Experimental investigation of the helical mode in a stratified swirling flame

In a centrally-staged combustor, the stratified swirling flame often manifests a helical mode, which is characterized by the emergence of helical vortices, including the precessing vortex core (PVC) and the outer helical vortex (OHV). To understand the flame-vortex interaction mechanism responsible for the coherent heat release rate (HRR) fluctuation of such a helical mode, this work employs 20 kHz simultaneous measurements of PIV/CH2O PLIF and PIV/CH* chemiluminescence to resolve the unsteady flow field and flame motion. Through a combination of time-resolved and phase-averaged analysis, together with the three-dimensional reconstruction of the coherent flow and flame structures, we arrive at the qualitative understanding that in the helical mode the pilot flame dominated by PVC is a major source of coherent HRR fluctuation, while the main flame only slightly modifies the fluctuation intensity. Quantitative analyses further demonstrate the different effects of PVC and OHV on the coherent HRR fluctuation. Specifically, the PVC affects the primary heat-release process by dictating the convective transport of the reactants upstream of the flame front. And the OHV contributes to additional heat release by inducing stretching and roll-up of the pilot flame tip; it happens during the OHV's second growth, which is likely caused by the thermal expansion resulting from the primary heat release. This explains our finding that the OHV-induced heat release occurs at a slightly delayed phase angle and a downstream location compared with the primary PVC-induced heat release.