Experimental and numerical studies of fuel and hydrodynamic effects on piloted turbulent premixed jet flames

An experimental and numerical investigation of fuel and hydrodynamic effects is performed on piloted pre-mixed jet flames. The investigation is carried out at a constant laminar flame speed, varying heat losses, jet Reynolds number, fuel molecular weight, and fuel chemical classification. Large Eddy Simulations are performed in an attempt to reproduce the behaviors observed experimentally. Simulations are compared against well-characterized boundary conditions, well-resolved two-dimensional velocity fields from particle image velocimetry, and line-of-sight CH* profiles. Experimental results indicate that small amounts of heat losses may play a significant role on the jet reactivity as the flame heights scale with the heat loss from the jet. However, differences between flames with different fuels can still be seen in the absence of heat losses and these differences are magnified at higher Reynolds numbers. Particularly, methane flames are consistently taller and ethylene flames consistently shorter while other fuels present approximately the same flame height. LES reproduce the experimentally observed trends in global flame heights (effects of heat losses and Reynolds number) but some of the differences between fuels are not captured. (C) 2016 by The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc.