Laminar round jet diffusion flame buoyant instabilities: Study on the disappearance of varicose structures at ultra-low Froude number

At very low Froude number, buoyancy instabilities of round laminar jet diffusion flames disappear (except for small tip oscillations referred to as flickering) and those flames look stable and smooth. This study examines the contributions of the different phenomena in the flow dynamics that may explain this effect. It is observed that, at ultra-low Froude/Reynolds numbers, the material influenced by buoyancy is the plume of the flame and not the flame itself (reaction zone) that is short. Therefore, the vorticity creation zone does not profit from the reaction neighbourhood promoting a sharp gradient of density. Expansion and stretch are also important as they push vorticity creation terms more inside the flame and closer to the burner rim compared to moderate Froude flames. In these latter, the vorticity is continuously created around the flame reaction zone, along its developed height and closer to the vertical direction (in average).