The role of precursors on the stabilisation of jet flames issuing into a hot environment

This paper seeks to address unusual flame stabilisation behaviour observed in experimental jet flames which issue into a hot coflow. It has been observed that increasing the temperature and/or oxygen concentration in the coflow can lead to an increase in flame liftoff height. The paper isolates the role of chemistry, and in particular flame intermediates, on the observed phenomenon with a view to better understand how the behaviour changes over a range of conditions. A descriptive theory for this behaviour is proposed, which is based on the well-established theory that a build-up of radicals and intermediate species is responsible for autoignition of these flames. This paper systematically examines the role of these precursors with a view to better understanding of the chemical kinetics and to assess if the observed behaviour is chemistry-dominated. To this end, laminar flame calculations and ignition delay curves are presented, and the findings are validated with experiments. The results indicate that chemical effects alone are insufficient to fully explain the observations, but the calculations support the general trends noted in the experiments and highlight the importance and relative effects of some key precursors. In particular, the production and consumption of formaldehyde in a low oxygen environment supports the unusual flame behaviour observed experimentally. © 2013 The Combustion Institute.