An Examination of the Relationship Between Chemiluminescent Light Emissions and Heat Release Rate Under Non-Adiabatic Conditions

As combustion instability research has matured over the last decade the need for more detailed diagnostics has increased. One main gap in the diagnostics is the ability to obtain a reliable quantitative measure of unsteady heat release. In an effort to move in this direction using chemiluminescence as the measured quantity, this paper examines the formation of chemiluminescent light in the simple yet non-idealized environment of a Bunsen burner flame with co-flow of air. The results of the study show that OH* and CH* chemiluminescence can be modeled accurately using the simplified modeling approach outlined within the paper. The understanding of chemiluminescent light formation gained by the ability to model OH* and CH* light emissions accurately allows the correct interpretation of chemiluminescence in terms of heat release.