Laminar burning velocity, cellular instability, and the superadiabatic flame temperature phenomenon for NH3/syngas/air premixed flames

Abstract

The laminar burning velocity (LBV) and cellular instability of ammonia/syngas/air were investigated using the spherically expanding flame method at an initial pressure of 3 atm and temperatures of 298–448 K. The impacts of equivalence ratio, temperature, and hydrogen ratio on LBV were scrutinized. The results demonstrate that the LBV varies non-monotonically with the equivalence ratio and increases with increasing temperature and hydrogen ratio. Flame instability was analyzed using flame uplift rate, Lewis number, thermal expansion ratio, flame thickness, critical radius, critical Peclet number and logarithmic growth rate of perturbation in combination with the schlieren images. Of these, the flame uplift rate is used to quantify buoyancy instability, a flame instability that has received little attention. At high pressures, lower LBV makes the flame susceptible to buoyancy instability. The flame uplift rate increases with increasing flame radius, suggesting that the buoyancy instability becomes increasingly significant as the spherical flame expands. The diffusional-thermal instability is weaker at the fuel-rich side and enhanced at the leaner side. As the hydrogen ratio increases, the flame instability increases. Hydrodynamic instability is not susceptible to temperature, which is only slightly weakened with increasing temperature. Additionally, the phenomenon of superadiabatic flame temperature (SAFT) in ammonia/syngas/air flames was first found and analyzed its temperature dependence. Increasing the initial temperature suppresses SAFT occurrence.