Electric-field-induced flame speed modification

The effects of pulsed and continuous DC electric fields on the reaction zones of premixed propane-air flames have been investigated using several types of experimental measurements. All observed effects on the flame are dependent on the applied voltage polarity, indicating that negatively charged flame species do not play a role in the perturbation of the reaction zone. Experiments designed to characterize the electric-field-induced modifications of the shape and size of the inner cone, and the concomitant changes in the temperature profiles of flames with equivalence ratios between 0.8 and 1.7, are also reported. High-speed two-dimensional imaging of the flame response to a pulsed DC voltage shows that the unperturbed conical flame front (laminar flow) is driven into a wrinkled laminar flamelet (cellular) geometry on a time scale of the order of 5 ms. Temperature distributions derived from thin filament pyrometry (TFP) measurements in flames perturbed by continuous DC fields show similar large changes in the reaction zone geometry, with no change in maximum flame temperature. All measurements are consistent with the observed flame perturbations being a fluid mechanical response to the applied field brought about by forcing positive flame ions counter to the flow. The resulting electric pressure decreases Lewis numbers of the ionic species and drives the effective flame Lewis number below unity. The observed increases in flame speed and the flame fronts trend toward turbulence can be described in terms of the flame front wrinkling and concomitant increase in reaction sheet area. This effect is a potentially attractive means of controlling flame fluid mechanical characteristics. The observed effects require minimal input electrical power (<1 W for a 1 kW burner) due to the much better electric field coupling achieved in the present experiments compared to the previous studies.