On vortex combustion

Abstract

Known and previously unknown experimental observations of transfer, exchange, and combustion in vortex flames in high-velocity flows are analyzed. The evolution of our concepts of these processes with discoveries of new facts is traced. It is demonstrated that four regimes of homogeneous combustion of the vortex ball in a high-velocity flow are possible: deterministic (coherent), resonant (vibrational), stochastic, and pseudodetonation regimes. Pseudo-detonation combustion is understood as simultaneous homogeneous microturbulent frontal combustion of all layers of the vortex ball with the radius expansion rate several times greater than the entraining flow velocity. The intensity of injection of a homogeneous mixture or air into the burning vortex layer is found to be identical to the notion of intensity of homogeneous or diffusion combustion. It is demonstrated that the classical notions and the Shchelkin-Shchetinkov relations for burning surfaces and volumes are applicable, but only for certain phases and local zones of the burning vortex ball.