The major objective of the research reported was to study the properties of constant scalar property surfaces in turbulent reacting flows. Two dimensional image measurements were made in premixed turbulent flames and in jets and jet flames. Point-in-space, time-series measurements were also made, and the data used to study the properties of surface crossing statistics in jets and premixed flames. In addition, the hypothesis that, for the purpose of estimating the mean surface area per unit volume, surfaces in turbulent flow can be represented by fractal surfaces was used to develop models for the mean chemical reaction rate in premixed flames and for the source term in the equation for intermittency in free jets. Also a new method for making conditional velocity measurements in premixed flames was developed and applied to obtain unique data for velocity in these flames and to study jumps, across flamelets, of certain velocity statistics. Major findings for the flows and conditions studied include: (1) for the premixed case flamelet surfaces are fractal as are constant mixture fraction surfaces in jets and constant temperature surfaces in jet flames; (2) in jets the surface fractal dimension is between 2.3 to 2.4; (3) level crossing sets from time-series data are not simple fractal sets; (4) the idea of fractal bursts is introduced to help interpret the crossing sets; and (5) unique fully-conditional velocity data give a measure of velocity jumps across flamelets in premixed combustion.

A work on turbulent premixed combustion is important because of increased concern about the environmental impact of combustion and the search for new combustion concepts and technologies. An improved understanding of lean fuel turbulent premixed flames must play a central role in the fundamental science of these new concepts. Lean premixed flames have the potential to offer ultra-low emission levels, but they are notoriously susceptible to combustion oscillations. Thus, sophisticated control measures are inevitably required. The editors' intent is to set out the modeling aspects in the field of turbulent premixed combustion. Good progress has been made on this topic, and this cohesive volume contains contributions from international experts on various subtopics of the lean premixed flame problem.

Partial contents: Supercritical droplet behavior; Fundamentals of acoustic instabilities in liquid-propellant rockets; Modeling liquid jet atomization proceses; Liquid-propellant droplets dynamics and combustions in supercritical forced convective environments; Contributions of shear coaxial injectors to liquid rocket motor combustion instabilities; High pressure combustion studies under combustion driven oscillatory flow conditions; Droplet collision on liquid propellant combustion; Combustion and plumes; Development of a collisional radiative emission model for strongly nonequilibrium flows; Energy transfer processes in the production of excited states in reacting rocket flows; modeling nonequilibrium radiation in high altitude plumes; kinetics of plume radiation, and of HEDMs and metallic fuels combustion; Nonsteady combustion mechanisms of advanced solid propellants; Chemical mechanisms at the burning surface. p15

This book contains a collection of papers prepared by leading experts on selected areas of particular importance to researchers in combustion science. The editors have gathered writings on fundamental physical and chemical aspects of combustion, including combustion chemistry, soot formation, and condensed phase and turbulent combustion intended to be a source of current understanding on the topics covered. The materials were originally presented as part of a Colloquium on Combustion held in honor of Professor Irvin Glassman.

"This thesis examines preferential diffusion effects in laminar and turbulent premixed combustion. Stretched, fuel-lean, laminar flames of methane, propane and hydrogen are studied experimentally in a counter-flow flame configuration to investigate the effect of Lewis number on stretched flames. Laminar flame results show that a maximum reference flame speed exists for mixtures with Le >= 1 at lower flame-stretch values than the extinction stretch rate. A continually-increasing reference flame speed is measured for Le “ 1 mixtures until extinction occurs when the flame is constrained by the stagnation point.Turbulent counter-flow flame experiments are then performed for these mixtures, using high-blockage turbulence-generating plates to produce turbulence intensities on the order of u'/sLo = 1 to 10. Measurements of average and instantaneous velocity within the turbulent flame are performed by time-resolved particle image velocimetry measurements. Average and instantaneous flame front position is also measured by Rayleigh spectroscopy.Measurements of average turbulent burning velocity demonstrate the ambiguity in definitions of the burning velocity and the difficulty of examining turbulent flame chemistry using averaged measurements. Instantaneous statistics are shown to be superior tools for studying turbulent combustion. The probability-density functions (PDF) of the local flamelet burning velocities for Le >= 1 mixtures show that the instantaneous flamelet burning velocities increase with increasing turbulence intensity and flame stretch. The PDF for the Le ~= 1 mixture has a sharply skewed shape at high turbulence intensity and has a sharp drop-off in probability at a velocity that corresponds with the experimentally-measured maximum reference flame speed from the laminar flame experiments. In contrast, in the Le “ 1 turbulent flames, the most-probable instantaneous flamelet burning velocities increase with increasing turbulence intensity and can significantly exceed the maximum reference flame speed measured in counter-flow laminar flames at extinction.These results are reinforced by instantaneous flame position measurements. Flame front location PDFs show the most probable flame location to be linked to velocity PDFs. Furthermore, hydrogen PDFs are recognizably skewed as u'/sLo increases, indicating a tendency for the Le “ 1 mixture to propagate farther into the unburned reactants. These results support the leading edge theory of premixed turbulent flame propagation for flames in which preferential diffusion effects are expected.In the study of turbulent flames, this work promotes the use of local, instantaneous statistics as a tool for describing experimental results and studying fuel chemistry." --

An experimental technique for obtaining simultaneous measurements of fluid velocity and flamelet position in premixed flames is described and applied in a turbulent V-flame. The flamelet position information is used to calculate conditional velocity statistics, conditional on both zone (reactants or products) as well as conditional on distance from the flamelet. The conditional zone statistics demonstrate that increases (or decreases) in turbulence across the flame are dependent on axial position and location within the flame brush. The product- zone conditional covariance, coupled with the measured conditional mean velocity profiles, indicate that turbulence generation by shear may be a significant contribution to product zone turbulence levels. Velocity statistics conditional on distance from the flamelet demonstrate a considerable interaction between the flamelet and velocity field. Man and rms velocities vary significantly with proximity to the flamelet, such that differences in velocities which which occur just across the flamelet surface. The change in rms velocities just across the flamelet is found to be anisotropic, with the largest increase (smallest decrease) occurring in the axial velocity component. Rms velocities conditional on flamelet position further support the hypothesis that increased product gas velocity fluctuations may have a significant component associated with turbulence generation by mean shear.