The study of swirl vanes blade amount effect on the visualization and temperature distribution of co-flow diffusion flame

Swirl vanes as a flame perturbation in a co-flow burner have been popularly used to enhance diffusion flame’s physical properties, such as its flammability limit, flame stability, and efficiency. In addition, swirl vanes can enhance the recirculation between fuel and oxidizer, which maximizes the reaction and, thus, increase the combustion efficiency. In this study, the effect of swirl vanes with variations of 4, 6, and 8 blades on the flame visualization and temperature distribution is experimentally observed. The experiment was conducted in a co-flow burner using methane (CH4) with fuel velocity (uf) variations from 1.32 to 15.92 m/s, and the air velocity (ua) was varied from 0.9 to 1.4 m/s. The flame visualization of the diffusion flame at each parameter with three different swirl vanes configuration were analyzed and compared; furthermore, temperature distribution across the flame is also observed for each parameter. The results show that the increment of swirl vanes blades on the co-flow burner installation decreases the diffusion flame’s height due to the recirculation from the turbulent flow on the flame structure. Moreover, there is a non-monotonic increment on the flame height with the increasing fuel velocity for all swirl vane blades configurations. Whereas, for the temperature distribution, higher blade amount increase the flame temperature with 397, 407, and 538 oC for swirl blade 4, 6, and 8, respectively.