Transient convective burning of interactive fuel droplets in single-layer arrays

The transient convective burning of n-octane droplets interacting within single-layer arrays in a hot gas flow perpendicular to the layer is studied numerically, with considerations of droplet surface regression, deceleration due to the drag of the droplets, internal liquid motion, variable properties, non-uniform liquid temperature and surface tension. Infinite periodic arrays, semi-infinite periodic arrays with one row of droplets (linear array) or two rows of droplets, and finite arrays with nine droplets with centers in a plane are investigated. All arrays are aligned orthogonal to the free stream direction. This paper compares the behavior of semi-infinite periodic arrays and finite arrays with the behavior of previously studied infinite periodic arrays. Furthermore, it identifies the critical values of the initial Damköhler number for bifurcations in flame behavior at various initial droplet spacing for all these arrays. The initial flame shape is either an envelope flame or a wake flame as determined by the initial Damköhler number, the array configuration and the initial droplet spacing. The critical initial Damköhler number separating initial wake flames from initial envelope flames decreases with increasing interaction amongst droplets at intermediate droplet spacing (when the number of rows in the array increases or the initial droplet spacing decreases for a specific number of rows in the array). In the transient process, an initial wake flame has a tendency to develop from a wake flame to an envelope flame, with the moment of wake-to-envelope transition advanced for the increasing interaction amongst droplets at intermediate droplet spacing. For the array with nine droplets with centers in a plane, the droplets at different types of positions have different critical initial Damköhler number and different wake-to-envelope transition time for initial wake flame.     

Transient convective burning of a periodic fuel-droplet array

The transient convective burning of fuel-droplets interacting within 3-D infinite periodic arrays in a hot gas stream is numerically studied for the first time, with considerations of droplet regression, deceleration due to the drag of the droplets, internal liquid motion, variable properties, non-uniform liquid temperature, surface tension, and n-octane one-step oxidation kinetics. Depending upon the initial conditions and other constraints, a flame is established early as either a wake flame or an envelope flame. An initial envelope flame remains an envelope flame, and an initial wake flame has a tendency to develop from a wake flame to an envelope flame. The flame shows no strong tendency to modify significantly the standoff distance during the lifetime of the droplet. For an initial wake flame, the moment of wake-to-envelope transition is advanced as the initial droplet spacing (intermediate) is decreased, but tends to be postponed as the initial droplet spacing is further reduced. The burning rate at smaller initial droplet spacing or smaller initial Reynolds number might be greater for some period during the lifetime because of an earlier wake-to-envelope transition which elevates the average surface temperature. Lower ambient temperature yields a later wake-to-envelope transition time and smaller mass burning rate. At the lower ambient pressure with the same initial relative stream velocity, the average surface temperature is reduced, the wake-to-envelope transition is later, and the mass burning rate is smaller. Validation of our analysis is made by comparing with the results of an isolated droplet Wu and Sirignano [11].     

Flame structure and stabilization of lean-premixed sprays in a counterflow with low-volatility fuel

An experimental study was performed on the combustion of lean-premixed spays in a counterflow. n-Decane was used as a liquid fuel with low volatility. The flame structure and stabilization were discussed based on the flame-spread mechanism of a droplet array with a low-volatility fuel. The spray flame consisted of a blue region and a yellow luminous region. The flame spread among droplets and group-flame formation through the droplet interaction were observed on the premixed spray side, while envelope flames were also observed on the opposing airflow side. The blue-flame region consisted of premixed flames propagating in the mixture layer around each droplet, the envelope diffusion flames around each droplet, the lower parts of the group diffusion flame surrounding each droplet cluster, and the envelope flame around droplets passing through the group flame. The flame was stabilized within a specific range of the mean droplet diameter via a balance between the droplet velocity and the flame-spread rate of the premixed spray.     

