Measurement of the resolved flame structure of turbulent premixed flames with constant reynolds number and varied stoichiometry

Wire-stabilized premixed methane-air flames have been studied in a grid-generated homogeneous turbulent flow field in order to identify different burning regimes. The planar Rayleigh scattering technique was used with two parallel laser light sheets, which allows the detection of three-dimensional temperature gradients. For a detailed investigation of the flame structure and topology, the modification of the local temperature gradients at different progress variables c due to the turbulent motion was studied by varying the flame stoichiometry and thereby the Karlovitz number Ka while keeping the turbulent Reynolds number Ret constant at 87 or 134. Because of a nearly Gaussian shaped statistical distribution of the thermal gradients, the 50% median and the width of the distribution are suitable measures used to characterize the flame response. Compared with laminar unstrained calculations, especially very lean flames (