Effect of hydrogen enrichment on flame broadening of turbulent premixed flames in thin reaction regime

An experimental study to identify the effect of hydrogen enrichment and differential diffusion on the flame broadening is conducted. Turbulent lean premixed flames in the Broadened Preheat–Thin Reaction (BP-TR) regime are obtained. The flames are stabilized on a Bunsen burner and CH₄/H₂/air mixtures are adopted with three hydrogen fractions of 0, 30% and 60%. The preheat zone and heat release zone are captured with the multi-species Planar Laser-Induced Fluorescence (PLIF) of OH and CH₂O radicals. Flame thicknesses of the preheat and heat release layers are measured. Results show broadened preheat zone and thin heat release layers for the flames, as predicted by the BP-TR regime. The preheat zone thickness can be increased to about 3–6 times compared to the laminar preheat thickness. An apparently decreased preheat zone thickness with hydrogen addition is observed. The differential diffusion is anticipated to locally thicken the heat release zone along the flame front. The mean heat release thickness is nearly not affected by the turbulence or hydrogen addition.