Vaporization and combustion in three-dimensional droplet arrays

The quasi-steady vaporization and combustion of multiple-droplet arrays is studied numerically. Utilizing the Shvab–Zeldovich formulation, a transformation of the governing equations to a three-dimensional Laplace’s equation is performed, and the solution to Laplace’s equation is obtained numerically to find the effects of droplet interactions in symmetric, multiple-droplet arrays. Vaporization rates, flame surface shapes, and flame locations are found for different droplet array configurations and fuels. The number of droplets, the droplet arrangement within the arrays, and the droplet spacing within the arrays are varied to determine the effects of these parameters. Computations are performed for uniformly spaced three-dimensional arrays of up to 216 droplets, with center-to-center spacing ranging from 3 to 25 droplet radii. As a result of the droplet interactions, the number of droplets and relative droplet spacing significantly affect the vaporization rate of individual droplets within the array, and consequently the flame shape and location. For small droplet spacing, the individual droplet vaporization rate decreases below that obtained for an isolated droplet by several orders of magnitude. A similarity parameter which correlates vaporization rates with array size and spacing is identified. Individual droplet flames, internal group combustion, and external group combustion can be observed depending on the droplet geometry and boundary conditions.     

Nonane droplet combustion with and without buoyant convection: Flame structure, burning rate and extinction in air and helium

The burning and extinction characteristics of isolated small nonane droplets are examined in a buoyant convective environment and in an environment with no external axial convection (as created by doing experiments at low gravity) to promote spherical droplet flames. The ambience is air and a mixture of 30%O₂/70%He to assess the influence of soot formation. The initial droplet diameter (D_o) ranges from 0.4 to 0.95 mm. Measurements are reported of the extinction diameter and time to extinction, and of the evolution of droplet diameter, flame diameter, soot shell diameter, burning rate, and broadband radiative emissions.In a buoyancy-free environment for air larger droplets burn slower than smaller droplets for the range of D_o examined, which is attributed to the influence of soot. In the presence of a buoyant flow in air, no influence of D_o is observed on the burning rate while the buoyant flames are still heavily sooting. The effect of D_o is believed to be due to a combination of dominance of the nonluminous, nonsooting, portion of the buoyant flame around the forward half of the droplet on heat transport and the secondary role of the luminous wake portion of the flame. In a non-sooting helium inert at low gravity, no effect of D_o is found on the evolution of droplet diameter.Flame extinction is observed only in the 30%O₂/70%He ambience. For all of the observations, extinction appears to occur before the disappearance of the droplet which is then followed by a period of evaporation. The extinction diameter and time to extinction increases with D_o and an empirical correlation is presented for these two variables.     

Identification of droplet burning modes in lean, partially prevaporized swirl-stabilized spray flames

Experimental and numerical investigations of single droplet burning modes in a lean, partially prevaporized swirl-stabilized spray flame are reported. In the experiment single droplet flames have been visualized by CH-PLIF and simultaneous recording of the Mie signal. Two single droplet burning modes were identified: the envelope flame is a spherical diffusion flame burning at near-stoichiometric conditions. The wake flame is a potentially lean, partially premixed flame located downstream of the droplet. The droplet burning mode is of practical relevance, since it has significant impact on NO formation due to incomplete prevaporization.The droplet burning mode is determined by the ratio of chemical and convective time scales. The convective time scale is related to the droplet slip velocity. The impact of turbulent gas phase velocity fluctuations on droplet mechanics and droplet burning is discussed, based on a previous numerical investigation. In the present study the droplet slip velocity was measured with the 3D Phase Doppler (3D-PD) technique. For the measured slip velocities and ambient conditions in the hot gas region of the spray flame, simulations of single droplet burning were performed utilizing detailed models for chemical reaction, diffusive transport and vaporization. An agreement between the droplet burning modes predicted by the simulation and the droplet burning modes observed in the experiments was found.     

Observation of droplet motion during flame spread on three-fuel-droplet array with a pendulum suspender

Flame spread on a fuel droplet array has been studied as a simple model of spray combustion. A three-fuel-droplet array with a pendulum suspender was employed to investigate interactions between flame spread and droplet motion in the axial direction. Initial droplet diameter was 0.8 mm, and fuel was n-heptane. A silicon carbide pendulum suspender of 15 μm in diameter and 30 mm in length was used for the third droplet. The first fixed droplet was ignited by electric spark. Behavior of the flame and the third droplet was observed using a high-speed video camera with an image intensifier. Particle tracking velocimetry (PTV) measurements were performed to explain the behavior of the third movable droplet. The dimensionless droplet span, which is the average of droplet-to-droplet distances divided by the average initial diameter of the three droplets, was varied from 2.5 to 8 for observing flame spread, and fixed at 5.5 for PTV measurements. It was observed that the third droplet moved away from the second droplet before the flame spread to the third droplet. The displacement of the third droplet is remarkable when the dimensionless droplet span is close to the limit of flame spread. This implies that the movement of the droplet decreases the dimensionless span of the flame spread limit and the flame spread speed near the flame spread limit. Results of PTV measurements suggest that the heat expansion wave, caused by ignition of the premixture which was accumulated around the second droplet, and the burned gas flow from the second droplet pushed away the third droplet; then natural convection, induced by the flames of the first and second droplets, drew the third droplet to the second droplet. The heat expansion wave and the burned gas flow of the second droplet reached nearly 12 in dimensionless span.     

