Detailed experiments of flame spread across deep butanol pools

Scaling Analysis on Pulsating Flame Spread over Liquids

“…This possibility, if validated, could explain NASA's microgravity experimental results [16], which showed a large diameter subsurface circulation for nbutanol compared with its normal gravity behavior at the International Journal of Chemical Engineering same temperature. The large subsurface circulation under microgravity takes longer to reach the fully-developed state because gravity is a major contributor to the forces that keep each element of a liquid in communication with its neighbors.…”

“…The time averaged flame spread rates under subflash conditions measured in this study (for four different fuels: methanol, ethanol, n-propanol, and n-butanol) and experimental data from [12,16] are plotted in Figure 10 …”

“…According to Glassman and Dryer [13], pulsating flame spread could be a result of coupled gas-liquid phase convection effects, since it occurs only when subsurface liquid convection has been generated. Recently, Ross and Miller conducted flame spread experiments in microgravity on shallow liquid pools [14,15] and on deep liquid pools [16]. Including these results for microgravity flame spread, Ross wrote a review in a book he edited [17] stating that the rate and frequency in pulsating flame spread depend on gravity, liquid pool depth, initial fuel temperature, gas flow rate, the kind of liquid, and so on, indicating that the mechanism of pulsating flame spread is not yet completely understood.…”

“…Over the past ten years, a series of experimental studies of flame spread over liquids has been conducted [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29], creating a rich experimental database. With six different experimental techniques (laser sheet particle tracking, smoke tracing, single and dual wavelength holographic interferometry, infrared thermography, and high-speed photography), we measured the detailed thermal, fluid dynamic and chemical structures of both gas, and liquid phases near the flame's leading edge to understand the mechanism of pulsating flame spread [26][27][28][29].…”

Flame spread over a liquid surface in a channel of finite section under oncoming air-flow conditions

“…Ross and Miller suggested [2] that the buoyancy effects in the liquid phase ahead of the flame due to the temperature gradient play a great role in the occurrence of the pulsating regime. To validate their hypothesis, they compared flames propagating under zero gravity with those propagating under normal conditions.…”