Formation of the preheated zone ahead of a propagating flame and the mechanism underlying the deflagration-to-detonation transition

The Letter presents analytical, numerical and experimental studies of the mechanism underlying the deflagration-to-detonation transition (DDT). Insight into how, when, and where DDT occurs is obtained by analyzing analytically and by means of multidimensional numerical simulations dynamics of a flame accelerating in a tube with no-slip walls. It is shown that the deflagration-to-detonation transition exhibits three separate stages of evolution corroborating majority experimental observations. During the first stage flame accelerates and generates shocks far ahead of the flame front. During the second stage the flame slows down, shocks are formed in the immediate proximity of the flame front and the preheated zone ahead of the flame front is created. The third stage is self-restructuring of the steep temperature profile within the flame, formation of a reactivity gradient and the actual formation of the detonation wave itself. The mechanism for the detonation wave formation, given an appropriate formation of the preheated zone, seems to be universal and involves a reactivity gradient formed from the initially steep flame temperature profile in the presence of the preheated zone. The developed theory and numerical simulations are found to be well consistent with extensive experiments of the DDT in hydrogen-oxygen and ethylene-oxygen mixtures in tubes with smooth and rough walls.     

Flame growth and wrinkling in a turbulent flow

High-speed planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) and 3-D large eddy simulations (LES) are used to study turbulent flame kernel growth, wrinkling and the formation of separated flame pockets in methane/air mixtures. Turbulence was effected by a set of rotary fans situated in a cylindrical enclosure. Flame wrinkling was followed on sequential 2-D OH images captured at kHz repetition rates. Under stoichiometric conditions and low turbulence levels the flame kernel remains singly connected and close to spherical in shape. By increasing turbulence or reducing the stoichiometry of the mixture the formation of separated pockets could be observed and studied. The mechanisms behind these phenomena are investigated qualitatively by LES of a level-set G-equation describing the flame surface propagation in turbulent flows. Received: 12 April 2000 / Revised version: 26 June 2000 / Published online: 5 October 2000     

Water Surface Wave in a Trough with Periodical Topographic Bottom

We present the theoretical and experimental results of water surface wave in a trough with periodical topographic bottom under parametric excitation. There are 19 steps of the same size periodically inserted into the trough. It is found that waveforms observed in the experiment are consistent with theoretical ones. Moreover, some complex and interesting phenomena arise in the experiment due to nonlinearity.[第一段]     

Flame spreading over liquid ethanol

Flame spreading over liquid ethanol has been experimentally characterized for ethanol for subflash temperatures, in two different channels. Three different spreading regimes have been observed. A uniform region (with flame velocities close to 10 cm/s) appears for values of the initial surface liquid temperature above a critical value . For values an oscillatory regime occurs. For very low temperatures, , a new uniform regime appears with slow propagation velocities (close to 1 cm/s). The critical point has been described as a Hopf bifurcation, while resembles a homoclinic connection. Received 16 October 1998 and Received in final form 23 June 1999     

Influence of the surface deformability and variable viscosity on buoyant - thermocapillary instability in a liquid layer

The primary stationary and oscillatory Bénard-Marangoni instability is investigated in a fluid layer of infinite horizontal extent, bounded below by a rigid plane and above by a deformable upper surface, subjected to a vertical temperature gradient. Since the viscosity is temperature-dependent the consequences of relaxing Oberbeck-Boussinesq approximation and free surface deformability are theoretically examined by means of small disturbance analysis. The problem has been solved numerically by the Taylor series expansion method. The results obtained confirm that when the free surface is undeformable, stationary convection develops in the form of polygonal cells, and oscillatory motion cannot be detected. When the surface deformability is considered, stationary convection sets in, either as a short-wavelength hexagonal instability or as a long-wavelengh mode or as both, and oscillatory convection is also possible. The stability threshold for the short-wavelength mode depends mainly on the viscosity variation while the long-wavelength mode is determined by the surface deformation. Numerically, it is found that the neutral oscillatory Marangoni numbers are only negative. When a variable-viscosity model is used the theoretical and experimental results are in better agreement. Received 15 May 1997     

Experimental investigations and modelling studies of ozone producing corona discharges

The ozone generation by negative corona discharge in coaxial cylindrical system of electrodes have been studied experimentally in Ar+O₂ and N₂+O₂ mixtures. Both in argon and nitrogen mixtures with oxygen the monotonous decrease in ozone concentration [O₃] was observed at decreasing oxygen content in mixtures and the constant input energy density η. The rate coefficients for the ozone generation and ozone decomposition were obtained by fitting experimentally measured data [O₃]=f(η) with Vasiljev-Eremin formula. The calculated rate coefficient for ozone generation in N₂+O₂ mixtures at low content of oxygen (below 20%) was found considerably higher than that in Ar+O₂ mixtures. Increase in the rate coefficients for ozone generation and decomposition was observed with decreasing content of oxygen in both mixtures. The experimental results are in qualitative agreement with the simple model incorporating five main chemical processes in mechanism of ozone generation. The research was partially supported by Slovak Grant Agency under project 1/765920 The UK EPSRC (Grant GM/98944) and NATO Joint Project PST CLG 976544.     

