Experimental investigation of the dynamics and structure of lean-premixed turbulent combustion

Turbulent premixed propane/air and methane/air flames were studied using planar Rayleigh scattering and particle image velocimetry on a stabilized Bunsen type burner. The fuel-air equivalence ratio was varied from &phis; = 0:7 to 1.0 for propane flames, and from &phis; = 0:6 to 1.0 for methane flames. The non-dimensional turbulence intensity, u'/ SL (ratio of fluctuation velocity to laminar burning velocity), covered the range from 3 to 24, equivalent to conditions of corrugated flamelets and thin reaction zones regimes. Temperature gradients decreased with the increasing u'/SL and levelled off beyond u'/SL > 10 for both propane and methane flames. Flame front thickness increased slightly as u'/SL increased for both mixtures, although the thickness increase was more noticeable for propane flames, which meant the thermal flame front structure was being thickened. A zone of higher temperature was observed on the average temperature profile in the preheat zone of the flame front as well as some instantaneous temperature profiles at the highest u'/SL. Curvature probability density functions were similar to the Gaussian distribution at all u'/ SL for both mixtures and for all the flame sections. The mean curvature values decreased as a function of u'/ SL and approached zero. Flame front thickness was smaller when evaluated at flame front locations with zero curvature than that with curvature. Temperature gradients and FSD were larger when the flame curvature was zero. The combined thickness and FSD data suggest that the curvature effect is more dominant than that of the stretch by turbulent eddies during flame propagation. Integrated flame surface density for both propane and methane flames exhibited no dependance on u'/S L regardless of the FSD method used for evaluation. This observation implies that flame surface area may not be the dominant factor in increasing the turbulent burning velocity and the flamelet assumption may not be valid under the conditions studied. Dkappa term, the product of diffusivity evaluated at conditions studied and the flame front curvature, was a magnitude smaller than or the same magnitude as the laminar burning velocity.