Flame Instabilities

Ignition Phenomena
• Ignition is the mechanism leading to the onset of a vigorous
combustion reaction and is characterized by a rapid increase of
the species temperature.

• Ignition of a combustible material is often classified in two ways:

spontaneous ignition, also known as autoignition, occurs through
the self heating of the reactants, whereas piloted ignition occurs
with the assistance of an ignition source.

• If the heat generated by the slow reactions is all lost to the

surroundings, then the reactants do not ignite. However, if the
heat generated by the reaction is greater than the heat losses to
the surroundings, a self-heating process may occur where the
temperature of the reactants increases until they spontaneously
ignite.
• Piloted ignition can be initiated by many means such as a spark,
pilot flame, friction, electrical resistance (glow plug), or a laser
beam.

1. Autoignition (Self-ignition, Spontaneous Ignition) Based on

Thermal Theory
• Autoignition is of special relevance to internal combustion
engine and fire safety applications. For example, in diesel
engines, HCCI and SIE. The storage of combustible materials
also requires attention to the possibility of autoignition.
• let’s consider a vessel filled with a combustible mixture at
temperature T. The vessel is in contact with surroundings at Tȸ.
Using the energy conservation equation
the above equation can be simplified to

Where

• Let’s keep the values of h, A, and

V fixed while changing the values
of Tȸ. Note that qL’’’ depends
linearly on the system
temperature.
• Let’s start out with a sufficiently
high surrounding temperature Tȸ 3
Because the heat generation
would be greater than the heat
loss in this case, autoignition will
always occur.
• When the surrounding temperature decreases to a point Tȸ 2, there
exists a system temperature such that both qL’’’ = qR’’’ hold at a
point,Tc which is called the critical autoignition temperature.

• The critical autoignition temperature is the lowest temperature at which

a combustible material can ignite without the application of flame or
other means of ignition. At Tc the heat loss term just balances the heat
generation term and any slight increase in temperature will trigger
ignition.
• Tȸ 1 it is seen that the heat generation and heat losses balance each
other at two different temperatures T1 and T2. At temperature T1 the
system is stable and ignition will not occur. A slight increase in T will
lead to qL’’’ > qR’’’ and the system temperature will return to T1.
Similarly, a slight decrease in T1 will lead to qL’’’ < qR’’’ and,
consequently, the system temperature will increase and return to T1.
• In contrast, the system is unstable at T2 as a slight perturbation in
temperature will drive the temperature away from T2. Thus autoignition
will only occur if the mixture temperature is greater than the temperature
at the onset of self-heating (T2).
 One can draw a similar diagram if we keep Tȸ fixed while changing
the heat transfer process via h or A/V.

critical autoignition temperature

can be obtained

or

(1)

(2)

Divide eq (1) by eq (2)

(3)
• The above thermal theory provides a qualitative understanding of the
nature of the critical conditions for ignition with the major assumption
that ignition is controlled by thermal energy.
• Therefore, Eq. 3 should be used only for understanding general trends.
 1.2 Effect of Pressure on the Autoignition Temperature

• As the pressure increases, the reaction rate increases, tipping the balance
between the heat generation and heat losses.
• If the system is at the critical temperature for ignition, an increase in the
pressure above some threshold level will result in thermal run-away and
ignition. In other words, there is not only a critical temperature for ignition,
but also a critical pressure for ignition.

Semenov Equation
• For most combustion reactions with high activation energy, the
term dominates and the critical pressure
decreases with increasing temperature

Critical pressure versus temperature. Ignition is possible in

the region above the curve for combustion chemistry when
the global order is greater than 1
 2. Piloted Ignition
• In piloted ignition, the combustion process is initiated when an energy
source locally heats the mixture to a high temperature. Burning is then
sustained once the ignition source is removed.
• Piloted ignition can be achieved using a spark, pilot flame, electrical
resistance (glow plug), friction, or any sufficiently hot source.
• Let’s consider the case of a spark generated with a spark plug The high
applied voltage creates an electric arc across the gap between the
electrodes, heating the combustible mixture in between. The energy
required for igniting the mixture is important for both engineering
applications and explosion/fire safety.
• simple analysis will be presented for estimating just how much spark
energy is required to ignite the fuel mixture.