Transition to Chaos in the Floating Half Zone Convection

The transition process from steady convection to chaos is experimentally studied in thermocapillary convections of floating half zone. The onset of temperature oscillations in the liquid bridge of floating half zone and further transitions of the temporal convective behaviour are detected by measuring the temperature in the liquid bridge. The fast Fourier transform reveals the frequency and amplitude characteristics of the flow transition. The experimental results indicate the existence of a sequence of period-doubling bifurcations that culminate in chaos. The measured Feigenbaum numbers are δ2 =4.69 and δ4 = 4.6, which are comparable with the theoretical asymptotic value δ=4.669.     

Numerical simulation and experiments of a control method to suppress the Bénard von Kármán instability

We report both two-dimensional numerical simulations and experimental results that confirm the robustness of a new method for inhibiting vortex shedding associated to the Bénard-von Kármán (BvK) instability in the wake of a cylinder. Using the SIMPLER algorithm on a 2D channel, we solve the Navier-Stokes equations and we show that pressure suction at the front stagnation point of a circular cylinder, modelled here through a point sink located at the front stagnation point, can completely suppress the Bénard-von Kármán instability for super-critical Reynolds numbers. Comparison with recent experimental results are in close agreement. Received 7 March 2002 / Received in final form 12 September 2002 Published online 29 November 2002     

Optical diagnostics of diesel spray injections and combustion in a high-pressure high-temperature cell

We report on spatially and temporally resolved optical diagnostic measurements of propagation and combustion of diesel sprays introduced through a single-hole fuel injector into a constant volume, high-temperature, high-pressure cell. From shadowgraphy images in non-reacting environments of pure nitrogen, penetration lengths and dispersion angles were determined for non-vaporizing and vaporizing conditions, and found to be in reasonable agreement with standard models for liquid jet propagation and break-up.Quasi-simultaneous two-dimensional images were obtained of laser elastic light scattering, shadowgraphs and spectrally integrated flame emission in a reacting environment (cell temperature 850 K). In addition laser-induced incandescence was employed for the identification of soot-loaded regions. The simultaneously recorded spray images exhibit remarkable structural similarity and provide complementary information about the spray propagation and combustion process. The measurements also reveal the fuel vapor cloud extending well beyond the liquid core and close to the nozzle tip. Ignition takes place close to the tip of the spray within the mixing layer of fuel vapor and surrounding air. Soot is formed in the vapor core region at the tip of the liquid fuel jet. Our results support recently developed phenomenological model on diesel spray combustion.     

An Improved CE/SE Scheme and Its Application to Detonation Propagation

An improved two-dimensional space-time conservation element and solution element （CE/SE） method with second-order accuracy is proposed, examined and extended to simulate the detonation propagations using detailed chemical reaction models. The numerical results of planar and cellular detonation are compared with corresponding results by the Chapman-Jouguet theory and experiments, and prove that the method is a new reliable way for numerical simulations of detonation propagation.     

Two Phases of Coherent Structure Motions in Turbulent Boundary Layer

Two phases of coherent structure motion are acquired after obtaining conditional phase-averaged waveforms for longitudinal velocity of coherent structures in turbulent boundary layer based on Harr wavelet transfer. The correspondences of the two phases to the two processes （i.e. ejection and sweep） during a burst are determined.     

Laser Doppler velocimetry analysis of transitional pipe flow

The objective of this study has been to experimentally analyze the correlation structure of the strong temporal intermittency which characterizes pipe flow close to the transition to turbulence. In doing so transitional pipe flow has been analyzed by Laser Doppler velocimetry and the Reynolds number dependence of the covariance function has been studied. The range which has been analyzed covers the transition to turbulence and moderately developed turbulence (Reynolds number from 1 500 to 5 000). The correlation structure which has been evidenced is generally in agreement with the deterministic, dynamical, interpretation of temporal intermittency which explains the intermittent behavior as a result of a saddle node bifurcation. However, the analysis has evidenced fluctuations even before the onset of turbulence. The structure of these fluctuations is perfectly autoregressive which leads us to conclude that the transition to turbulence can be viewed as a transition from linear randomness to (non-linear) homogeneity. Received 29 March 1999 and Received in final form 6 September 1999     

Quasi-simultaneous detection of CH2O and CH by cavity ring-down absorption and laser-induced fluorescence in a methane/air low-pressure flame

