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Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 35 (2015) 10971105
www.elsevier.com/locate/proci

Propagation, dissipation, and dispersion

of disturbances on harmonically forced,
non-premixed ames
Nicholas Magina , Vishal Acharya, Tao Sun, Timothy Lieuwen
School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0150, USA

Available online 8 September 2014

Abstract

This paper describes the dynamics of non-premixed ames responding to bulk velocity uctuations, and
compares the dynamics of the ame sheet position and spatially integrated heat release to a similarly
excited premixed ame. Bulk axial or transverse excitation, in either case, leads to the excitation of wrinkles
on the ame that propagate axially. Inclusion of axial diusion in the non-premixed case, and burning
velocity stretch sensitivity in the premixed case, cause wrinkle dissipation and dispersion. There are impor-
tant dierences in spatially integrated unsteady heat release dynamics between premixed and non-premixed
ames. For general Strouhal numbers, mass burning rate uctuations are the dominant contributor to non-
premixed ame heat release uctuations, while area uctuations are the dominant contributor to premixed
ame heat release uctuations. Moreover, the heat release response of non-premixed ames rolls o much
slower with frequency, O(St1/2) compared to O(St1) for premixed ames, and, hence, are more sensitive
to ow perturbations than premixed ames at high Strouhal numbers. The asymptotic tendencies of the
non-premixed ame, however, are largely controlled by the near burner exit region with high transverse
gradients and, thus, are expected to be quite sensitive to burner exit details and nite chemistry eects.
2014 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Non-premixed ame; Linear ame response; Velocity coupled response; Combustion instabilities; Flame
transfer function

1. Introduction of combustion instabilities, where narrowband

This paper presents an analysis of the response
of non-premixed ames to harmonic ow pertur-
bations. This work is motivated by the problem
Corresponding author. Address: Aerospace Com-
bustion Lab, 635 Strong St NW Atlanta, GA 30318,
USA. Fax: +1 404 463 0888.
E-mail address: narthurm@gatech.edu (N. Magina).
acoustic oscillations associated with acoustic
modes of the combustor excite heat release oscilla-
tions [1]. A signicant literature on the response of
premixed ames to ow disturbances and the
instability characteristics of lean, premixed com-
bustors has appeared over the last decade [1-8].
In contrast, the manner in which non-premixed
ames respond to ow disturbances is much less
understood. This problem has been recently trea-
ted by Sujith [911], Chakravarthy [11,12], and

