaffirmed that non-equilibrium chemistry including HO2/H2O2 should be taken into account for NOx prediction and scaling analysis by comparing turbulent combustion models. In addition, it is found that coaxial air can break down the self-similarity law of flames by changing mixing mechanism, and that EINOx scaling parameters based on the self-similarity law of simple jet flames may not be eligible in coaxial air flames.