Combustion characteristics and liquid-phase visualisation of single isolated diesel droplet with surface contaminated by soot particles

The combustion generated soot contamination effect on a single diesel droplet ignition and burning was investigated experimentally for the first time. Diesel droplet flame was used to contaminate the droplet to be investigated prior to ignition. Distinct differences in lifetime and stability of the burning of the neat and contaminated droplet samples were observed in their heating, boiling and disruptive phases. For a soot-contaminated droplet surface, the evaporation rate became weaker as a result of slower mass transfer thus contracted the flame formation. Contrary to the burning rate enhancement of droplet with stable and uniform suspension of particles observed by other researchers, the slightest contamination of soot particles in a fuel droplet surface can significantly reduce the burning rate. Denser agglomeration of soot can form a shell on the droplet surface which blocks the flow of gas escaping through the surface thus distort the droplet even further. At late combustion stage, bubbles are observed to rapture on the surface of the soot-contaminated droplet. Strong ejections of volatile liquid and vapour that would explode shortly after parting from the droplet are observed. It seems that the explosion and burning of ejected mixture have little interactions with the enveloped flame surrounding the primary droplet. Enhanced visualisation of droplet liquid-phase has clearly indicated the cause of declining trend in the burning rate and flame stand-off ratio of soot-contaminated diesel droplet. These insights are of significance for understanding the effect of fuel droplet contamination by combustion generated soot particles.     

Effect of non-zero relative velocity on the flame speed of two-phase laminar flames

A numerical study of one-dimensional n-heptane/air spray flames is presented. The objective is to evaluate the flame propagation speed in the case where droplets evaporate inside the reaction zone with possibly non-zero relative velocity. A Direct Numerical Simulation approach for the gaseous phase is coupled to a discrete particle Lagrangian formalism for the dispersed phase. A global two-step n-heptane/air chemical mechanism is used. The effects of initial droplet diameter, overall equivalence ratio, liquid loading and relative velocity between gaseous and liquid phases on the laminar spray flame speed and structure are studied. For lean premixed cases, it is found that the laminar flame speed decreases with increasing initial droplet diameter and relative velocity. On the contrary, rich premixed cases show a range of diameters for which the flame speed is enhanced compared to the corresponding purely gaseous flame. Finally, spray flames controlled by evaporation always have lower flame speeds. To highlight the controlling parameters of spray flame speed, approximate analytical expressions are proposed, which give the correct trends of the spray flame propagation speed behavior for both lean and rich mixtures.     

Combustion behaviors of isolated n-decane and ethanol droplets in carbon dioxide-rich ambience under microgravity

The burning and sooting behaviors of isolated fuel droplets for ethanol and n-decane are examined in high concentration of the ambient carbon dioxide under microgravity. A quartz fiber with the diameter of 50 μm maintains the droplet in the center of the combustion chamber and the range in the initial droplet diameter is from 0.30 to 0.80 mm. The ambience consists of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide. The concentration of oxygen is 21% in volume, and that of carbon dioxide is varied from 0% to 60% in volume. Detail measurements of the projected image of the droplet are conducted by using a high speed video camera and the effective droplet diameter squared are calculated from the surface area of the rotating body of the projected object. From evolutions of the droplet diameter squared, the instantaneous burning rates are calculated. Time history of the instantaneous burning rate clearly represents the droplet combustion events, such as the initial thermal expansion, ignition and following combustion. The instantaneous burning rate for n-decane shows an increasing trend during combustion, while that for non-sooting ethanol remains almost constant or shows a decreasing trend. A slight stepwise increase in the instantaneous burning rate is observed for larger n-decane droplets in air, which may be attributed to soot accumulation. However, this behavior of the burning rate disappears in higher concentration of carbon dioxide. Direct observation of the droplet flame indicates suppression of soot production in higher concentration of carbon dioxide and the suppression is enhanced for smaller droplet.     