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.proci.2014.07.050
1540-7489/ 2014 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1098 N. Magina et al. / Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 35 (2015) 10971105
Nomenclature
D diusion coecient
Lf ame length
rC scaled Markstein number
Pe Peclet number
StLf ; StR ; Stx Strouhal numbers dened as
StLf fLf =U 0 ; StR fRf =U 0 ; Stx
xRf =U 0
Rf, Rw radial distance to fuel tube lip and
conning wall, respectively
U0, Uc axial ow and wrinkle convection
velocity
~ Z
Z; true and rescaled mixture fractions
Juniper et al. [13], and this paper is a continuation
of the authors previous analysis [14]. These stud-
ies have analyzed this problem within the innite
reaction rate, Z-equation formulation for the mix-
ture fraction [911,13,14]. Solutions were devel-
oped for the ame position and heat release for
several problems, including the ame response to
axial velocity and mixture fraction oscillations.
The objective of this paper is to continue anal-
ysis of this problem, with several key goals. First,
our prior analysis neglected axial diusion; while
this is an important simplication in high Peclet
number ames, it causes the exclusion of some
important physics, such as the dissipative and dis-
persive nature of wrinkle propagation along the
reaction sheet. Second, no results exist that dem-
onstrate the various asymptotic limits for the heat
release while some results were inferred by Magi-
na et al. [14] based upon computations, it is not
clear how general they are. Third, no results exist
for transversely forced non-premixed ames this
is a fundamentally interesting problem in that the
ame is perturbed by ow oscillations under the
constraint that the instantaneous fuel and oxidizer
ow rate into the domain remain constant. In con-
trast, ow oscillations are accompanied by fuel/
oxidizer ow oscillations into the domain in the
axially forced problem. Analyses of these prob-
lems are described in this paper, with comparisons
of related features for premixed ames.
2. Main body
2.1. Formulation
This section closely follows Magina et al. [14]
and presents the basic formulation and key
assumptions of the analysis, which are (1) in-
nitely fast chemistry, where the ame sheet col-
lapses to the Zst surface, (2) all species have
equal diusivities, (3) no radiative heat loss eects,
(4) constant diusion coecients, (5) large Peclet
f, x forcing and angular frequencies
sd ame displacement speed
x, y axial and radial coordinate
e small perturbation parameter
h local angle of unforced ame surface
with respect to axial coordinate
n radial ame position
uox stoichiometric mass ratio of oxidizer
to fuel
( )0,( )1 mean/steady state and uctuating
components respectively
Fig. 1. Illustration of the forced non-premixed ame
model problem.
numbers, and (6) small perturbation amplitudes.
Following assumption (2), the spacetime dynam-
ics of the mixture fraction is described by the Z -
equation [15]:
@ Z~
u  rZ~ r  DrZ
~ ~ 1
@t
Following assumption (1), the reaction sheet coin-
~ x; t Z~st 1=1 uOx .
cides with the surface Z~
The instantaneous position of this reaction sheet
is dened by y = n(x,t), as shown in Fig. 1.
The G-equation is an analogous expression for
premixed ames in the reaction sheet limit
[2,15,16], given by @G=@t ~ u  rG sd jrGj.
From an analytical solution point of view, one
of the most signicant dierences between the
two expressions is that the G-equation is physi-
cally meaningful only at the ame itself where
G~x; t 0 (away from the ame, the G values
have no physical signicance [17]). In contrast,
the Z -equation describes the physical values of
the mixture fraction eld everywhere. The entire
mixture fraction eld must be solved in the non-
premixed problem and the Z~ ~ x; t Z~st surface
extracted from the resulting solution eld (which
generally cannot be expressed explicitly). Conse-
quently, developing explicit solutions for the
non-premixed ame problem is substantially more
dicult than for the premixed problem.
 N. Magina et al. / Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 35 (2015) 10971105 1099

Consider a two-dimensional ame in a uniform is an important one, and is equivalent to the solu-
axial ow eld, U0, in both bounded and tion of Eq. (1) with the neglect of axial diusion.
unbounded domains. At the inow (x = 0), fuel These limiting solutions are:
and oxidizer advect into the domain, as indicated Pe ! 1 Zc0 x; y
in Fig. 1, with inow mixture fractions given by
Z~fs and Z~os , respectively. For compactness, we Rf X 1
2
sinAn
dene the following rescaled mixture fraction Rw n1 np
which varies between zero and unity, Z    
y x
Z~  Z~os =Z~fs  Z~os . Following Law [26], we uti-  cos An exp A2n 5
Rf PeRf
lize the following step inlet boundary condition:

