Abstract:

Aerodynamic effect, thermal effect and combination effects on flame were investigated by numerical
simulation to verify the combustion assisted mechanism of DC/AC electric field acting on the premixed methaneair
spherically expanding flame. The simulation method was adding momentum source and energy source
terms into the Navier-Stokes (N-S) equations on flame surface. Some relative experiments were done to verify
the simulation correctness. The results show that the aerodynamic effect including the particle motion on flame
surface and the vortexes, are the main factor that affect the flame under DC electric field. The flame is affected
by the superposition of aerodynamic effect and the thermal effect under an AC electric field below 1 kHz. The
flame is only affected by the thermal effect without aerodynamic effect under an AC field above 1 kHz, which is
much higher than that particle response required.

Key words: electric field assisted combustion, flame stretch, aerodynamic effect, heat effect, numerical simulation