Microgravity experiments of flame spreading along a fuel droplet array in fuel vapor-air mixture

Combustion experiments of fuel droplet array in fuel vapor-air mixture were performed at microgravities to investigate growth mechanism of group combustion of fuel droplets. A 10-droplet array was inserted into the test section filled with a saturated fuel vapor-air mixture as a simple model of prevaporized sprays. Gas equivalence ratio of the fuel vapor-air mixture was regulated by the test section temperature. n-Decane droplets of 0.8 mm in the initial diameter were suspended at the crossing points of 10 sets of X-shaped suspenders. The first droplet was ignited by a hot wire to initiate flame spread along a fuel droplet array. Flame spread speed was obtained from the history of the leading edge position of a spreading flame. Effects of droplet spacing and gas equivalence ratio on the flame spreading behavior and the flame spread speed were examined. The droplet spacing and the gas equivalence ratio were varied from 1.6 to 10.2 mm and from 0.2 to 0.7, respectively. The gas equivalence ratio has little effect on the relationship between the flame spreading behavior and the droplet spacing. The flame spread speed increases as the increase in the gas equivalence ratio at all droplet spacings. The influence of the gas equivalence ratio on the flame spread speed becomes strong as the increase in the droplet spacings. The flame spread speed increases as the increase in the droplet spacing, and then decreases. The maximum flame spread speed appears in the range from 2.4 to 3 mm at all gas equivalence ratios.     

Burning rates of turbulent iso-octane aerosol mixtures in spherical flame explosions

Experimental studies of aerosol combustion under quiescent and turbulence conditions have been conducted to quantify the differences in the flame structure and burning rates between aerosol and gaseous mixtures. Turbulence was generated by variable speed fans to yield rms turbulence velocities between 0.5 and 4.0 m/s and this was uniform and isotropic. Homogeneously distributed and near monodispersed iso-octane-air aerosol clouds were generated using a thermodynamic condensation method. Spherically expanding flames, following central ignition, at near atmospheric pressures were employed to quantify the flame structure and propagation rate. The effects of the diameter of fine fuel droplets on flame propagation were investigated. It is suggested that the inertia of fuel droplets is an important cause of flame enhancement during early flame development. During later stages, cellular flame instability and the effective, gaseous phase, equivalence ratio becomes important. The latter effect leads has increases the flame speed of rich mixtures, but decreases that of lean ones. Droplet enhancement of burning velocity can be significant at low turbulence but is negligible at high turbulence.     

Microgravity experiments on droplet motion during flame spreading along three-fuel-droplet array

Flame spreading along a fuel droplet array at microgravity has been studied as a simple model of spray combustion. A three droplet array with a pendulum suspender was employed to investigate interactions between flame spreading and droplet motion in the array direction. Initial droplet diameter was 0.8 mm and fuel was n-heptane. A silicon carbide pendulum suspender of 15 μm in diameter and 30 mm in length was used for the third droplet. The first fixed droplet was ignited by electric spark. Behavior of the flame and the third droplet was observed using a high-speed video camera. Dimensionless span, which is the averaged droplet span divided by the averaged initial diameter of the three droplets, was varied from 2.7 to 10. Large displacement of the movable droplet was observed after group flame grew around the movable droplet. As the initial dimensionless span increased, the averaged droplet speed after the occurrence of flame spreading to the movable droplet increased steeply, taking the maximum value around 5 in initial dimensionless span, and then decreased gradually. The movable droplet advanced toward the second droplet in small spans and moved away from the second droplet in large spans. The direction of the motion changed around 4.6 in initial dimensionless span. Flame spread induction time from the second to the third droplet increased exponentially as the initial dimensionless span was increased. The induction time of flame spreading to a movable droplet was longer than that of flame spreading to a fixed droplet. From calculations of flame spreading along a 20-droplet array, it was predicted that the droplet speed nearly converged after flame spread to the sixteenth droplet. The maximum speed of the nineteenth droplet appeared around 7.5 in the initial dimensionless span.     

