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On Impact of Helical Structures on Stabilization of Swirling Flames with Vortex Breakdown

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Abstract

We report on a study of the impact of coherent helical vortex structures on the shape of the reaction zone and heat release in swirling methane/air flames in regimes with a vortex breakdown. Three kinds of atmospheric flames are considered, viz., fuel-lean and fuel-rich premixed flames and a partially premixed fuel-rich lifted flame. Based on the measurements of the velocity fields by a stereo PIV in combination with the OH PLIF and HCHO PLIF, the impact of the coherent flow structures on large-scale corrugations of the reaction zone is evaluated. Helical vortex structures, detected in both the non-reacting and reacting high-swirl flows by using proper orthogonal decomposition, are found to promote combustion both in the lean premixed and fuel-rich partially premixed flames. In the first case, based on the phase-averaged intensity of the HCHO×OH signal and the location of the helical vortex structure in the inner mixing layer, it is concluded that the vortex locally increases the heat release rate by enlarging the flame front and enhancing the mass exchange between the combustion products inside the recirculation zone and the fresh gases. The events of the local flame extinctions are detected in the instantaneous PLIF snapshots for the lean mixture, but they do not cause extinction of the entire flame or a blow-off. In case of the lifted flame, the outer helical vortex structure promotes combustion by locally intensifying the mass exchange between the fuel-rich jet with the surrounding air.

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Abbreviations

CCD:

charge-coupled device

CH PLIF:

methylidyne planar laser-induced fluorescence

FWHM:

full width at half maximum

HCHO PLIF:

formaldehyde planar laser-induced fluorescence

LDA:

laser Doppler anemometer

LES:

large eddy simulation

OH PLIF:

hydroxyl planar laser-induced fluorescence

PIV:

particle image velocimetry

PLIF:

planar laser-induced fluorescence

POD:

proper orthogonal decomposition

PVC:

precessing vortex core

YAG:

Yttrium aluminium garnet

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Acknowledgements

The research here presented was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (Grant No. 16-19-10566). The authors are grateful to Egor Palkin for assistance in data processing and Dmitriy Sharaborin for help during PIV/PLIF measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kutateladze Institute of Thermophysics, 1 Lavrentyev Avenue, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

    V. M. Dulin, A. S. Lobasov, L. M. Chikishev & D. M. Markovich

  2. Novosibirsk State University, 2 Pirogov Street, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

    V. M. Dulin, A. S. Lobasov, L. M. Chikishev & D. M. Markovich

  3. Chemical Engineering Department, Delft University of Technology, 58, Van der Maasweg 9, Delft, The Netherlands

    K. Hanjalic

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  1. V. M. Dulin
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Appendix 1

Appendix 1

1.1 Swirl rate for the non-reacting flow

Figures 18 shows the profiles of the mean velocity and the second-order statistical moments of the velocity fluctuations in the vicinity of the nozzle exit for a non-reacting jet. The axial velocity is negative on the jet axis, indicating that the recirculation zone penetrates inside the nozzle. The magnitude of the angular velocity appears to be close to the maximal values of the axial velocity profile. Based on the mean velocity and second-order moments, the time-averaged flux My of the axial momentum through a transversal cross-section of the jet and the flux MΩ of the angular momentum can be estimated to evaluate the swirl rate Sw. These values are shown in Fig. 19 for different distances from the nozzle exit. For the considered measurement plane for x > 0 the radial and azimuthal velocity components are evaluated as ur = ux and uθ = −uz, respectively, and the radial coordinate r coincides x. On average, Sw appears to be close to 1.2 with the highest deviation in the central recirculation zone.

$$ {\displaystyle \begin{array}{l}{M}_y=\pi \rho \underset{-\infty }{\overset{+\infty }{\int }}r\left({U}_y^2+\left\langle {u^{\prime}}_y^2\right\rangle +\left(P-{P}_{\infty}\right)/\rho \right) dr\approx \\ {}\approx \pi \rho \underset{-\infty }{\overset{+\infty }{\int }}r\left({U}_y^2+\left\langle {u^{\prime}}_y^2\right\rangle -\frac{U_{\theta}^2}{2}-\frac{\left\langle {u^{\prime}}_{\theta}^2\right\rangle +\left\langle {u^{\prime}}_r^2\right\rangle }{2}\right) dr\end{array}}, $$

\( {M}_{\Omega}(y)=\pi \rho \underset{-\infty }{\overset{+\infty }{\int }}{r}^2\left({U}_y{U}_{\theta }+\left\langle {u}_y^{\prime }{u}_{\theta}^{\prime}\right\rangle \right) dr \), \( Sw=\frac{M_{\Omega}}{M_y}\frac{2}{d} \).

Fig. 18
figure 18

Distribution of the mean velocity and deviations of the velocity fluctuations near the nozzle exit (y/d ≈ 0.1) of the high-swirl jet

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Fig. 19
figure 19

Axial fluxes of the jet’s angular and axial momenta and the swirl rate long the high-swirl jet

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1.2 Effect of spatial resolution

Figures 20 and 21 demonstrate the effect of spatial averaging on the PLIF data, where ΔPLIF is the size of the averaging window. The data for the resolution used in the present paper, ΔPLIF = ΔPIV = 0.57 mm, are compared with windows sizes that are two and four times smaller and larger. As seen from the profiles, a decrease in the spatial resolution (i.e., increase in ΔPLIF) results in a smoothing effect, whereas for smaller Δ the profiles remain similar. This means that for ΔPLIF = 0.57 mm the reached resolution is already maximal due to the fixed laser sheet thickness. This example shows that the selected ΔPLIF in the present paper provides an optimal trade-off between the maximal spatial resolution and the signal-to-noise ratio due to the spatial smoothing.

For the present examples, a Canny filter was not used to remove the isolated bright dots, which are presumably caused by the fluorescence of the TiO2 tracer particles when illuminated by a UV laser [67]. In the cold flow region inside the cone, where concentration of the tracer particles was the highest, the spatially averaged intensity is below 40 counts. Behind the flame front, the bright dots of the fluorescent light are visible. The spatial-averaged intensity is approximately 120 counts. This value appears to be considerably lower than the 1800 counts at the flame front, where the signal should be the sum of the HCHO and TiO2 fluorescence. Thus, the contribution of the tracer particles to the PLIF intensity can be evaluated as 6.5%, which is very small (note that the Canny filter was not used during this test). Additional tests have been performed for turbulent swirling flames when the PIV system was not used and the TiO2 tracer particles were not added to the flow. No significant difference was observed between the images.

Fig. 20
figure 20

Effect of the spatial resolution (Δ is the window size) on the instantaneous snapshots of the PLIF data for the Bunsen flame. cHCHO,max = 1830, cOH,max = 31800

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Fig. 21
figure 21

Profiles of the PLIF intensity across the front of the Bunsen flame for various spatial resolutions

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Dulin, V.M., Lobasov, A.S., Chikishev, L.M. et al. On Impact of Helical Structures on Stabilization of Swirling Flames with Vortex Breakdown. Flow Turbulence Combust 103, 887–911 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10494-019-00063-7

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