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Blossoming flame
Bo Jiang (visiting student) and Bret Windom (postdoc)
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
This series of eleven flames demonstrates the transition that occurs in a turbulent flame as a result of low temperature oxidation of the reactants prior to introduction into the high temperature flame. Scanning left to right, the degree of pre-flame reactant oxidation is increased by increasing the reactant temperature and/or heated residence time. This transition, evident by the increasing redness of the flames, is due to changes in the flame chemistry resulting in new emission profiles and has a dramatic effect on the flame properties, including burning rates, emissions, and turbulent/combustion interactions and flame regimes. Turbulent combustion provides a connection between complex fluid dynamics, combustion physics, and combustion chemistry and links fundamental combustion research to practical engineering applications.