1 0  jyj < Rf Pe ! 1 Zu0 x;y
Zx 0; y 2 " ! !#
0 Rf  jyj 1 1  y=Rf 1 y=Rf
erf p erf p
This boundary condition is quite accurate for 2 4x=PeRf 4x=PeRf
high exit velocity, i.e. high Peclet number, ows
but does lead to an innite transverse gradient in 6
mixture fraction at the burner outlet. In reality, there We consider the solution for Z1 in cases with
is some nite gradient at the burner outlet due to either spatially uniform axial or transverse veloc-
axial diusion eects which become important when ity uctuations as:
the convective disturbance length scale, U0/f, is on
the order of this species concentration boundary ucoord;1 eU 0 expixt 7
layer. No-diusion at the side walls implies where coord is the directional component of the
oZ/oy(x,y = Rw) = 0, for the bounded problem. forcing term and is denoted by x for axial and y for
For the unbounded problem, we ensure that the transverse forcing. The general solution for the
solution remains nite at large coordinate distances. mixture fraction eld, subject to the ame attach-
Following assumption (6), we derive the solu- ment boundary condition, i.e. Z1 x 0; y; t 0,
tion in the limit of small perturbations and so at the fuel port lip, for the bounded domain are:
expand each variable as ( )(x, t) = ( )0(x, y) + ( )1 X1   
(x, y, t). Since the governing equation, Eq. (1), is 2e sinAn x
Zc1 Mn Gy exp B
linear, this procedure is not necessary in order to n1
npiStx PeRf
obtain an analytic solution for the Z-eld (e.g.,   
x
see [9]), but is required in order to obtain explicit  1  exp fBh  B g expixt 8
analytic expressions for the spacetime dynamics PeRf
of the ame position uctuation, n1(x,t), and heat where,
_
release, Qt. The zeroth order solutions of Eq. q
(1), subject to the boundary condition in Eq. (2), Pe2  Pe4 4Pe2 A2n
for the conned/unconned system (denoted ( c) B ;
2
q
and ( u), respectively) are:
Pe2  Pe4 4Pe2 A2n  4iPe3 Stx
Rf X 1
2 Bh 9
Zc0 x;y sinAn 2
Rw n1 np
0 2 q31 and the other terms are specied in Table 1.
  2 4 2 2
y @ x 4Pe  Pe 4Pe An 5A These expressions can also be written in a gen-
 cos An exp
Rf PeRf 2 eral form for both conned and unconned ames
in the Pe ! 1 limit as:
3 
ieRf
Z 1
Pe ! 1 Z1 Sx; y
1 2 sinw Stx
Zu0 x; y   

2p 1 w x
2  p3  1  exp iStx expixt 10
Pe2
 Pe4 4Pe2 w2 Rf
x
 exp 4 5
PeRf 2

y Table 1
 exp iw dw 4 Denitions used in mixture fraction solutions.
Rf
Axial Bulk Forcing Transverse Bulk Forcing
where An npRf =Rw and the Peclet number is
given by, Pe U 0 Rf =D. While these solutions Mn B =Pe An
are formally valid for arbitrary Pe values, the Gy cosAn y=Rf sinAn y=Rf
Sx; y @Z0 =@x @Z0 =@y
use of the step inlet boundary condition in Eq. (2)
Ihx sin h(x) cos h(x)
implicitly assumes Pe  1. The Pe ! 1 limit
1100 N. Magina et al. / Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 35 (2015) 10971105

2.2. Spacetime dynamics of reaction sheet and will be referred to as the Pe  1 limit. The
results of Wang et al. [18] for the linearized
While these expressions for Z0 and Z1 provide response of premixed ames to bulk axial forcing
solutions for the mixture fraction eld over the (generalized here to bulk transverse forcing) can
entire domain, we are particularly interested in be similarly expanded for ames that are thin rel-
the reaction sheet location, which is given by the ative to the burner radius; i.e., where rC  1, and
implicit equation Zx; nx; t Zst . An implicit rC is the scaled Markstein number, Ma:
expression for the time averaged ame sheet posi-  
Ma 1 a2
tion, n0(x), can be determined from the coordi- rC 15
nates where Z0 x; nx Zst . The position of the 2Rf a2
uctuating ame can be determined from the By following this procedure to O(1/Pe2) and
implicit expression: Or2C , we can develop the following general
Zst Z0 x; n0 x n1 x; t Z1 x; n0 x n1 x; t; t result, valid for axial or transversely forced pre-
mixed or non-premixed ames in the Pe  1 limit:
11    
nc1;n x; t eIhx expixt ixx
Following Magina et al. [14], expanding Eq. (11)  1  exp
to rst order leads to the following explicit expres- Rf iStx Uc
   
sion for uctuating ame position: fx ixx
 exp exp cSt2x
Z1 x; y n0 x; t Rf Uc
n1;n x; t   
@Z 0 =@nx; y n0 x 1
O ; r3 16
Z1 x; y n0 x; t Pe3 C
 12
jrZ0 jx;yn0 x where the wave term is parameterized by a con-
vection speed, Uc, axial dissipation rate, f, and
where n1,n is measured normal to the mean ame dispersion term, c, dened in Table 2. Note
surface. For example, utilizing this expression a = Lf/Rf = cot h is the premixed ame aspect
for the conned problem leads to: ratio.