For this analysis, we will assume that the heat generated from the
combustion reaction is negligible during the ignition process
Ignition energy as a function of electrode gap

heat lost by the mixture is primarily by

conduction to the electrodes
• the ignition energy from the spark increases with the volume of mixture
and the heat losses to the surroundings.
• Increasing the gap between the electrodes increases the volume of
mixture that must be heated, raising Eignition. Because the heat lost by
the mixture is primarily by conduction to the electrodes, decreasing the
gap between the electrodes increases the heat lost.

• It follows that there is an optimal spacing of the electrodes that results in a

minimum energy required for ignition (MIE – minimum ignition energy).
• Assuming that the volume is a sphere with diameter, d, equal to the gap
between the electrodes, the minimum ignition energy (MIE) (assuming no
heat losses) can be estimated for a fixed mixture as
• The previous equation addresses the ignition of the combustible mixture
only but does not guarantee that the combustion reaction will continue to
propagate through the mixture. The energy necessary for combustion
propagation is generally larger than that for simple ignition.
• Typical values of the MIE are shown below. One might notice that the
MIE for hydrogen is much smaller than those for other fuels. This is just
one of the reasons why hydrogen is a dangerous fuel.
 3 Condensed Fuel Ignition
• An important aspect of the combustion of liquid and solid fuels is their
ease of ignition.
• Condensed-phase fuels burn mostly in the gas phase (flaming). For a
condensed fuel to ignite and burn in the gas phase, enough fuel must
vaporize so that when mixed with air, the combustible mixture falls within
the flammability limits of the fuel.
• Once the gaseous mixture above the condensed fuel ignites, a non-
premixed flame is established at the surface that sustains the material
burning.
• The gasification of liquid fuels (evaporation) is physically different than
that of solid fuels (pyrolysis)
 3.1 Important Physiochemical Properties

• The lower the evaporation temperature of a liquid fuel, the easier it will
ignite. Two commonly used terms for describing the ignition properties
of a liquid fuel are the flash point and fire point.
• Flash point is defined as the minimum liquid temperature at which a
combustion reaction (flame) is seen (flashing) with the assistance of a
spark or a pilot flame.
• The flame merely “flashes” because the heat release rate of the
establishing flame is insufficient to overcome the rate of heat losses to
the surroundings.
• Fire point refers to the minimum liquid temperature for sustained
burning of the liquid fuel. At the fire point, the heat release rate of the
establishing flame balances the rate of heat losses to the surroundings.
 3.2 Characteristic Times in Condensed Fuel Ignition

• As it was explained above, the ignition of a condensed fuel requires the

gasification of the fuel, mixing of the fuel vapor and oxidizer, and
ignition of the mixture. Each one of these processes requires some
amount of time. Their combined times determine the time of ignition
(ignition delay time), which is important in combustion processes,
particularly fuel fire safety.

• If the temperature of gasification of the fuel is higher than room

temperature, the fuel must be heated to its gasification temperature
before it can ignite. An expression for the fuel heating time tg can be
found by performing an energy balance on the material
 solving

Rearranging
Because the external radiant heat flux is so large compared to the heat losses, we
will disregard the heat loss terms and assume that the total surface heat flux is due
solely to the external radiant flux.
Flame Quenching
Typical values of maximum Vf:

CH 4 → 33.9 cm/s at Ф = 1.07

C3H8 → 40.2 cm/s at Ф = 1.12

CO → 39 cm/s at Ф ~ 1.7

H2 → 265 cm/s at Ф ~ 1.7

Effect of mixture composition, Ф, mixture temperature, T,

pressure, p, on vf

1-Effect of Ф:

For light hydrocarbon

vf
 2.6log10   0.94
v f max
2- Effect of T:

Vf increases with T: as T1.413 for H2-air

T 1.64 for n- heptane
T 1.85 for iso-octane (T in K).

