About this Research Topic

Background

Turbulent combustion is the primary route of chemical to mechanical energy conversion in propulsion and power systems. There remains a need to improve the safe operational envelope of combustion systems while reducing environmental impacts. This has driven a demand to understand the fundamental physics of turbulent reactions, and has promoted various engineering strategies to promote clean and efficient engines. Examples include operating gas turbines at fuel-lean, premixed conditions, and transitioning to carbon-free fuels, such as hydrogen and ammonia. However, due to the multi-scale and complex physical aspects of the problem, the understanding of combustion and flame dynamics for propulsion and power are still lacking.

There remains a need to improve the safe operability envelope, performance, and efficiency of turbulent combustion systems. This requires an improved understanding of turbulence-flame interactions, flame stability and extinction dynamics, liquid atomization and evaporation, pressure gain combustion, detonation phenomena, and alternative fuels. In particular, further experimental and numerical investigation of these topics is needed in practical environments that better emulate engine conditions. Additional knowledge regarding carbon-free fuels, high-speed flow regimes, and compressibility effects are also desired.

Improving the performance of propulsion and power combustion systems requires a detailed understanding of multiphase turbulent reacting flows. Manuscripts of all types that add fundamental or practical knowledge related to the current understanding of turbulent and/or multiphase reactions are welcome.

Topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Turbulence-flame interaction dynamics
• Flame stabilization and extinction dynamics
• Liquid and solid-fueled combustion
• Thermoacoustic instabilities and control strategies
• Combustion in high-speed flow regimes
• Deflagration to detonation transition phenomena
• Detonation physics
• Novel combustion strategies for propulsion and power (such as plasma-assisted combustion, axially staged combustion, and fuel injection)

Keywords: Aerospace, Aviation, Propulsion, Combustion, Fuels, Turbulence, Multiphase Combustion, Energy, Modeling, Hypersonics, Experimental Diagnostics, Supersonic Combustion, Deflagration, Detonation

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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