Localization of combustion in a periodic velocity field

Abstract

A direct numerical simulation of combustion-front propagation in a specified periodic velocity field of a medium was performed within the framework of a two-dimensional thermal diffusion formulation. The calculations showed that as the velocity amplitude is increased, the flame front separates into discrete burning segments, i.e., spatial localization of the combustion takes place. Only when heat losses are introduced into the model, flame quenching is observed at a certain amplitude of the medium’s velocity. The level of heat losses required to extinguish the combustion becomes lower with increase in the amplitude of velocity perturbations. On the whole, the obtained numerical results agree with results of an asymptotic analysis.