3- Effect of p:

Empirical equation
v f ,a pa x
 ( )
v f ,b pb

With x = f(vf,a) ; vf,a = vf at 1

atm, b refers to another pressure
 § 5.2 Stability Limits of Laminar Flames

There are two types of limits generally associated with laminar

flame propagation

One type governs the ability of The other is concerned with flow
the mixture to support flame conditions, particularly in tubes, e.g.
propagation e.g. flammability limits, flame stabilization on burner rim,
and quenching distance flash back and blowoff

30
 a) Flammability limits
• There are mixture ratios which will not self support the propagation
of flame after being ignited. These mixture ratios fall at the lean and
rich end of the flammable concentration spectrum.
• They are defined as the leanest and richest mixture strengths which
will just self-support flame propagation.
As such we have the lean and rich flammability limits.
• They are usually measured in a 2” diameter glass tube with 4ft long.
The required mixture fills the tube and is ignited at one end by a
spark, and the criterion of flammability is the ability of the mixture
to sustain the flame propagation down the length of the tube.

31
Effect of temperature on flammability limits:
its increase slightly broadens the flammability limits because of its
accelerating effect on chemical reactions.

Effect of pressure on flammability limits:

For pressure ˃ 1 atm, the rich limit is as shown in the following Fig.,
and the lean limit is not affected appreciably.
 For pressure ˂ 1 atm, the variation of the flammability limits
and pressure is as shown in the following Fig.

Pressure mm Hg
Patm

200 mm

5 15

For fuel-oxygen mixture, the lower limit is the same as in air,

however, the higher limit is much greater in oxygen than in air.

33
 Quenching Distance
• The quenching distance is defined as the smallest separation
between two parallel plates at which a flame propagation can be
sustained.

• The quenching diameter has a similar definition as above but for

propagation in tubes.

• Mechanism of quenching is by affecting the two mechanisms which

permit flame propagation, namely diffusion of active species and
diffusion of heat.
- on the heat side, tube walls extract heat; the smaller the tube
the greater the surface area to volume ratio within the tube the
greater the volumetric heat loss.

34
 - similarly on the side of species, the smaller the tube, the
greater the number of collisions of the active radical species with
the wall and the greater the number of these species being
destroyed.

̶ Effect of mixture strength on quenching diameter:

35
Effect of temperature on quenching diameter:

Effect of pressure:
It has been established that the quenching diameter
increases as pressure decreases; the correlation is
almost inversely proportional i.e. dT ~ 1/p for many
36
components.
The main physical effect lies in the balance between the heat
generated by the combustion reaction and the heat lost to the
adjacent material. Firemen pouring water on a fire is one of many
examples of flame quenching encountered in life

Sketch of a premixed flame propagating in a channel separated by

two walls with distance, d0. Right: temperature profile
 Here, a simple analysis is used to determine the quenching
distance. Let’s consider a flame propagating into a channel with
two walls separated by a distance d0 in a two-dimensional region
with unity depth as illustrated before.

The energy balance includes Energy generated by the flame:

and Energy loss via walls:

The criterion for flame quenching is

 By setting

Solving for d0

The above equation provides general guidance on the factors that

influence d0. The Flame arrestor shown in Figure is designed to stop
unwanted flame propagation through a gas delivery system.
Flammable gases pass through a metal grid, or mesh, which is
generally designed with spacing smaller than the quenching
distance for the conditions under consideration
 flame arrestors. Left: outside view, Right: inside of flame
arrestor with screen in center, surrounded by small holes

It is useful to re-express the quenching distance in terms of the

chemistry time so that we can identify any correlation between d0
and the flame thickness .
Experimental data of premixed flames against walls suggest the
following relation, SL is the laminar flame speed.