Premixed Flame Response to a Counterflowing Non-thermal Plasma Jet

ABSTRACT

The response of the laminar premixed flame to a counterflowing non-thermal plasma jet has been studied experimentally and numerically. The plasma is driven by alternating current and sustained in a co-axial dielectric-barrier-discharge (DBD) generator. Particle tracking methods and optical diagnostics of flame emission provide spatio-temporal resolutions of the flow field and subsequent flame response. The deflection of the streamline and flame sheet due to hydrodynamic disturbances results in oscillation of the total heat release rate. Numerical analysis is performed by specifying the flow fluctuation using inflow boundary conditions, as well as solving the flow field and flame structure in the small cylindrical domain sandwiched between the opposed nozzle outlets. The contour plots of temperature and velocity vectors in the simulation solution verify that the flow fluctuation causes deflection, displacement, creases and localized quenching of the flame front.

KEYWORDS:

• Plasma-assisted-combustion
• dielectric-barrier-discharge
• counterflow premixed flame
• flow fluctuation
• heat release rate

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Prof. Chung K. Law from Princeton University, Prof. Zhu-yin Ren and Prof. Yi-kang Pu from Tsinghua University for their help.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on thepublisher’s website.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by the National Science Foundation of China (No. 91641204) and the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (No. 2013CB228506).