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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 84 » Issue 3
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 479–482 (2000)

Rotating Spiral Edge Flames in von Karman Swirling Flows

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V. Nayagam1 and F. A. Williams2
1National Center for Microgravity Research, NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio 44135
2MAE Department, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093

Received 1 September 1999; published in the issue dated 17 January 2000

See accompanying Physics Focus

Experimental observations of rotating spiral flame edges formed during near-limit combustion of a downward-facing, polymethylmethacrylate disk spinning in quiescent air are reported. These flames exhibit similarities to patterns commonly found in quiescent excitable media. The tail rotates rigidly while the tip executes a compound, meandering motion sometimes observed in Belousov-Zhabotinskii reactions. A model assuming a rigid-body rotation with a constant speed of propagation relative to the swirling gas flow generated by the spinning disk predicts the observed spiral shapes well.

© 2000 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.479
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.479
PACS:
82.40.Py, 47.54.+r, 47.70.Fw, 82.40.Ck
 
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