Spatiotemporal Surface Temperature Measurements Resolving Flame-Wall Interactions of Lean H2-Air and CH4-Air Flames Using Phosphor Thermometry

Abstract

Spatiotemporal wall temperature (T_wall) distributions resulting from flame-wall interactions of lean H₂-air and CH₄-air flames are measured using phosphor thermometry. Such measurements are important to understand transient heat transfer and wall heat flux associated with various flame features. This is particularly true for hydrogen, which can exhibit a range of unique flame features associated with combustion instabilities. Experiments are performed within a two-wall passage, in an optically accessible chamber. The phosphor ScVO₄:Bi³⁺ is used to measure T_wall in a 22 × 22 mm² region with 180 µm/pixel resolution and repetition rate of 1 kHz. Chemiluminescence imaging is combined with phosphor thermometry to correlate the spatiotemporal dynamics of the flame with the heat signatures imposed on the wall. Measurements are performed for lean H₂-air flames with equivalence ratio Φ = 0.56 and compared to CH₄-air flames with Φ = 1. T_wall signatures for H₂-air Φ = 0.56 exhibit alternating high and low-temperature vertical streaks associated with finger-like flame structures, while CH₄-air flames exhibit larger scale wrinkling with identifiable crest/cusp regions that exhibit higher/lower wall temperatures, respectively. The underlying differences in flame morphology and T_wall distributions observed between the CH₄-air and lean H₂-air mixtures are attributed to the differences in their Lewis number (CH₄-air Φ = 1: Le = 0.94; H₂-air Φ = 0.56: Le = 0.39). Findings are presented at two different passage spacings to study the increased wall heat loss with larger surface-area-to-volume ratios. Additional experiments are conducted for H₂-air mixtures with Φ = 0.45, where flame propagation was slower and was more suitable to resolve the wall heat signatures associated with thermodiffusive instabilities. These unstable flame features impose similar wall heat fluxes as flames with 2–3 times greater flame power. In this study, these flame instabilities occur within a small space/time domain, but demonstrate the capability to impose appreciable heat fluxes on surfaces.