MODELING GRAVITY EFFECT ON DIFFUSION FLAMES STABILIZED AROUND A CYLINDRICAL WICK SATURATED WITH LIQUID FUEL

Abstract

The familiar flames from candles and oil lamps are representative examples of wick-stabilized diffusion flames. The shape and burning characteristics of these flames depend strongly on gravity-induced buoyant flows. To obtain a better understanding of the gravity effect, a diffusion flame model has been formulated and numerically solved. In the computation, gravity is treated as a parameter, spanning from zero to the high blowoff limit. The model includes realistic wick and candle geometry but assumes that the wick surface is coated with liquid fuel. The gas-phase formulation consists of the full Navier–Stokes equations with a one-step finite-rate overall chemical reaction. Gas-phase flame radiation, important in low gravity near the quenching limit, is included by solving the axisymmetric radiation transfer equation using the S N discrete ordinates method. The computed results include flame and flow structures, heat flux distributions, the energy budget, and the overall burning characteristics as a function of gravity and wick diameter.