Effects of fine fuel droplets on a laminar flame stabilized in a partially prevaporized spray stream

A partially prevaporized spray burner was developed to investigate the interaction between fuel droplets and a flame. Monodispersed partially prevaporized ethanol sprays with narrow diameter distribution were generated by the condensation method using rapid pressure reduction of a saturated ethanol vapor–air mixture. A tilted flat flame was stabilized at the nozzle exit using a hot wire. Particle tracking velocimetry (PTV) was applied to measurements of the droplet velocity; the laminar burning velocity was obtained from gas velocity derived from the droplet velocity. Observations were made of flames in partially prevaporized spray streams with mean droplet diameters of 7 μm and the liquid equivalence ratios of 0.2; the total equivalence ratio was varied. In all cases, a sharp vaporization plane was observed in front of the blue flame. Flame oscillation was observed on the fuel-rich side. At strain rates under 50 s⁻¹, the change in the burning velocity with the strain rate is small in fuel-lean spray streams. In spray streams of 0.7 and 0.8 in the total equivalence ratio, burning velocity increases with strain rates of greater than 50 s⁻¹. However, in spray streams with 0.9 and 1.0 in the total equivalence ratio, burning velocity decreases as the strain rate increases. At strain rates greater than 80 s⁻¹, burning velocity decreases with an increased gas equivalence ratio. The effect of mean droplet diameter, and the entry length of droplets into a flame on the laminar burning velocity, were also investigated to interpret the effect of the strain rate on the laminar burning velocity of partially prevaporized sprays.     

Combustion characteristics and detailed simulations of surrogates for a Tier II gasoline certification fuel

An experimental and numerical study of combustion of a gasoline certification fuel (‘indolene’), and four (S4) and five (S5) component surrogates for it, is reported for the configurations of an isolated droplet burning with near spherical symmetry in the standard atmosphere, and a single cylinder engine designed for advanced compression ignition of pre-vaporized fuel. The intent was to compare performance of the surrogate for these different combustion configurations and to assess the broader applicability of the kinetic mechanism and property database for the simulations. A kinetic mechanism comprised of 297 species and 16,797 reactions was used in the simulations that included soot formation and evolution, and accounted for unsteady transport, liquid diffusion inside the droplet, radiative heat transfer, and variable properties. The droplet data showed a clear preference for the S5 surrogate in terms of burning rate. The simulations showed generally very good agreement with measured droplet, flame, and soot shell diameters. Measurements of combustion timing, in-cylinder pressure, and mass-averaged gas temperature were also well predicted with a slight preference for the S5 surrogate. Preferential vaporization was not evidenced from the evolution of droplet diameter but was clearly revealed in simulations of the evolution of mixture fractions inside the droplets. The influence of initial droplet diameter (D_o) on droplet burning was strong, with S5 burning rates decreasing with increasing D_o due to increasing radiation losses from the flame. Flame extinction was predicted for D_o =3.0 mm as a radiative loss mechanism but not predicted for smaller D_o for the conditions of the simulations.     

Influence of micro-explosions on the stability of laminar premixed water-in-fuel emulsion spray flames

A model is presented for a one-dimensional laminar premixed flame, propagating into a rich, off-stoichiometric, fresh homogenous mixture of water-in-fuel emulsion spray, air and inert gas. Due to its relatively large latent heat of vaporisation, the water vapour acts to cool the flame that is sustained by the prior release of fuel vapour. To simplify the inherent complexity that characterises the analytic solution of multi-phase combustion processes, the analysis is restricted to fuel-rich laminar premixed water-in-fuel flames, and assumes a single-step global chemical reaction mechanism. The main purpose is to investigate the steady-state burning velocity and burnt temperature as functions of parameters such as initial water content in the emulsified droplet and total liquid droplet loading. In particular, the influence of micro-explosion of the spray’s droplets on the flame’s characteristics is highlighted for the first time. Steady-state analytical solutions are obtained and the sensitivity of the flame temperature and the flame propagating velocity to the initial water content of the micro-exploding emulsion droplets is established. A linear stability analysis is also performed and reveals the manner in which the micro-explosions influence the neutral stability boundaries of both cellular and pulsating instabilities.     

