High Resolution PIV and CH-PLIF Measurements and Analysis of a Shear Layer Stabilized Flame

Abstract

Understanding the mechanisms and physics of flame stabilization and blowoff of premixed flames is critical towards the design of high velocity combustion devices. In the high bulk flow velocity situation typical of practical combustors, the flame anchors in shear layers where the local flow velocities are much lower. Within the shear layer, fluid strain deformation rates are very high and the flame can be subjected to significant stretch levels. The main goal of this work was to characterize the flow and stretch conditions that a premixed flame experiences in a practical combustor geometry and to compare these values to calculated extinction values. High resolution, simultaneous PIV and CH-PLIF measurements are used to capture the flame edge and near-field stabilization region. When approaching lean limit extinction conditions, we note characteristic changes in the stretch and flow conditions experienced by the flame. Most notably, the flame becomes less critically stretched when fuel/air ratio is decreased. However, at these lean conditions, the flame is subject to higher mean flow velocities at the edge, suggesting less favorable flow conditions are present at the attachment point of the flame as blowoff is approached. These measurements suggest that blowoff of the flame from the shear layer is not directly stretch extinction induced, but rather the result of an imbalance between the speed of the flame edge and local tangential flow velocity.