Impact of co-flow air on buoyant diffusion flames flicker

This paper describes experimental investigation of co-flow air velocity effects on the flickering behaviour of laminar non-lifted methane diffusion flames. Chemiluminescence, high-speed photography, schlieren and Particle Imaging Velocimetry (PIV), have been used to study the changes in the flame/vortex interactions as well as the flame flickering frequency and magnitude by the co-flow air. Four cases of methane flow rates at different co-flow air velocities are investigated. It has been observed that the flame dynamics and stability of co-flow diffusion flames are strongly affected by the co-flow air velocity. When the co-flow velocity has reached a certain value the buoyancy driven flame oscillation was completely suppressed. The schlieren and PIV imaging have revealed that the co-flow of air is able to push the initiation point of the outer toroidal vortices beyond the visible flame to create a very steady laminar flow region in the reaction zone. Then the buoyancy driven instability is only effective in the plume of hot gases above the visible flame. It is observed that a higher co-flow rate is needed in order to suppress the flame flickering at a higher fuel flow rate. Therefore the ratio of the air velocity to the fuel velocity, γ, is a stability controlling parameter. The velocity ratio, γ, was found to be 0.72 for the range of tested flow rates. The dominant flickering frequency was observed to increase linearly with the co-flow rate (a) as; f = 0.33a + 11. The frequency amplitudes, however, were observed to continuously decrease as the co-flow air was increasing.

► We present the co-flow effects on flickering behaviour of diffusion flames.
► Co-flow air is shown to fully suppress the buoyancy driven flame oscillations.
► Schlieren and PIV illustrate the shift of outer vortices beyond the flame zone.
► Stability controlling parameter as a ratio of air to fuel velocities is presented.
► Equation for linear increase in flickering frequency by co-flow air is presented.