Response of Stretched Cylindrical Diffusion Flame to Sinusoidal Oscillation of Air Flow Velocity

An experimental study investigated the characteristics of a stretched cylindrical diffusion flame, with a convex curvature with respect to the air stream, in response to periodic air flow velocity oscillation. The fuel was methane diluted with nitrogen, and the oxidizer air. The oscillation frequency was varied from 5 to 250 Hz. The results are summarized as follows. Though the fluctuation amplitude of the air stream velocity gradient was constant with respect to the frequency, the amplitude of the fuel stream increased. The fluctuation amplitude of the flame radius changed quasi-steadily from 5 to 25 Hz, and decreased with increasing frequency in the frequency range greater than 50 Hz. The flame luminosity did not respond quasi-steadily at 5 Hz, and the oscillation amplitude of flame luminosity was less than that of a steady flame, over the same velocity fluctuation range. The oscillation amplitude of luminosity peaked at 50 Hz, and was greater than that of a steady flame. It is considered that this complex change in flame luminosity with respect to frequency was closely related to the phase difference in the respective time variations in the ratio of flame thickness to radius, the velocity gradients of the air and fuel streams, and the magnitude of these values, with the ratio of flame thickness to radius related to the flame curvature effect, the velocity gradient of the air stream correlated to the flame stretch effect, and the velocity gradient of the fuel stream impacting the fuel transportation.