Self-Turbulization in Cellularly Unstable Laminar Flames

Abstract

It has been suggested that a cellularly unstable laminar flame, which is freely propagating in unbounded space, can accelerate and evolve into a turbulent flame with the neighbouring flow exhibiting the basic characteristics of turbulence. Famously known as self-turbulization, this conceptual transition in the flow regime, which arises from local interactions between the propagating wrinkled flamefront and the flow, is critical in extreme events such as the deflagration-to-detonation transition (DDT) leading to supernova explosions. Recognizing that such a transition in the flow regime has not been conclusively demonstrated through experiments, in this work, we present experimental measurements of flow characteristics of flame-generated 'turbulence' for expanding cellular laminar flames. The energy spectra of such 'turbulence' at different stages of cellular instability are analysed. A subsequent scaling analysis points out that the observed energy spectra are driven by the fractal topology of the cellularly unstable flamefront.

Department(s)

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Keywords and Phrases

flames; instability; transition to turbulence

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0022-1120; 1469-7645

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2021 Cambridge University Press, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

25 Jun 2021

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