Flame Propagation Characteristics in a Heterogeneous Concentration Distribution of a Fuel-Air Mixture

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the flame propagation characteristics in the presence of a heterogeneous concentration distribution of a fuel-air mixture in order to provide fundamental knowledge of the effects of gaseous mixture concentration heterogeneity on the combustion process. Different propane-air mixture distributions were produced by the reciprocating movements of a pair of perforated plates in a constant volume combustion chamber. The mean equivalence ratio of the fuel-air mixture was varied from 0.7 on the lean side to 1.6 on the rich side, the turbulence intensity in the combustion chamber was also varied at levels of 0.185 m/s, 0.130 m/s, 0.100 m/s, and 0.0 m/s. By an independent control of the mixture distribution and the turbulence intensity in the combustion chamber, the flame structure and flame propagation speed at various heterogeneous levels of the mixture distribution were investigated in detail. The effects of the mean equivalence ratio on the flame behavior, as well as the correlation of the turbulence intensity with the flame propagation speed in different heterogeneous mixture distributions, were studied. The relationship of the flame propagation speed with the pressure rise in the combustion chamber during the early flame development was also analyzed in this paper.