Investigation of Dilution Effect on CH4/Air Premixed Turbulent Flame Using OH and CH2O Planar Laser-Induced Fluorescence

Diluting the combustion mixtures is one of the advanced approaches to reduce the NOx emission of methane/air premixed turbulent flame, especially with high diluents to create a distributed reaction zone and mild combustion, which can lower the temperature of reaction zone and reduce the formation of NOx. The effect of N2/CO2 dilution on the combustion characteristics of methane/air premixed turbulent flame with different dilution ratio and different exit Reynolds number was conducted by OH-PLIF and CH2O-PLIF. Results show that the increase of dilution ratio can sharply reduce the concentration of OH and CH2O, and postpone the burning of fuel. Compared with the ultra-lean combustion, the dilution weakens the combustion more obviously. For different dilution gases, the concentration of OH in the combustion zone varies greatly, while the concentration of CH2O in the unburned zone is less affected by different dilution gas. The CO2 dilution has a more significant effect on OH concentration than N2 with the given dilution ratio, but a similar effect on the concentration of CH2O in the preheat zone of flame. However, dilution does not have much influence on the flame structure with the given turbulent intensity.