“This montage was inspired by the natural patterns seen in sunflowers. The seeds in a sunflower are separated by the Golden Angle, which produces what looks like simultaneous spirals in both directions around the middle of the sunflower. In addition, the number of spirals and petals on a sunflower are always one of a number in the Fibonacci series (0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55). This pattern is a re-occurring theme in nature (seashells, pinecones, etc…). We chose this pattern to represent our progress in microcombustion, as we spiral in to find the smallest possible flame. We also wanted the montage to represent the now flowering topic of microcombustion.”
Ben Mellish and Fletcher Miller (National Center for Space Exploration Research); Dan Dietrich and Pete Struk (NASA Glenn Research Center); James T’ien (Case Western Reserve University)
“In this color schlieren image, methane/air flames are seen as small vertical elements being emitted from a burner at the center of the image. The flames impinge on a 25 cm diameter cylinder mounted 10 mm above the burner surface. the cylinder is rotating in a counterclockwise direction at 5.5 meters/sec. This configuration is important in the flame treatment of plastic films by altering the film surface in preparation for printing.”
Colleen Stroud, Melvyn Branch and Jean Hertzberg (University of Colorado, Boulder)
“Radiative heat flux contours on a tunnel wall from a three-dimensional flame spread model. Contours modified with nonlinear color map and some image processing.”
Ioan Feier (Case University)