Effects of cryogenic temperature on turbulent premixed hydrogen/air flames

As a carbon-free fuel, hydrogen (H) is of increasing importance in the development of low-emission engines. Due to a low volumetric energy density, H is preferably stored at cryogenic temperatures ( K). In this context, it is indispensable to investigate the combustion behavior of hydrogen at such low temperatures. Although some studies focused on the ignition and detonation of hydrogen, investigations about premixed H/air flame propagation interacting with turbulence at cryogenic temperatures are rather scarce. In this work, stoichiometric turbulent premixed /air flames are studied at cryogenic temperature () and normal temperature (), using three-dimensional direct numerical simulations with detailed chemistry and transport. It is found that at cryogenic temperature, dimensionless turbulent flame speed and flame surface area increase significantly due to Darrieus–Landau instability (DLI) induced by a large expansion ratio. Since the effective Lewis numbers of the two cases are close to unity, the diffusive-thermal instability (DTI) is negligible in the cases. Furthermore, it is found that there are substantial differences in the peaks of and mass fractions between the two cases, probably due to smaller local flame curvatures at cryogenic temperature. Moreover, the results indicate that the flame response to stretch is not sensitive to the change of the initial temperature. A larger fractal inner cutoff scale is found at K, suggesting that the flame exhibits more large-scale flame wrinkling than that at K due to the impact of DLI. All these facts lead to the conclusion that cryogenic temperature can significantly promote large-scale flame wrinkling, increase turbulent flame speed and flame surface area, and affect intermediate species distribution. This suggests that combustion of cryogenic H may have a high risk of flashback.