Stereo Piv Diagnostics of Flow Structure in Swirling Turbulent Propane Flames

Abstract

This paper is devoted to experimental study of the instantaneous and average flow structure in the pre-mixed propaneair swirling flames using optical noncontact PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry) method in stereoscopic configuration. A visualization of the typical regimes of combustion for the swirling and non-swirling flame in a wide range of Reynolds numbers and equivalence ratios is presented. In addition, boundaries of steady combustion are defined. Measurements of instantaneous velocity fields for typical combustion regimes are performed. Instantaneous velocity fields were used to calculate the spatial distribution of the mean velocity and turbulence kinetic energy component. Interaction of the flame with a large-scale vortex structures is studied. It shows significantly different effects of burning on the turbulent structure of twisted jet. The paper describes algorithms of data processing, in particular, adaptive cross-correlation method of calculating the instantaneous velocity fields based on an analysis of the local particle image concentration. This method allows to effectively filtering out the velocity vector outliers, which appear in areas with low concentration of tracers during gas flows diagnostics, and calculate the spatial distribution of such characteristics as the intensity of turbulent pulsations.