NSF Award
8715414
This award will support collaborative research between Dr. Robert K. Cheng of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory of the University of California, Berkeley, and Dr. I. Gokalp of the Centre de Recherches sur la Chimie de la Combustion et des Hautes Temperatures (CRCCHT) of CNRS, in Orleans, France. The work will focus on an investigation of the fundamental properties of premixed turbulent flames stabilized in stagnation point flows. This particular flame configuration is considered ideal for testing numerical models of turbulent combustion, because its behavior closely approximates that of an idealized one-dimensional flame. Two different types of flame configurations will be studied: in California, the planar turbulent flame brush formed by the impinging of a flame on a flat plate; and in France, opposing flame jets. Both the French and American groups share the same approach to the study of turbulent flame dynamics, employing laser diagnostics to measure detailed statistical turbulence parameters. The proposed collaboration will multiply the number of types of flame configurations that can be studied using these techniques. The U.S. and French investigators have been collaborating informally for the last two years, and this collaboration has already resulted in two joint publications. Travel support provided by this grant will facilitate the continuation of this work, which has important practical ramifications in the design of high-efficiency apparatus, such as gas or oil burners, which utilize flames.
