Abstract
This is a study of the leading-edge characteristics of a methane-air triple flame. Few experiment results are available for physical examination of such characteristics, so further experimental investigations are strongly needed to understand the stability mechanism in a mixture with a steep concentration gradient. To this end, we measured concentration profiles at the leading edge of a flame using acetone laser-induced fluorescence (acetone LIF). The results demonstrated that the lifted height of the flame changed when acetone was added to the mixture and correlated well with increased C2 radical behind the flame edge. However, the OH radical luminous intensity, measured with a spectroscope, did not change with addition of acetone. Moreover, the burning velocity obtained by the Bunsen-burner method remained constant when acetone was added to the mixture. Therefore, acetone had little influence on burning intensity. Acetone LIF can thus be employed to measure the local concentration gradient at the leading edge of a flame. The acetone LIF signals could be corrected to consider the thermal effect by using silicone oil vanishing-plane data. From the corrected acetone LIF data, the width between the lean and rich flammability limits (flammability limit width) in the flow upstream of the flame with a steep concentration gradient was clearly observed and could be quantitatively compared with the recent numerical results.
