"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." --

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.

"The continued combustion of fossil fuels to fulfill global energy demand is being questioned because of the well-known problem of greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions, which introduces new carbon, in the form of carbon dioxide, into the environment causing climate change. However, the inherent advantages of combustion-based engines, e.g., energy and power densities, make it hard for other power systems to compete; hence, a leading strategy is to avoid burning fossil fuels by using alternative renewable fuels, such as hydrogen and renewable biofuels. Adaptability with alternative renewable fuels that have variable compositions is referred to as fuel flexibility, which is an important parameter of next-generation combustor design. However, fuel flexibility significantly affects combustor operability properties, such as blowout, flashback, and dynamic stability, mainly due to variations in turbulent burning rates. Changing the fuel and oxidizing-gas mixture composition affects flame characteristics and burning rates through changing: (1) mixture reactivity, which is represented by unstretched laminar flame speed, and (2) mixture diffusivity, i.e., the diffusivity of the deficient reactant and diffusivity of heat. The disparity between thermal and mass diffusivities at the flame front is known as "differential diffusion", which causes stretch sensitivity, and thermal-diffusive instabilities, in flame-front propagation, and is represented by Lewis number, a ratio of thermal-to-mass diffusivities.This thesis investigates the effects of differential diffusion and stretch sensitivity on propagation, stabilization, and structure of lean turbulent premixed flames in the thin reaction zone regime. In the context of fuel flexibility, various fuels and oxidizer-inert mixtures are used to form mixtures with distinct effective Lewis numbers, through changing both fuel diffusivity and thermal diffusivity of the mixture. In these experiments, the unstretched laminar flame speed is kept constant during mixture dilution, and hydrogen enrichment of hydrocarbon flames, through changing the mixture equivalence ratio, in order to minimize the effects of chemistry. Furthermore, bulk-flow properties and the temperature boundary condition are kept constant; hence, the study highlights the effects of differential diffusion. The experiments are carried out using strained counter-flow flames, in order to study the effects of both components of the flame stretch, i.e., hydrodynamic strain and curvature. Local instantaneous statistics of various flame parameters within the imaged plane are quantified using high-speed particle image velocimetry (PIV) and Mie scattering flame tomography at various levels of turbulence intensity. These statistics include flame location, flame velocity, and flame-front topology, such as flame stretch, flame-front curvature, and flame surface area.The statistics of various parameters of turbulent flames with distinct effective Lewis number show that the effects of differential diffusion on the burning rates and the structure of turbulent premixed flames are important in highly turbulent flames in the thin reaction zone of combustion. Furthermore, these results are not dependent on the fuel or oxidizing-gas mixture and can be described fully by the effective Lewis number and turbulence intensity. In addition, at constant turbulence intensities, differential diffusion increases the burning rate of turbulent flames in thermo-diffusively unstable mixtures through two main mechanisms: (1) increasing the local flamelet displacement velocity, and (2) increasing the flame surface area. This thesis shows the need to advance the combustion theory to produce models that can capture the effects of differential diffusion for flames in real-world combustion systems, in order to predict the performance of future fuel-flexible combustors. The experimental results of this thesis provide a valuable dataset for the validation of such theories." --

The combustion of fossil fuels remains a key technology for the foreseeable future. It is therefore important that we understand the mechanisms of combustion and, in particular, the role of turbulence within this process. Combustion always takes place within a turbulent flow field for two reasons: turbulence increases the mixing process and enhances combustion, but at the same time combustion releases heat which generates flow instability through buoyancy, thus enhancing the transition to turbulence. The four chapters of this book present a thorough introduction to the field of turbulent combustion. After an overview of modeling approaches, the three remaining chapters consider the three distinct cases of premixed, non-premixed, and partially premixed combustion, respectively. This book will be of value to researchers and students of engineering and applied mathematics by demonstrating the current theories of turbulent combustion within a unified presentation of the field.

Characteristics of turbulent premixed flames were investigated experimentally. The investigations were performed using Mie scattering, Particle Image Velocimetry, Rayleigh scattering, and broad-band luminosity imaging techniques. Methane-air flames associated with a relatively wide range of turbulence intensities, fuel-air equivalence ratios, and mean bulk flow velocities were investigated. For a relatively moderate value of turbulence intensity, a new concept is introduced and utilized to provide a detailed description associated with interaction of turbulent flow and flame front. The concept pertains to reactants velocity estimated at the vicinity of the flame front and is referred to as the edge velocity. Specifically, it is shown that fluctuations of the flame front position are induced by fluctuations of the edge velocity. For a relatively wide range of turbulence intensity, several characteristics of turbulent premixed flames, namely, front topology, brush thickness, surface density, and consumption speeds are investigated. For the first time, several flame front structures are identified and studied. It is shown that, due to formation of these front structures, the regime of turbulent premixed combustion transitions from the regime of counter-gradient diffusion to that of the gradient diffusion. In addition to these, a comprehensive study is performed to investigate influence of flame configuration on several flame front characteristics. It is obtained that, although changing the flame configuration influences several flame characteristics, the trends associated with the effects of governing parameters on the characteristics are nearly independent of the flame configuration.