The combination of two-dimensional, planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) and cavity ring-down (CRD) absorption spectroscopy is applied to map quantitatively the spatial distributions of CH₂O and CH in a methane/air flame at 25 Torr. Both species are detected in the same spectral region using the overlapping CH₂O A ¹ A ₂ -X ¹ A ₁ 4₁ ⁰ and CH B-X(1,0 )bands. The combination of diagnostic techniques exploits the spatial resolution of LIF and the quantitative CRD absorption measure of column density. The spatially resolved PLIF provides the distribution of absorbers and line-of-sight CRD absorption the absolute number density needed for quantitative concentration images. The peak CH₂O concentration is (3.5±1.4 )×10¹⁴ cm^-3, or 1450±550 ppm at 1000 K. The lack of precise absorption cross-section data produces these large error limits. Although a flame model predicts lower amounts, these large uncertainties limit this measurement’susefulness as a test of the flame chemistry. Received: 24 April 2001 / Revised version: 10 July 2001 / Published online: 10 October 2001     

Axisymmetry Breaking to Travelling Waves in the Cylinder with Partially Heated Sidewall

The transition from an axisymmetric stationary flow to three-dimensional time-dependent flows is carefully studied in a vertical cylinder partially heated from the side, with the aspect ratio A = 2 and Prandtl number Pτ=0.021. The flow develops from the steady toroidal pattern beyond the first instability threshold, breaks the axisymmetric state at a Rayleigh number near 2000, and transits to standing or travelling azimuthal waves. A new result is observed that a slightly unstable flow pattern of standing waves exists and will transit to stable travelling waves after a long time evolution. The onset of oscillations is associated with a supercritical Hopf bifurcation in a system with O（2） symmetry.     

Nonequilibrium potential for the Ginzburg-Landau equation in the phase-turbulent regime

The steady state distribution functional of the supercritical complex Ginzburg-Landau equation with weak noise is determined asymptotically for long-wave-length fluctuations including the phaseturbulent regime. This is done by constructuring a non-equilibrium potential solving the Hamilton-Jacobi equation associated with the Fokker-Planck equation. The non-equilibrium potential serves as a Lyapunov functional. In parameter space it consists of two branches which are joined at the Benjamin-Feir instability. In the Benjamins-Feir stable regime the non-equilibrium potential has minima in the plane-wave attractors and our result generalizes to arbitrary dimension an earlier result for one dimension. Beyond the Benjamin-Feir instability the potential in the function space has a minimum which is degererate with respects to arbirary long-wavelength phase variations. The dynamics on the minimum set obey the generalized Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation.     

Oscillatory convection in binary mixtures: Thermodiffusion,solutal buoyancy,and advection

The role of thermodiffusive generation of concentration fluctuations via the Soret effect, their contribution to the buoyancy forces that drive convection, the advective mixing effect of the latter, and the diffusive homogenisation are compared and elucidated for oscillatory convection. Numerically obtained solutions of the field equations in the form of spatially extended relaxed traveling waves, of standing waves, and of the transient growth of standing waves and their transition to traveling waves are discussed as well as spatially localized convective states of traveling waves that are surrounded by the quiescent fluid.     

Statistical analysis of the transition to turbulence in plane Couette flow

We argue on general grounds that the transition to turbulence in plane Couette flow is best studied experimentally at a statistical level. We present such a statistical analysis of experimental data guided by a parallel investigation of a simple coupled map lattice model for spatiotemporal intermittency. We confirm that this generic type of spatiotemporal chaos is relevant in the context of plane Couette flow, where the linear stability of the laminar regime at all Reynolds numbers insures the necessary local subcriticality. Using large ensembles of similar experiments, we show the existence of a well-defined threshold Reynolds number above which a unique, turbulent, intermittent attractor coexists with the laminar flow. Furthermore, our data reveals that this transition to spatiotemporal intermittency is discontinuous, i.e. akin to a first-order phase transition. Received: 10 April 1998 / Revised: 22 June 1998 / Accepted: 24 June 1998     

The variation of the electromagnetic coupling and quintessence

The properties of quintessence are examined through the study of the variation of the electromagnetic coupling. We consider two simple quintessence models with a modified exponential potential and study the parameter space constraints derived from the existing observational bounds on the variation of the fine structure constant and the most recent Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe observations.     

Direct Numerical Simulation of a Spatially Evolving Supersonic Turbulent Boundary Layer at Ma = 6

Direct numerical simulation is carried out for a spatially evolving supersonic turbulent boundary layer at freestream Mach number 6. To overcome numerical instability, the seventh-order WENO scheme is used for the convection terms of Navier-Stokes equations, and fine mesh is adopted to minimize numerical dissipation. Compressibility effects on the near-wall turbulent kinetic energy budget are studied. The cross-stream extended self-similarity and scaling exponents including the near-wall region are studied. In high Mach number flows, the coherence vortex structures are arranged to be smoother and streamwised, and the hair-pin vortices are less likely tO OCCUr.