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Turbulence-Driven Blowout Instabilities of Premixed Bluff-Body Flames

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Abstract

Bluff-body flame instabilities are experimentally investigated under varying turbulence conditions during lean blowout. For all turbulence conditions, the blowout process is induced through a temporal reduction of the fuel flow rate to capture the flame-flow dynamics approaching blowout. Simultaneous high-speed particle image velocimetry (PIV), stereoscopic PIV, and C2*/CH* chemiluminescence imaging are employed, along with an independent CH* imaging system, to capture flame-flow instabilities. Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) and dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) techniques are used to identify prominent flame oscillations and evaluate recurring spatiotemporal modes during blowout. The results reveal that the dominant flame oscillations and wrinkling characteristics are directly dependent on the turbulence conditions in the combustor. Specifically, the flame-flow oscillations are strongly coupled with the integral length scales, which were able to collapse the oscillation frequencies to a unified value. The turbulence-driven flame-flow oscillations are shown to largely impact the magnitude, temporal evolution, and oscillatory behavior of the flame strain rate. As the turbulence intensity is increased, the oscillation of the flame strain rate increases in frequency, making it more likely for localized extinctions to occur. Additionally, the magnitude of the flame strain rate increases at high turbulence intensities and accelerates the lean blowout process.

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taken from the low turbulence condition. The white triangle near the center represents the location of the largest v-velocity magnitude where the flow frequency analysis is conducted. b The peak flow field oscillation frequency (fflow) as a function of equivalence ratio (Φ)

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Notes

  1. Based on the analysis, the oscillation frequency should increase as the integral length scale decreases. To be more precise, this is only true if the integral length scales are larger than the laminar flame thickness (L11 > lf). Based on Damköhler’s hypothesis (Damkohler 1937), turbulent eddies that are smaller than the flame thickness will primarily influence thermal and diffusive transport in the flame, whereas eddies larger than the flame thickness will primarily distort the flame front, and thus alter the dominant oscillations and extinction process.

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Acknowledgements

This material is based upon work supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. The authors would also like to acknowledge Dr. Campbell Carter at the AFRL for providing equipment support for performing these experiments.

Funding

This study was funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research award numbers 16RT0673/FA9550-16–1-0441 and 19RT0258/FA9550-19–0322 by Program Manager: Dr. Chiping Li.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Research, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, 32816, USA

    Anthony J. Morales, Tommy Genova Jr., Jonathan Reyes & Kareem A. Ahmed

  2. Institute of Combustion Technology of the German Aerospace Center, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt (DLR), Institute für Verbrennungstechnik, Stuttgart, Germany

    Isaac Boxx

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  1. Anthony J. Morales
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Correspondence to Kareem A. Ahmed.

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Morales, A.J., Genova, T., Reyes, J. et al. Turbulence-Driven Blowout Instabilities of Premixed Bluff-Body Flames. Flow Turbulence Combust 108, 213–236 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10494-021-00269-8

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