Interaction of a flame front with its self-generated flow in an enclosure: The “tulip flame” phenomenon

Abstract

The propagation of a flame front under nonturbulent condition in a closed tube ignited at one end is numerically investigated using a computing procedure based on finite volumes technique and devoted to two-dimensional, compressible, reacting flows. A global one-step reaction for the chemical process and an Arrhenius law for fuel consumption are assumed. The detailed analysis of the results of computations in which wall friction, tube aspect ratio and initial flame configuration are varied allows to highlight the influence of different parameters and to get more insight into the tulip-shaped flame phenomenon. In particular, Darrieus-Landau instability is examined by comparing the shape variations of an initially perturbed flat front in a tube closed at both ends to those in tube in which the ignition end is open while the opposite one is closed. Attention is also given to the computed flame generated flowfield; the flame front-confined flow interaction is specially scrutinized. Furthermore, the oscillatory acoustic regime occurring during tulip flame appearance, as well as the collapse of the tulip shape in tubes of large aspect ratio, already experimentally put into evidence but never numerically addressed, have also been simulated and discussed.