Determination of Unstretched Laminar Burning Velocity by Simultaneous Measurements of Flame Radius and Pressure-Time Trace Using Constant Volume Method

Values of laminar burning velocity obtained by the constant volume method suffer from the inaccuracies introduced by the semi-analytical burned gas mass fraction model and flame stretch. A cylindrical combustion chamber with full optical access was developed in the present study, enabling the photography of the flame until the flame touches the inner wall of the combustion chamber. This enables direct visualization of the flame, thus eliminating the dependency on burned gas mass fraction models. The values of laminar burning velocity obtained by simultaneous measurement of flame radius and pressure-time data using the constant volume method are not stretch-free. This paper also develops a methodology for stretch correction based on the determined laminar burning velocity. Experiments were performed on mixtures of methane and air at initial pressures (0.8-1.05 bar), initial temperatures (293-320 K) and equivalence ratios (0.8-1.2). Stretch-corrected laminar burning velocity for lean, stoichiometric, and rich methane-air flames has been obtained in the present study, and the results obtained are validated against available experimental data and 1-D flame computations. It is expected that the proposed method significantly reduces the inaccuracies in laminar burning velocity obtained by the constant volume method.