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Density ratio effects on reacting bluff-body flow field characteristics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2012

Benjamin Emerson ,
Jacqueline O’Connor ,
Matthew Juniper  and
Tim Lieuwen
Benjamin Emerson*
Affiliation:
Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Aerospace Engineering, 270 Ferst Dr, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
Jacqueline O’Connor
Affiliation:
Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Aerospace Engineering, 270 Ferst Dr, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
Matthew Juniper
Affiliation:
Cambridge University Engineering Department, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK
Tim Lieuwen
Affiliation:
Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Aerospace Engineering, 270 Ferst Dr, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
*
†Email address for correspondence: bemerson@gatech.edu
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Abstract

The wake characteristics of bluff-body-stabilized flames are a strong function of the density ratio across the flame and the relative offset between the flame and shear layer. This paper describes systematic experimental measurements and stability calculations of the dependence of the flow field characteristics and flame sheet dynamics upon flame density ratio, , over the Reynolds number range of 1000–3300. We show that two fundamentally different flame/flow behaviours are observed at high and low values: a stable, noise-driven fixed point and limit-cycle oscillations, respectively. These results are interpreted as a transition from convective to global instability and are captured well by stability calculations that used the measured velocity and density profiles as inputs. However, in this high-Reynolds-number flow, the measurements show that no abrupt bifurcation in flow/flame behaviour occurs at a given value. Rather, the flow field is highly intermittent in a transitional range, with the relative fraction of the two different flow/flame behaviours monotonically varying with . This intermittent behaviour is a result of parametric excitation of the global mode growth rate in the vicinity of a supercritical Hopf bifurcation. It is shown that this parametric excitation is due to random fluctuations in relative locations of the flame and shear layer.

JFM classification

Instability: Absolute/convective instability Reacting Flows: Combustion Wakes/Jets: Wakes
Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 706 , 10 September 2012 , pp. 219 - 250
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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Footnotes

‡

Present address: Sandia National Laboratories, Engine Combustion Department, PO Box 969 MS 9053, Livermore, CA 94551-0969, USA.

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