nc1;n x; t eIhxeixt Consider the various terms in Eq. (16). The

Rf iStx expression is led by a group of terms which
 "  #
P1 B PeRx x
fBh B gPeR
describe the wave magnitude and harmonic time
2
n1 np Mn Gn0 x sinAn e 1e
f f
dependence, e=iStx Ihx expixt. They show
   the low-pass lter characteristic of ame wrinkle
P1 x
B PeR
2
n1 np Mn Gn0 x sinAn e
f
amplitude. The wave magnitude has an axial
13 dependence described by the term, Ihx, whose
form depends upon whether the ame is forced
where the terms Ihx; Mn and Gn0 x are axially or transversely. This shows the controlling
dened in Table 1. This is a general equation nature of velocity uctuations normal to the ame
which includes the eects of axial diusion for sheet. As shown in Table 1, the top and bottom
both axial and transverse forcing. ame branches are in-phase and are mirror images
Insight into wave propagation, dissipation, of each other for axial forcing, and are out-of-
and dispersion eects, as well as direct compari- phase for transverse forcing. Finally, the non-pre-
sons between the non-premixed and premixed mixed steady state ame angle is a function of
ame wrinkle dynamics can be obtained by axial coordinate, while for premixed ames with
expanding these expressions around the Pe ! 1 a comparable spatially uniform inow, U0,
limit in inverse powers of Pe. For example, the Ihx is not.
Bh  B =Pe term in Eq. (13) can be expanded as: We next consider the wave propagation term,
 contained in the expression 1  expixx=U c exp
fBh  B g St2 2iStx A2n St2x
iStx  x  fx=Rf expicSt2x xx=U c . The rst unity term
Pe Pe Pe2 derives from the particular solution of the equa-

6A2n St2x 5St4x 4 tion, and lacks spatial dependence because of the
OPe 14
Pe3 nature of the assumed bulk forcing. The second
term describes a decaying, dispersive traveling
Table 2 wave generated at the boundary, x = 0, because
Propagation, dissipation, and dispersion terms. of the assumption of ame attachment, i.e.,
Premixed Non-premixed n1,n(x = 0, t) = 0, or xed mixture fraction at the
Propagation speed, Uc U0 cos2h U0 + O(1/Pe2)
burner outlet, Z1 x 0; y; t 0, for the premixed
St2x
and non-premixed cases, respectively.
Dissipation, f St2x rC Pe The leading order expansion of this expression,
Dispersion, c 2r2C p
a
1a2
2
Pe2
1exp (ixx/Uc), was previously presented by
Magina et al. [14]. It shows how ame wrinkles
 N. Magina et al. / Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 35 (2015) 10971105
y / Rf
2
1
0
1 2 3 4
x / PeRf
Fig. 2. Temporal evolution of ame position for the
Pe ! 1 solution (top) and the general solution at two
representative Pe values of 20 (middle), and 5 (bottom)
for PeStx = 4p and Zst 0:3. Note x-axis is rescaled by
Pe.
propagate without dissipation and non-disper-
sively in the Pe ! 1 or rC ! 0 limits. In this limit,
the major dierence between the spacetime
dynamics of non-premixed and premixed ame
dynamics comes from the Uc parameter dened
in Table 2. In both cases, local maxima and min-
ima in ame wrinkle amplitude arise through inter-
ference between the two terms in 1exp(i2pfx/
U0) = 2sin(pfx/U0)exp(i[pfx/U0 p/2]).
Consider next O(1/Pe) or O(rC) terms, which
as shown in Table 2, cause wrinkles to decay
exponentially with downstream distance. This
causes the interference eect discussed above to
become imperfect, an eect that increases qua-
Fig. 3. Spacetime dynamics presented via the magnitude (left) and phase (right) of n1,n plotted against the ratio of axial
coordinate to convective wavelength for the Pe ! 1 limit and full solution at three representative Pe values of 100, 20,
and 5 for PeStx = 4p and Zst 0:3.
1101
dratically with Stx. The mechanism for wave dis-
sipation for the two ame types are entirely
dierent for premixed ames, it is due to the
dependence of the ame speed on the curvature,
which causes positive Markstein length ames to
be thermo-diusively stable. For non-premixed
ames, it is due to the progressive smoothing by
diusion of the spatial variations in the Z eld
with downstream distance, as shown in Eq. (8).
We lastly consider O(1/Pe2) and O(r2C ) eects
which, as shown in Table 2, introduce dispersion
i.e., a frequency dependent wave propagation
speed. Explicit results for the premixed and non-
premixed ames are shown in the table. An addi-
tional O(1/Pe2) eect for non-premixed ames is
an alteration of the wave propagation speed, Uc,
however, because the non-premixed result
involves a ratio of two innite sums, it is not pos-
sible to develop a simple expression for the con-
ned case.
Illustrative solutions from Eq. (13) are pre-
sented for the instantaneous non-premixed ame
position at several time instances in Fig. 2, as well
as the amplitude and phase of the wrinkles in
Fig. 3, for constant values of StLf . The generation
and downstream propagation of ame wrinkles
can be observed, with a larger number of ame
wrinkles being present within the ame length
for increasing frequencies. Again, the spatial var-
iation in the amplitude comes from the Ihx
term, as well as the spatial interference eect in
Eq. (16). The local maxima and minima referred
to above are clearly evident in the gures for the
weakly dissipative solutions. The phase rolls o
linearly with axial distance, reecting the convec-
tion process described in Eq. (16), and jumps
180 degrees across the nodes. Note the smoothing
of the wrinkles that occurs in the mid and far eld
with decreasing Pe, due to wave dissipation dis-
cussed in the context of Eq. (16). This leads to a
1102 N. Magina et al. / Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 35 (2015) 10971105

