Flames in channels with cold walls: acceleration versus extinction : acceleration versus extinction

The present work considers the problem of premixed flame front acceleration in microchannelswith smooth cold non-slip walls in the context of the deflagration-to-detonationtransition; the flame accelerates from the closed channel end to the open one. Recently, anumber of theoretical and computational papers have demonstrated the possibility of powerfulflame acceleration for micro-channels with adiabatic walls. In contrast to the previous studies,here we investigate the case of flame propagation in channels with isothermal cold walls. Theproblem is solved by using direct numerical simulations of the complete set of the Navier-Stokes combustion equations. We obtain flame extinction for narrow channels due to heat lossto the walls. However, for sufficiently wide channels, flame acceleration is found even for theconditions of cold walls in spite of the heat loss. Specifically, the flame accelerates in thelinear regime in that case. While this acceleration regime is quite different from theexponential acceleration predicted theoretically and obtained computationally for theadiabatic channels, it is consistent with the previous experimental observations, whichinevitably involve thermal losses to the walls. In this particular work, we focus on the effectof the Reynolds number of the flow on the manner of the flame acceleration.