Enstrophy transport in swirl combustion

The contributions of vortex stretching, dilatation, baroclinic torque and viscous diffusion to Reynolds-averaged enstrophy transport in turbulent swirl flames were experimentally measured using tomographic particle image velocimetry and CH₂O planar laser induced fluorescence at jet Reynolds numbers of 26 000–51 000. The mean baroclinic torque was determined by subtracting the other terms in the enstrophy transport equation from the mean Lagrangian derivative. Enstrophy production from baroclinic torque was found to be significant relative to the other transport terms across all conditions studies. This result contrasts with direct numerical simulations of flames in homogeneous isotropic turbulence, which show a decreasing relative significance of baroclinic torque with increasing turbulence intensity (e.g. Bobbitt, Lapointe & Blanquart,Phys. Fluids, vol. 28 (1), 2016, 015101). Hence, the significance of baroclinic enstrophy production in flames is not determined entirely by the local turbulence and flame properties, but also depends on the configuration-specific pressure field.