Excitation of thermoacoustic oscillations by small premixed flames

Experiments have been carried out in which very small lean premixed flames closely representative of those formed by modern multiport domestic gas burners have been subjected to controlled acoustic perturbation. PLIF from CH has been used to visualise the flame response and the heat-release-rate fluctuations have been evaluated directly from the flame images. It is shown that small laminar flames can amplify the effects of acoustic velocity fluctuations by mechanisms that do not involve resonant heat loss to the burner and that the fluctuations in flame-front area are not adequately characterised by a Strouhal number alone. The measured transfer function is compared with the predictions of various analytical formulations and a new model of the flame oscillation is proposed which applies specifically to situations in which the design of the burner renders the flame base immobile.