Numerical Study of an In-line Pre-Heating Treatment along the Axis on the Propagation of a Laminar Premixed Flame in a Channel

Abstract

In this study, an in-line pre-heating effect on the propagation of a laminar premixed flame in a two-dimensional channel is investigated numerically. An in-line pre-heating thickness of 1mm is generated by imposing uniform external high-temperature along the center line in the prescribed channel. It is found that the shapes of flame and propagation speeds are strongly affected by the pre-heating effect. The distribution of velocity pointed to ahead of the propagating flame (called negative velocity hereafter) is clearly observed which is susceptible to the generation of the pair of vortex in ahead of the flame tip. The evolution of negative flow field in front of premixed flame is successfully captured first ever in a time-dependent manner. The obtained flame propagation accompanied with the aforementioned negative velocity field is not only useful to elucidate the laser induced flame instability reported recently by Tsuchimoto et al. (2007), but also to consider the pure thermal effect on flame evolution, which is hard to obtain experimentally.

Keywords

• negative velocity
• pre-heating
• pair vortex
• laminar flame