Effects of CO addition on the propagation characteristics of laminar CH4 triple flame

This study proposes a numerical and experimental investigation of the propagation characteristics of CO-added CH4 flames in a confined quartz tube. The transient propagation of a CH4/CO-air flames were modeled using GRI-Mech 3.0, and the propagation characteristics are discussed based on the calculated results. This study characterizes the formation of the reaction zone, the transformation of the flame base structure, the ignition of fuel, and the propagation phenomena of the leading point of the flame base. The leading point of methane flame with a large amount of added CO is found to be difficult to define unambiguously. During flame propagation, a complex combination of chemical reactions coupled with the fluid dynamics between the stoichiometric line and the preferred equivalence ratio line occurs. The results suggest that the leading point of the propagating flame is still dominated by the redirection effect, while the effect of the intrinsic chemical properties of the fuel mixture on a propagating flame has finite thickness cannot be neglected. (c) 2012 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.