Time-averaged characteristics of a reacting fuel jet in vitiated cross-flow

This paper describes an experimental study of reacting jets in a high-temperature (1775 K) vitiated crossflow at 6 atm. We present an extensive data set based on high speed chemiluminescence imaging and exhaust gas sampling showing the characteristics of the time-averaged trajectory, width of the flame, flame standoff (or ignition) location, and NOx emissions over a momentum flux ratio range of 0.75 < J < 240. Key observations are: (1) Depending upon ignition times, reaction can initiate uniformly around the jet, initiate on the leeward side of the jet and spread around to the windward side farther downstream, or initiate further downstream. (2) The time-averaged trajectory generally follows nonreacting trajectories, but penetrates further in the far-field than for what would be expected of a nonreacting jet. (3) The width of heat release zone increases monotonically with downstream location, J, and flame flapping amplitude, but seems to be dominated by the size of the counter-rotating vortex pair. (4) The measured ignition locations were of the same order of magnitude as values based on calculated ignition time scales and mean jet exit velocities, but with some additional variability. (5) The incremental NOx emissions were controlled primarily by the global temperature rise associated with burning the jet fuel (for the fixed crossflow conditions studied here), and the NOx emissions increased roughly linearly with the temperature rise.