A joint experimental and theoretical project has been initiated at Virginia Tech to study the
effects of dual-mode combustion at high pressures for a two-dimensional Wolfhard-Parker
burner. This thesis is the first stage of the theoretical part of the project, and contains a
numerical study of laminar coflow diffusion flames stabilized on a confined Wolfhard-Parker
burner.
A global finite difference method is used where the nonlinear equations written on a
stream function-vorticity formulation are solved with a flame sheet approach. The
pseudotransient, approximative factorization method is utilized to solve the coupled
system of equations. Adaptive gridding, numerical evaluation of Jacobians and iterations
within time step are implemented for computational efficiency.
Numerical results have been obtained for different fuels under different conditions.
Comparison with measured data by Smyth et al. (1985) for a buoyancy dominated
methane-air flame is made. The location of the flame front is accurately predicted. The
temperature is over predicted in the fuel rich zone since pyrolysis and radiation effects have
not been accounted for in the numerical model. Good agreement is observed for major
species and velocities. As expected, large velocity increase and horizontal inflow of
nitrogen and combustion products associated with buoyancy occur in the lower region of
the flame.
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