Effect of flame retardants on side-wall quenching of partially premixed laminar flames

A combined experimental and numerical investigation of partially premixed laminar methane-air flames undergoing side-wall quenching (SWQ) is performed. A well-established SWQ burner is adapted to allow the seeding of the main flow with additional gaseous products issued from a (secondary) wall inlet close to the flame's quenching point. First, the characteristics of the partially premixed flame that quenches at the wall are assessed using planar laser-induced fluorescence measurements of the OH radical, and a corresponding numerical simulation with fully-resolved transport and chemistry is conducted. A boundary layer of enriched mixture is formed at the wall, leading to a reaction zone parallel to the wall for high injection rates from the wall inlet. Subsequently, in a numerical study, the wall inflow is mixed with dimethylmethylphosphonat (DMMP), a phosphor-based flame retardant. The DMMP addition allows the assessment of the combined effects of heat loss and flame retardants on the flame structure during flame-wall interaction. With an increasing amount of DMMP in the injected mixture, the flame stabilizes further away from the wall and shows a decrease in the local heat-release rate. Thereby, the maximum wall heat flux is significantly reduced. That results in a lower thermal load on the quenching wall. The flame structure analysis shows an accumulation of the intermediate species HOPO at the wall similar to the CO accumulation during the quenching of premixed flames without flame retardant addition. The study shows how the structure of a partially premixed flame is influenced by a wall that releases either additional fuel or a mixture of fuel and flame retardant. The insights gained from the canonical configuration can lead to a better understanding of the combined effects of flame retardants and heat losses in near-wall flames.