Femtosecond two-photon laser induced fluorescence imaging of atomic hydrogen in a laminar methane-air flame assisted by nanosecond repetitively pulsed discharges

Sustainable and low-emission combustion is in need of novel schemes to enhance combustion efficiency and control, to meet up with new emission standards and comply with varying quality of renewable fuels. Plasma actuation is a promising candidate to achieve this goal but few detailed experiments have been carried out that target how specific combustion and plasma related species are affected by the coupling of plasma and combustion chemistry. Atomic hydrogen is such a species that here is imaged by using the two photon planar laser induced fluorescence (TPLIF) technique as an atmospheric pressure methane-air flame is actuated by nanosecond repetitively pulsed (NRP) discharges. Atomic hydrogen is observed both in the flame and in the discharge channel and plasma actuation results in a wide modification of the flame shape. A local 50% increase of fluorescence occurs at the flame front where it is crossed by the discharge. Atomic hydrogen in the discharge channel in the fresh-gases is found to decay with a time constant of about 2.4 μs. These results provide new insights on the plasma flame interaction at atmospheric pressure that can be further used for cross-validation of numerical calculations.