Flames, Flows and Their Interactions

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Laminar flames can, under certain conditions, be inherently unstable, leading to wrinkled or corrugated structures. It is clear that the general character of the instability is intimately tied to the underlying fluid flow and by the extent of heat transfer away from the flame front. Stratified mixtures exist in many combustion environments, creating a curved and possibly unsteady propagating flame front. The proposed research is directed towards a fundamental understanding of the behavior and response of a laminar, premixed flame to such non-uniformities in the flow field. Droplet vaporization and combustion will also be investigated. The techniques to be used are the asymptotic and perturbation methods supplemented by numerical calculations, with the results compared to observed physical phenomena. One's understanding of the behavior of combustion in systems as complex as engines and furnaces is often enhanced by an analytical model of a much simplified description which isolates one or two controlling physical parameters. This theoretical study will attempt to stretch the application of asymptotic and perturbation techniques to premixed flames propagating in non-uniform mixtures, with the objective of gaining insight into the effects of strain rate, flame front curvature, vorticity, mass diffusion, and heat transfer on the flame stability.