Confinement Effects on Coaxial Jet Diffusion Flame

ABSTRACT

A combined experimental and numerical study has been conducted to investigate the characteristics of confined coaxial jet diffusion flames in air coflow, using methane as fuel. The main concerns were focused on the unequal fuel velocity (0.1–72 m/s)/air velocities (0.045–0.53 m/s) and confinement ratio (δ*, defined as the ratio of the confinement tube diameter and the jet diameter), and most of the flow remains laminar while the ranges of δ* and gas velocities vary widely. The flame height linearly increases with the central fuel jet velocity, until the flame tip-opening or liftoff occurs, which is similar to that of the free jet flame. The critical fuel jet velocity for flame liftoff decreases with the ratio of air velocities to δ * . The critical fuel jet velocity of flame tip-opening increases with δ*, and the critical volumetric flow rate of air increases to a maximum, then decreases, indicating a combined effect of the oxygen supplement and the mixing with the fuel. Under smaller δ* with high jet flow velocity, a circular plane flame is observed before flame extinction. The formation of a recirculation zone in a confinement with combustion reaction has a significant influence on flame behaviors. A critical nondimensional Craya-Curtet number is used to predict the onset of flow recirculation with combustion reaction. At a certain coflow air velocity, the critical number initially increases and then remains constant with δ*, while at a certain δ*, the critical number decreases with air velocity. When the Craya-Curtet number is higher than the critical point, recirculation cannot be established, resulting in the formation of a tip-closed flame. With the decrease of the Craya-Curter number, the recirculation evolves to the upstream of the flame, then, the flame may be lifted off, along with the recirculation zone moving downstream. With the effect of recirculation, the stoichiometric mixture fraction contour shrinks toward the central axis where there is a higher local velocity. Therefore, the flame will be lifted off under a lower jet velocity in a smaller δ * . With the increase of the jet velocity, the Craya-Curtet number further decreases, and the recirculation becomes much stronger than the upstream inflow, resulting in the flame being compressed into a circular plane flame at a small δ* with a relatively high jet flow velocity or blowout directly at a relatively large δ * .

KEYWORDS:

• Diffusion flame
• confinement ratio
• velocity
• flame characteristics
• recirculation

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Key R&D Program of China under Grant No. 2021YFA0716202, the Space Application System of China Manned Space Program, and the Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program by BAST under Grant No. BYESS2023440.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China [2021YFA0716202]; Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program by BAST [BYESS2023440]; Space Application System of China Manned Space Program.