Flame structure and soot production of surrogate vegetative fuels burning in the vertical configuration
Six replicate experiments were conducted to study the burning behavior of a surrogate vegetative fuel constructed of an expanded polystyrene foam core with a composite outer shell. Ignition was achieved using a cotton fiber wick soaked with approximately 20 mL of a medium aliphatic petroleum distillate. Flame structure, peak fire size, and soot deposition patterns were observed to be highly dependent on sample deformation during burning (e.g., dripping and continued flaming of polymer melt).
I.T. Leventon, K. De Lannoye, A. Tripi, R. Greene, S. Khalil (National Institute of Standards and Technology)
“Cat Ear” Flame
This unusual diffusion flame around a 4-cm PMMA sphere was observed in the ISS experiment SoFIE-GEL. The formation of the inner ears was the result of recirculating flows as demonstrated in the numerical model.
Paul Ferkul (USRA), Sheng-Yen Hsu and Jyu-Hao Huang (Sun Yet-Sen University), Sandra Olson and Michael Johnston (NASA), Chengyao Li and James T’ien (Case Western Reserve University)