PIV Measurement of Transient 3-D (Liquid and Gas Phases) Flow Structures Created by a Spreading Flame over 1-Propanol

In the past, we measured three-D flow structure in the liquid and gas phases that were created by a spreading flame over liquid fuels. In that effort, we employed several different techniques including our original laser sheet particle tracking (LSPT) technique, which is capable of measuring transient 2-D flow structures. Recently we obtained a state-of-the-art integrated particle image velocimetry (IPIV), whose function is similar to LSPT, but it has an integrated data recording and processing system. To evaluate the accuracy of our IPIV system, we conducted a series of flame spread tests using the same experimental apparatus that we used in our previous flame spread studies and obtained a series of 2-D flow profiles corresponding to our previous LSPT measurements. We confirmed that both LSPT and IPIV techniques produced similar data, but IPIV data contains more detailed flow structures than LSPT data. Here we present some of newly obtained IPIV flow structure data, and discuss the role of gravity in the flame-induced flow structures. Note that the application of IPIV to our flame spread problems is not straightforward, and it required several preliminary tests for its accuracy including this IPIV comparison to LSPT.