Ultra-lean hydrogen-air flames initiated by a hot surface

The benefits of using hydrogen as a fuel for rocket engines dictate the necessity of a deep understanding of possible scenarios of hydrogen ignition and subsequent combustion. Safety requirements on launch sites and hydrogen transportation and storage facilities should be elaborated based on a thorough investigation of hydrogen flame development. The paper aims to provide a detailed numerical analysis of the hot wall ignition of hydrogen-air mixtures with compositions near low flammability limits. It is shown that the development of ultra-lean flames initiated by a hot spot on the solid wall possesses several features compared to ultra-lean flames ignited by a point energy source. Three modes of flame development are observed: stable flame column with bow-shaped flame structure on top, individual flame kernel, and unstable flame column with multiple kernels generation. Effects of mixture composition, along with the impact of hot spot size, are analyzed. Column tip acceleration mechanism is determined. All of the combustion modes obtained are grouped in the diagram, providing information on the limits of various combustion modes depending on the mixture concentration and hot spot size.