Dynamics of unconfined spherical flames

Louis Leblanc, Maha Manoubi, Kadeem Dennis, Zhe, Liang, Matei I. Radulescu

Published 2012-10-31, updated 2012-11-01Version 2

Using the soap bubble technique, we visualize the dynamics of unconfined hydrogen-air flames using high speed schlieren video. We show that for sufficiently weak mixtures, i.e., low flame speeds, buoyancy effects become important. Flame balls of a critical dimension begin to rise. The experiments are found in very good agreement with the scaling laws proposed by Zingale and Dursi. We report the results in a fluid dynamics video.