High-speed OH-PLIF imaging of deflagration-to-detonation transition in H_2–air mixtures

Planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) is considered a standard experimental technique in combustion diagnostics. However, it has only been occasionally applied to explosion experiments with fast combustion regimes. It has been shown that single-shot OH-PLIF with high pulse energies yields clear fluorescence images of fast deflagrations and also detonations. This paper presents the first application of high-speed OH-PLIF at 20 kHz repetition rate to a deflagration-to-detonation transition experiment. Hydrogen–air mixtures at initial atmospheric pressure and ambient temperature are investigated. Satisfactory results are obtained for flame speeds up to about 500 m/s. Flame instabilities and turbulence–flame interactions are observed. Two factors limit the applicability of HS OH-PLIF toward higher flame speeds: excessive flame luminescence masking the HS OH-PLIF signal and strong absorption of laser light by the flame. The variation in OH-PLIF signal-to-background ratio across a DDT process is studied using a 1D laminar premixed flame simulation extended by spectroscopic models.