Recent Changes - Search:

HySafe

SBEP

PmWiki

pmwiki.org

edit SideBar

Flame stretch and effect of flame curvature, Markstein lengths

Flame front propagation in a non-uniform flow is affected by strain and curvature effects, which lead to the change in the flame area and measured by flame stretch, which is a fractional rate of change of a flame surface element:

k = \frac{1}{A}\frac{{dA}}{{dt}},

where k \ - flame stretch, A – area of the flame surface element, t - time. Asymptotic theories, e.g. (MarksteinGH:1964), (WilliamsFA:1985), (ClavinP:1985) suggest that the flame stretch (flame strain, or flame curvature, or both) may affect the laminar burning velocity and in the limit of the small stretch it controls the laminar burning velocity through the linear relationship:

s_u = s_{u\infty } - L\,k, \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ (1)

where s_u - laminar burning velocity, s_{u\infty } - laminar burning velocity of planar unstretched flame, L – Markstein length, k - stretch rate. The above expression is often recast in the following form:

\frac{{s_u }}{{s_{u\infty } }} = 1 - Ma \cdot \frac{{k\delta }}{{s_{u\infty } }} = 1 - Ma \cdot Ka , \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ (2)

where Ma=L/\delta - Markstein number, \delta = {{\lambda _u } / {\left( {\rho _u \,c_p s_{L\infty } } \right)}} - characteristic flame front thickness, Ka = k \delta / s_{u\infty } - Karlovitz number. Formally a linear dependence between the burning velocity s_u and the stretch rate k , which is a result of a theoretical analysis, is valid only for small stretch rates ( Ka << 1 ). In fact, a non-linear relationship between and k is found for a broader range of k (AungKT:1997).


Fig. 1. Markstein number of the hydrogen-air flame at normal
pressure and temperature as a function of the equivalence ratio \Phi .
(AungKT:1997), (KwonOC:2001).

The sign of the Markstein length (Markstein number) controls the preferential-diffusion stability of the laminar flame fronts. Equations (1), (2) readily demonstrates the relationship between the stretch and preferential-diffusion instability: if the Markstein length (Markstein number) is negative then the laminar burning velocity increases as the flame stretch increases. This causes bulges in a flame front with a positive stretch to grow further and thus the flame is unstable. If the Markstein number is positive, then the laminar burning velocity decreases with increasing stretch and similar bulges in the flame surface become smaller, so that flame become stable to preferential-diffusion instability. Hydrogen flames are unstable in learn mixtures. Figure 1 shows the Markstein number of H2-air flames as a function of the equivalence ratio \Phi ; at normal temperature and pressure reported in (AungKT:1997) and (KwonOC:2001). The neutral preferential-diffusion condition is at equivalence ratio \Phi=0.7-0.9 . With increase of pressure the Markstein length L becomes positive at larger equivalence ratios (KwonOC:1992), (TseSD:2000). Markstein length of H2-air flames was reported in (DowdyDR:1990), where it changed from about –0.4 mm at \Phi=0.3\ (~10% H2) and up to 0.5 mm at \Phi=2.3\ (~68%).

Poinsot T. and Veynante D. (2001) Theoretical and numerical combustion. Edwards, Philadelphia.(BibTeX)
Markstein G.H. (1964) Nonsteady flame propagation. Pergamon Press.(BibTeX)
Williams F.A. (1985) Combustion Theory: the fundamental theory of chemically reacting flow systems. The Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, Menlo Park, California.(BibTeX)
Clavin P. (1985) Dynamic behavior of premixed flame fronts in laminar and turbulent flows. Progress in Energy and Combustion Science, 11:1-59.(BibTeX)
Aung K.T., Hassan M.I. and Faeth G.M. (1997) Flame stretch interactions of laminar premixed hydrogen/air flames at normal temperature and pressure. Combustion and Flame, 109:1-24.(BibTeX)
Kwon O.C. and Faeth G.M. (2001) Flame/stretch interactions of premixed hydrogen-fueled flames: measurements and predictions. Combustion and Flame, 124:590-610.(BibTeX)
Kwon O.C., Tseng L.-K. and Faeth G.M. (1992) Laminar burning velocities and transition to unstable flames in H$_2$/O$_2$/N$_2$ and C$_3$H$_8$/O$_2$/N$_2$ mixtures. Combustion and Flame, 90:230-246.(BibTeX)
Tse S.D., Zhu D.L. and Law C.K. (2000) Morphology and burning rates of expanding spherical flames in H$_2$/O$_2$/inert mixtures up to 60 atmospheres. In Proceedings of the Twenty-Eighth Symposium (International) on Combustion. Pittsburgh. The Combustion Institute, pages 1793-1800.(BibTeX)
Dowdy D.R., Smith D.B., Taylor, S.C. and Williams A. (1990) The use of expanding spherical flames to determine burning velocities and stretch effects in hydrogen-air mixtures. In Proceedings of the Twenty-Third Symposium (International) on Combustion. Pittsburgh. The Combustion Institute, pages 325-332.(BibTeX)


<< Dependence of laminar burning velocity on mixture composition, pressure and temperature | Content | Flame cellular structure and wrinkling >>

Edit - History - Print - Recent Changes - Search
Page last modified on December 10, 2008, at 02:03 PM