Experimental study of the effect of helium/nitrogen concentration and initial droplet diameter on nonane droplet combustion with minimal convection

In this paper, we study the influence of inert concentration and initial droplet diameter on nonane (C₉H₂₀) droplet combustion in an environment that promotes spherical droplet flames. The oxygen concentration is fixed while the inert is varied between nitrogen and helium. A range of initial droplet diameters (D_o) are examined in each ambient gas: 0.4 mm < D_o < 0.8 mm; and an oxidizing ambiance consisting of 30% oxygen (fixed) and 70% inert (fixed), with the inert in turn composed of mixtures of nitrogen and helium in concentrations of 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100% N₂. The experiments are carried out at normal atmospheric pressure in a cold ambiance (room temperature) under low gravity to minimize the influence of convection and promote spherical droplet flames. For burning within a helium inert (0% N₂), the droplet flames are entirely blue and there is no influence of initial droplet diameter on the local burning rate (K). With increasing dilution by nitrogen, droplet flames show significant yellow luminosity indicating the presence of soot and the individual burning histories show K reducing with increasing D_o. The evolution of droplet diameter D(t) is nonlinear for a given D_o in the presence of either helium or nitrogen inerts indicating that soot formation has little to do with nonlinear burning. A correlation is presented of the data in the form where the effective burning rate, K′, and ε are concentration-dependent. Correlations for these parameters are presented in the paper.     

Polydisperse effects in jet spray flames

A laminar jet polydisperse spray diffusion flame is analysed mathematically for the first time using an extension of classical similarity solutions for gaseous jet flames. The analysis enables a comparison to be drawn between conditions for flame stability or flame blow-out for purely gaseous flames and for spray flames. It is found that, in contrast to the Schmidt number criteria relevant to gas flames, droplet size and initial spray polydispersity play a critical role in determining potential flame scenarios. Some qualitative agreement for lift-off height is found when comparing predictions of the theory and sparse independent experimental evidence from the literature.     

On the behaviour of organic gel multi-size spray diffusion flames

The recently reported, experimentally observed, unusual behaviour of organic gellant-based fuel droplets which, under appropriate ambient thermal conditions, evaporate and burn in an oscillatory fashion is incorporated in a phenomenological manner in a model of a two-dimensional arbitrary multi-size spray diffusion flame. Non-unity Lewis numbers are permitted for the fuel vapour and oxidant. A combined analytical/numerical solution of the governing equations is presented and used to investigate how a spray's initial polydispersity and the frequency of oscillatory evaporation influence the combustion field. It is demonstrated that the initial droplet size distribution and the frequency of evaporation of the burning gel droplets can have an acute impact both on the homogeneous diffusion flame shape, height and width and on the thermal field downstream of the flame front. Hot spots of individual (or clusters of) burning droplets can be created and under certain operating conditions can lead to hotter temperatures than experienced in the main homogeneous flame. The intensity of these hotspots, their number and location are sensitive to spray related parameters. In realistic combustion chambers there is a danger inherent in the existence of hotspots in undesirable regions as they can damage the structural integrity. Other computed results demonstrate that, in relation to the spray diffusion flames obtained using an equivalent purely liquid fuel spray, the use of a gel fuel spray can lead, under certain operating conditions, to a reduction in flame height and temperature. The latter effect is critical when considering flame extinction.     

Influence of water mist on propagation and suppression of laminar premixed flame

The combustion of premixed gas mixtures containing micro droplets of water was studied using one-dimensional approximation. The dependencies of the burning velocity and flammability limits on the initial conditions and on the properties of liquid droplets were analyzed. Effects of droplet size and concentration of added liquid were studied. It was demonstrated that the droplets with smaller diameters are more effective in reducing the flame velocity. For droplets vaporizing in the reaction zone, the burning velocity is independent of droplet size, and it depends only on the concentration of added liquid. With further increase of the droplet diameter the droplets are passing through the reaction zone with completion of vaporization in the combustion products. It was demonstrated that for droplets above a certain size there are two stable stationary modes of flame propagation with transition of hysteresis type. The critical conditions of the transition are due to the appearance of the temperature maximum at the flame front and the temperature gradient with heat losses from the reaction zone to the products, as a result of droplet vaporization passing through the reaction zone. The critical conditions are similar to the critical conditions of the classical flammability limits of flame with the thermal mechanism of flame propagation. The maximum decrease in the burning velocity and decrease in the combustion temperature at the critical turning point corresponds to predictions of the classical theories of flammability limits of Zel'dovich and Spalding. The stability analysis of stationary modes of flame propagation in the presence of water mist showed the lack of oscillatory processes in the frames of the assumed model.