complete loss of the spatial interference pattern gradients, the heat release can be analogously
for the Pe = 5 case relative to the Pe ! 1 case. written as:
In addition the phase does not roll-o linearly in
the axial direction, and the discontinuous phase Non  premixed flame :
Z 
jumps are smoothed.
_Qt 1 uOx 2 @Z @Z
DqhR sinh  cosh dA
flame uOx @x @y
2.3. Heat release analysis
19
_
The spatially integrated heat release, Qt, is of We will assume xed composition fuel and oxi-
particular interest for combustion instability or dizer, so that the heat of reaction and mixture
noise related issues for acoustically compact density are constant. The instantaneous global
ames. For this reason, we focus attention in this heat release of the non-premixed ame, given by
section on Qt,_ given by the following surface Eq. (19), can be linearized and expanded to:
integral over the reaction sheet:
Z
_
Qt m_ 00F hR dA 17
A

2 3
@Z0 x; n0 @Z0 x; n0
6 sinh0 dA0 sinh0 dA1 7
@x
6 |{z} @x
|{z} 7
6 7
Z L t 6 steady state area 7
uOx f 6 7
_
Qt 6 7
1 uOx 2 qDhR 6 7
0 6 2 7
6 @Z0 x; n0 @ Z0 x; n0 @Z1 x; n0 7
6 cosh0 sinh1 dA0 n1;y x; t sinh0 dA0 sinh0 dA0 7
4 @x @x@y @x 5
|{z}
mass burning rate

2 3
@Z0 x; n0 @Z0 x; n0
cosh0 dA0 cosh0 dA1
6 @y @y 7
6 |
{z} |{z} 7
6 7
Z L t 6 steady state area 7
f 6 7
 6 7
6 7
0 6 2 7
6 @Z0 x; n0 @ Z0 x; n0 @Z1 x; n0 7
6 sinh0 sinh1 dA0 n1;y x; t cosh 0 dA 0 cosh 0 dA 0 7
4 @y @y 2 @y 5
|{z}
mass burning rate

