Studies of Curvature Effects on Laminar Premixed Flames: Stationary Cylindrical Flames

Abstract

Abstract A solution of the stationary cylindrical flame in both source and sink configurations is obtained analytically using simplified reaction rate and diffusion models. The solution is used to investigate the effects of curvature in the absence of stretch and identify the ranges where ducting and source/sink effects are dominant. We also investigate the concept of a minimum radius of curvature by introducing non-local effects on the flame. For both configurations a stable solution may be found for any imposed source flow rate. Ducting, a purely hydrodynamic process, is dominant at low curvature when the flame is far from the source or sink. Near a source, however, source effects become important. This occurs when the flame radius of curvature is comparable to the flame thickness. The modification of the reaction zone structure and the burning rate is not significant since the flame still completely burns the reactants. At Le ≠ 1 the reaction zone thickness is further increased for Le > 1 and further r...