Regime identification from Raman/Rayleigh line measurements in partially premixed flames

Current methods for combustion regime characterization, such as the flame index, rely on 3D gradient information that is not accessible with available experimental techniques. Here, a method is proposed for reaction zone detection and characterization, which can be applied to instantaneous 1D Raman/Rayleigh line measurements of major species and temperature as well as to results of laminar and turbulent flame simulations, without the need for 3D gradient information. Several derived flame markers, namely the mixture fraction, the heat release rate, and the chemical explosive mode, are combined to detect and characterize premixed versus non-premixed reaction zones. The methodology is developed and evaluated using fully resolved simulation data from laminar flames. The fully resolved 1D simulation data are spatially filtered to account for the difference in spatial resolution between experiment and simulation. Then, starting from just temperature and major species, a constrained homogeneous constant pressure, constant temperature reactor calculation gives an approximation of the full thermochemical state at each sample location along the line. Finally, the chemical explosive mode and the heat release rate are calculated from this approximated state and compared to those calculated directly from the simulation data. As a further test, experimental uncertainty is superimposed onto the filtered numerical data to produce a Raman/Rayleigh equivalent state before running the constrained homogeneous reactor, and results are again compared. After successful tests using the numerical data, the approach is applied to Raman/Rayleigh line measurements from laminar counterflow flames and a mildly turbulent lifted flame. The results confirm that the reaction zones can be reliably detected and characterized using experimental data. Furthermore, the relative importance of premixed and non-premixed reaction zones within the same flame can be qualitatively assessed as demonstrated in the results.