20

The term m_ 00F is the reactant mass burning rate per where for each set of brackets, the rst term on
unit area, and hR is the heat release per unit mass the top is the steady state contribution, the sec-
of reactant consumed, which can be written in two ond term on the top denotes the contribution
more specialized forms [14]. For premixed ames, of ame area oscillations to heat release uctua-
the mass burning rate is m_ 00F qu suc , where qu is the tions, and the remaining three terms the contri-
density and suc is the laminar consumption speed bution of mass burning rate oscillations to heat
of the unburned reactant. For non-premixed release uctuations. Note the sub and superscript
ames, subject to the assumptions detailed in Sec-  and + signs on the upper integration limits
tion 2.1, the reactant mass burning rate can be Lf(t), which indicate integration from 0 to Lf over
written as: the bottom and top ame branches respectively.
    While we will discuss more general computed
 @Y Ox   @Y Fuel 
00 00 00 
m_ F m_ Ox m_ Fuel qD qD results later, it is useful rst to study the solution
@n   @n  characteristics in the Pe ! 1 limit where analyt-
 
 @Y Fuel  ical progress is possible. In this limit, two impor-
1 uOx qD 18 tant simplications can be made. First, only the
@n 
@Z=@y cos h terms remain in Eq. (19) and second,
where n represents the direction normal to the the area contribution can be analytically shown
ame and Y, the species mass fractions. By relat- to cancel out the rst mass burning rate term,
ing the fuel mass fraction and the mixture fraction resulting in:
 N. Magina et al. / Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 35 (2015) 10971105
uOx
Pe ! 1 Q_ 1 t
1 uOx 2 qDhR
Z 
Lf ;0
 @ 2 Z0 x; n0 x @Z1 x; n0 x
n1;n x; t
0 @y 2
We will denote transfer functions by F, which
quantify the inputoutput relation between forc-
ing and heat release, dened as:
Q_ 1 =Q_ 0
F 22
ux;1 =U 0
By utilizing previous expressions for mixture frac-
tion and uctuating ame position, this transfer
function can be written as:
Pe ! 1
R Lf ;0 hiRf i n 
0 Stx
gx; n 0 1  exp iSt x Rf
F R Lf ;0 @Z0 x;n0
0 @y
dx
where
@ 2 Z0 x; n0 d 2 Z0 x; n0
gx; n0 tanh0
@y 2
1 i= 4 StLf 25
For transverse forcing, it can be shown that the
two mass burning rate contributions in g(x,n0),
are of equal amplitude and are out of phase by
180 degrees for all St values, thus resulting in no
unsteady heat release for each ame branch. This
result could be anticipated, at least in the low
Strouhal number limit, as transverse forcing
causes no uctuation in fuel and oxidizer ow rate
into the domain thus, transverse uctuations
consequently lead to no heat release oscillations.
A similar result, no unsteady global heat release,
is also obtained for transversely forced premixed
ames [19].
No such mutual cancelation occurs for the
axial bulk forced conguration. Explicit expres-
sions for Q_ cannot be developed in general,
because only an implicit expression for the time
average ame position, n0(x) and, consequently,
g(x,n0), are available. However, approximate
expressions can be developed in the high Pe limit,
by taking advantage of the fact that Z0 x
becomes nearly independent of x, and thus the
ame position can be approximated by n0(x)
Rf (1 + O(1/Pe)) except near the ame tip. How-
ever, near the tip the heat release is proportional
to axial diusive uxes (because the ame is nor-
mal to the ow at this location), which also is of
O(1/Pe). The solution obtained by applying these
approximations to Eq. (24) is indicated in Fig. 4.
The transfer function, F, has a value of unity
for low St values. Furthermore, it can be shown
that the high St limit of Eq. (23) is controlled by
the features of g(x, n0) near x = 0, which to lead-
1103
dx
@y
21
Fig. 4. Axially forced heat release transfer function
curves for the Pe ! 1 (Eq. (20)) and approximate
x
o n0(x) = Rf (Eq. (23)) solutions, along with asymptotic
dx expression plotted vs StLf for Zst 0:3.
p
23 ing order is given by gx; n0 1=4 Rp=Pex3=2 .
Substituting this expression into Eq. (23) shows
that in the limit of large St (also indicated in the
gure):
 q
24
dxdy Pe ! 1 F
Figure 4 presents illustrative exact (Eq. (20)),
approximate (Eq. (23) where n0(x) = Rf), and
asymptotic (Eq. (25)) expressions for F at
Pe = 100 and Zst 0:3. F has a value of unity
at low St values and rolls-o as 1/(St1/2) at high
St values. The transition between these two zones
occurs at StLf 1.
