Influence of differential diffusion on super-equilibrium temperature in turbulent non-premixed hydrogen/air flames

In this paper we wish to investigate the occurrence of super-equilibrium temperature values, observed in many experimental configurations. We would like to understand the origin of this phenomenon. Previous authors have already shown that differential diffusion can lead to considerable changes in the temperature field and we would like to build on top of this observation. We investigate numerically super-equilibrium combustion by considering both laminar counter-flow and turbulent diluted hydrogen/air diffusion flames. These turbulent flames are computed using direct numerical simulations (DNS). A detailed reaction mechanism is employed and the transport properties are modeled using multicomponent diffusion velocities, including the Soret effect. Analyzing these results we introduce three complementary parameters (dilution-free mixture fraction, dilution excess and local enthalpy) to describe the local combustion conditions. Introducing a measure of dilution separately from the mixture fraction is necessary for a proper analysis. Using this set of parameters it becomes possible to explain super-equilibrium temperature levels as a consequence of differential diffusion.