Effects of fuel droplet on flame propagation in a lean propane/air mixture

An experimental study on the premixed flame propagation passing through the fuel droplets was conducted to investigate the effect of droplet on a distortion of propagating flame front. N-decane and n-octane were used as fuel droplets. Distribution of the concentration of gaseous fuel around droplet existed because the fuel droplet was evaporated and the layer of fuel vapor was produced around the droplet before the flame passed through a fuel droplet, and the concentration of the mixture became high especially near the droplet. Therefore, the burning velocity increased locally, i.e., the flame speed also increased locally and the flame distortion occurred around the fuel droplet. In case of water droplet, the transformation of propagating flame front was not observed and flame speed did not change. The increase ratio of the flame speed depended on the flame speed before the flame passed through the droplet. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 30th International Symposium on combustion (Chicago, IL 7/25-30/2004).