The wrinkling of a flame due to viscosity

Conference · Fri Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1983 · HTD (Publ.) (Am. Soc. Mech. Eng.); (United States)

OSTI ID:5333923

Sethian, J A; Alpert, R L; Altenkirch, R A

The authors present a numerical study of flame wrinkling due to viscosity. They model a flame propagating in a swirling, viscous, premixed combustible fuel inside a closed, rectangular vessel, and analyze the influence of vorticity produced by the no-slip condition along solid walls on the motion of the flame. They show that viscosity wrinkles the flame front, increasing the surface area available for burning and thus accelerating the combustion process. They perform experiments over a range of nondimensional burning velocities, and show that the slower the flame speed, the greater the effect of viscosity on the rate of combustion, when compared to an inviscid calculation with the same flame speed.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California
• OSTI ID: 5333923
• Report Number(s): CONF-830702-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: HTD (Publ.) (Am. Soc. Mech. Eng.); (United States) Journal Volume: HTD-VOL.25
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
400800* -- Combustion
Pyrolysis
& High-Temperature Chemistry
42 ENGINEERING
420400 -- Engineering-- Heat Transfer & Fluid Flow
CALCULATION METHODS
CHEMICAL REACTION KINETICS
COMBUSTION KINETICS
CONFIGURATION
CONTAINERS
FLAME PROPAGATION
FLOW MODELS
FLUID FLOW
FUELS
KINETICS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
REACTION KINETICS
RECTANGULAR CONFIGURATION
SURFACE AREA
SURFACE PROPERTIES
TURBULENCE
VISCOSITY
VORTEX FLOW