TURBULENT PARTIALLY PREMIXED FLAMES OF NITROGEN-DILUTED METHANE NEAR EXTINCTION

Spontaneous Raman/Rayleigh measurements have been carried out in turbulent partially premixed flames of nitrogen-diluted methane near extinction. The flames are created in a reverse flow reactor (RFR) and are stabilized by means of a recirculation zone. The flames are stretched by reducing the residence time of the flow within the reactor. The mean profiles, scatter plots, and conditional pdfs are used to study the flame structure in the present investigation. The detailed structure studies have been carried out in two shear layers, where the stretch rates are highest. The data presented in this article are for two flames close to extinction at low residence times (3.6 and 5.1 ms). The flame structure at both shear layers shows quite significant chemical kinetic effects on approaching extinction. These effects reduce the products concentration and temperature and increase the reactants. Also, these effects increase the CO concentration. A substantial decrease in the reactedness of the reactive scalars has also been found at both shear layers on approaching extinction. The flame structure shows broad distribution between the equilibrium and frozen limits with no obvious bimodality. From the conditional pdfs, the reactedness decreases around stoichiometric and increases at the lean side of the stoichiometric. © 1991.