A numerical and experimental investigation of premixed methane-air flame transient response

The authors report the results of a numerical and experimental investigation of the response of premixed methane-air flames to transient strain-rate disturbances induced by a two-dimensional counter-rotating vortex-pair. The numerical and experimental time histories of flow and flame evolution are matched over a 10 ms interaction time. Measurements and computations of CH and OH peak data evolution are reported, and found to indicate mis-prediction of the flame time scales in the numerical model. Qualitative transient features of OH at rich conditions are not predicted in the computations. On the other hand, evolution of computed and measured normalized HCO fractions are in agreement. The computed CH{sub 3}O response exhibits a strong transient driven by changes to internal flame structure, namely temperature profile steepening, induced by the flow field. Steady state experimental PLIF CH{sub 3}O data is reported, but experimental transient CH{sub 3}O data is not available. The present analysis indicates that the flame responds at time scales that are quite distinct from ``propagation'' time scale derived from flame thickness and burning speed. Evidently, these propagation time scales are not adequate for characterizing the transient flame response