Effects of curvature on soot formation in steady and unsteady counterflow diffusion flames

A numerical study has been conducted in order to understand the effects of flame curvature on soot formation in laminar non-premixed flames. For the fundamental understanding, the canonical configuration of a counterflow diffusion flame is employed as it exhibits the essential combustion physics associated with non-premixed flames. Numerical results for the steady counterflow ethylene flames confirmed that the response of soot in curved flames is governed by the intricate coupling between flow convection, soot kinetics, and differential transport of soot impacting the rates of soot formation sub-processes. The sensitivity of the soot formation in curved flames to the strain rate variation is also analyzed to understand their competing effects. Furthermore, the dynamic response of soot formation to the unsteady curvature is investigated by imposing harmonic oscillations to the curvature. Numerical results revealed that for an increase in the frequency of curvature oscillations, the soot formation gets attenuated and amplitudes of the induced oscillations exhibit large phase-shift with respect to imposed fluctuations. The higher characteristic time scales of larger-sized particles proved to control the overall dynamic response of soot under unsteady fluctuations of curvature. To examine the dynamic response of soot formation under a more complex case of flow-flame-soot interaction, the unsteady analysis of flames is extended by subjecting them to the simultaneous strain rate and curvature oscillations. The correlation between imposed frequencies and variability of soot formation response under fluctuating strain rate and curvature is elaborated.