R x2 Note that oscillatory integrals of the form,
f x expiStxdx, are controlled by the values
x1
of the integrand at the boundary, i.e., at f(x1)
and f(x2), and generally lead to a 1/St asymptotic
behavior. However, the mass burning rate has an
integrable singularity at the x = 0 inlet boundary
in the Pe ! 1 limit due to the innite transverse
gradient in Z imposed by the boundary condition,
Eq. (2), a singularity that ends up controlling the
heat release asymptotics and leads to the indicated
1/(St1/2) behavior. When axial diusion is
included, this 1/(St1/2) behavior persists for a
range of Strouhal numbers where the convective
wrinkle wavelength is much longer than the thick-
ness of the transition zone of fuel/oxidizer proles
at x = 0. However, once the convective wave-
length becomes of the order of this layer, the stan-
dard 1/St behavior should occur, as expected for
oscillatory integrals. Thus, the Strouhal number
at which the 1/St1/2 to 1/St transition occurs is a
function of the thickness of this layer that, in turn,
is a function of Pe. As we have assumed a
discontinuous prole at x = 0, no such 1/St
behavior occurs at high St for Eq. (24), however.
Signicantly, the 1/(St1/2) behavior in the heat
1104 N. Magina et al. / Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 35 (2015) 10971105
Fig. 5. Axially forced heat release transfer function
curves for the Pe ! 1 limit, full solution at two
representative Pe values of 20 and 5, and asymptotic
expression plotted vs StLf for Zst 0:3.
release transfer function is a much slower roll-o
than the 1/St roll-o that occurs to leading order
rC in premixed ames, causing the heat release
response of non-premixed ames to exceed that
of premixed ames at high Strouhal numbers for
this problem.
As previously pointed out by Magina et al.
[14], another signicant dierence between the
transfer function of axial bulk forced premixed
and non-premixed ames is the relative signi-
cance of area and mass burning rate terms. Pre-
mixed ames are dominated by area
uctuations, whereas non-premixed ames are
mass burning rate uctuation dominated; e.g.,
although not shown in the gure, the mass burn-
ing rate term is approximately 2 orders of magni-
tude larger than the area term at low St values.
We close by discussing computed transfer
functions for nite Pe values, obtained from Eq.
(20). As shown by the curves in Fig. 5, several
nite Pe eects can be noted. First, F does not
tend to unity for low St values. This is due to
the fact that the instantaneous mass ux in the
domain occurs not only through convection, but
also diusion. If the transfer function expression
were generalized to account for both convective
and diusive ux, these transfer function values
converge to unity. Second, the ripples in gain that
occur near StLf 1 in Fig. 4 are damped out at
lower Pe values, due to dissipation mechanisms
discussed previously.
3. Conclusions
A key contribution of this paper is Eq. (16),
which is a general explicit expression for the
spacetime dynamics of the ame sheet, as well
as Eq. (23), which shows an approximate expres-
sion for heat release. These expressions show the
role of axial convection in propagating ame
wrinkles downstream, leading to nodes and anti-
nodes in the ame response. Eq. (16) also shows
the eect of wrinkle dissipation and dispersion
introduced by axial diusion and nite Pe eects.
Unsteady heat release asymptotics were per-
formed in the Pe ! 1 limit, showing that the
transfer function curves exhibited St0 and St1/2
dependencies in the low and high St limits respec-
tively. Axial diusion eects were shown to
smooth the transfer function curves and reduce
the low St limit amplitude.
These high Strouhal number solution charac-
teristics are controlled by the gradients in the
fuel/oxidizer composition at the burner outlet.
While a St1/2 behavior occurs for the step func-
tion exit proles shown in Eq. (2), a smooth mix-
ture fraction at the base of the ame (not
necessarily at the burner outlet if nite rate eects
are accounted for) would cause the non-premixed
ame to exhibit a 1/St asymptotic behavior that
one would expect of the integral with a non-singu-
lar kernel, g(x,n0), and no points of stationary
phase.
Acknowledgments
This work has been partially supported by the
National Science Foundation under contract
CBET-1235779, contract monitor, Professor
Ruey-Hung Chen.
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