Vessel confinement contributions to thermo-acoustic instabilities of premixed flames*

An experimental study of the behavior of hydrocarbon premixed flames propagating in quasi-2D configurations is presented here. The experiments were performed using a Hele-Shaw cell of dimensions (1~10 mm)x(500 mm)x(1000 mm) as a combustion chamber with the ignition located at the open end and the flame propagating towards the closed end of the cell.

The development of instabilities, such as Darrieus- Landau (DL), Saffman-Taylor (ST), diffusive-thermal (DT), etc., as well as the propagation rate and the presence or absence of quenching or partial burning have been previously studied.

In the present work, the experimental setup is used to characterize the dependence of the channel thickness (ranging from 1 to 10 mm) and the material properties of the plates enclosing the Hele-Shaw cell in the arising of thermo-acoustic instabilities of propane, methane and dimethyl ether premixed flames. Preliminary results are shown here and discussed.