Study of Thermo-Diffusive Effects on Iso-Octane/Air Flames at Fixed Turbulence Karlovitz Number

Spherically propagating laminar and turbulent flames were studied using iso-octane / air mixtures with and without dilution. The main purpose of this study is to clarify the influence of thermo-diffusive effects on the turbulent flames. In order to examine the thermo-diffusive effects solely by separating them from the effects of flame stretch, turbulent burning velocities were compared at constant flame stretch factors. The mean flame stretch factor acting on turbulent flame front may be represented by the turbulence Karlovitz number. Thus, turbulent explosions were carried out at fixed turbulence Karlovitz numbers. The ratio of turbulent burning velocity to unstretched laminar burning velocity increased with the equivalence ratio for non-diluted mixtures at fixed turbulence Karlovitz numbers. And this ratio for CO₂ diluted mixtures was larger than N₂ diluted mixtures. The Markstein number that denotes the sensitivity of the flame to thermo-diffusive effects depends on the equivalence ratio and diluents of the mixture. The ratio of turbulent burning velocity to unstretched laminar one increased with decreasing Markstein number. Especially, it changed stepwise around Markstein number of zero. However, the burning velocity ratios did not increase with increasing mixture pressure although the Markstein number decreased with pressure.