LOCAL MAXIMUM FLAME LENGTH OF FLARES IN A CROSSWIND

Adrian J. Majeski, David J. Wilson and Larry W. Kostiuk

Combustion and Environment Group, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 2G8
Presented at the Canadian Section of the Combustion Institute, Edmonton, Alberta,
May 16-19, 1999

Introduction

Flares have been used in the energy and petrochemical industries for most of this century to
dispose of unwanted combustible gases. However, there are still many unresolved issues
regarding their design and operation. Some of these issues include being able to predict reliably
the flame length and trajectory, combustion efficiency, and toxicity of emissions. This paper
focuses on experimentally quantifying the flame lengths of flares in a steady laminar crosswind
with an emphasis on identifying the conditions that produce the local maximum flame length.

Previous studies have resulted in semi-empirical models based on cold flow correlations [1] and
empirical models based on wind tunnel testing of small-scale model flares [2] for predicting the
size and shape of jet diffusion flames in a crosswind. These models were developed for velocity
ratios Vj/U∞ > 20 [1] and Vj/U∞ > 4 [2], where Vj is the fuel jet exit velocity and U∞ is the
crosswind speed. Unfortunately, the velocity ratio limits in these existing models preclude their
use for many continuous flaring operations where Vj/U∞ is near or below unity. It has also been
observed [2, 3] that initially, flame length is increased with crosswind speed to a local maximum
flame length, after which increases in crosswind speed decrease the flame length. This local
maximum flame length is an important design parameter for flare systems and the surrounding
infrastructure.

Experimental Test Facility

The flame lengths reported here were measured in a wind tunnel with a test section that is 1.2 m
high by 2.4 m wide. The cross flow in the core of the test section is uniform with less than 1%
turbulence. Flow velocity in the test section can be controlled between 0.2 m/s and 35 m/s, and
is measured with a vane anemometer at the same axial position in the test section as the jet exit.
The fuel stream is introduced perpendicular to the cross flow by a circular tube flare stack with
inner and outer diameters of 22.1 mm and 24.7 mm respectively. The tube height varies from 25
cm to 78 cm to allow for near upright and near horizontal flames to be positioned within the
uniform velocity part of the tunnel flow so that the ceiling and floor boundary layers do not
affect the flame. Natural gas (94% methane) and commercial grade propane (98% propane)
were used as fuel gases for this study.

Image Collection and Processing

The luminous flame was imaged by a video camera and digitised by a computer video board to
produce a 640 x 480 (interlaced) pixel image with 10-bit light intensity resolution. The camera
was placed normal to the cross flow to produce a field of view in the plane of the jet axis that
measured 1.8 m x 1.3 m. This camera arrangement resulted in a pixel resolution of 2.8 mm
horizontally and 5.6 mm vertically. Depending on the amount of available light, a shutter speed
between 1/500 s and 1/1000 s was used to collect “instantaneous” images.

The unsteady nature of the flame results in a shape and position that can only be described
probabilistically and therefore the flame lengths reported in this paper are derived from the mean
flame image. This mean flame image was created by first applying an intensity threshold to the
individual images to produce a binary representation of the “instantaneous” flame location. Four
hundred of the binary images were summed and normalised by the number of images to create a
mean flame image. In this mean image, the intensity of a pixel is the probability of finding flame
at that location. Contours were drawn to map the regions of this flame-presence probability.
Figure 1 shows three probability contours (10%, 50%, and 90%) on the mean flame image of a
1.0 m/s propane fuel jet into a 2.0 m/s crosswind. The choice of threshold applied to the raw
images was varied by using different algorithms to identify the existence of flame at a location
and was shown to have negligible effect on the size and shape of the mean flame image.

The choice of how to define the flame length is somewhat arbitrary. Having constructed the
mean flame image from an ensemble of “instantaneous” images, various definitions of flame
length can be explored. Shown in Figure 1 is the flame length defined by the 10% contour where
the flame tip is located by the maximum curvature (i.e. the peak) in that contour, but other
contours could also be used.

Results

The experiments reported here were conducted with a single fuel jet exit velocity (Vj = 1 m/s)
and crosswind velocities ranging from 0.8 m/s to 12.0 m/s. Commercial grade propane with a
molecular weight of 44 kg/kmol and a mixture of 79% natural gas and 21% propane with a
molecular weight of 22 kg/kmol were tested. This particular natural gas/propane mixture was
chosen to create a large density difference to determine the importance of jet momentum relative
to exit velocity, while still maintaining the strong luminosity that is associated with propane
flames.

Figure 2 shows the flame lengths measured for the two different flare gases, with the flame
length defined at both the 50% and the 10% contours of flame occurrence, over a range of
crosswind speeds. As with previous observations [2, 3], both flames show a local maximum
length where either increasing or decreasing the crosswind makes it shorter. Despite the fact that
both these flares have the same volumetric flow rate, there is a considerable difference in flame
length. The propane flame being longer than the natural gas/propane flame at all crosswind
speeds. This difference in length is expected because the propane flame requires approximately
130% more air for stoichiometric combustion than the natural gas/propane flame. This increased
air requirement for the combustion of the propane flame is reflected in the longer distance
needed to entrain the necessary quantity of air into the fuel jet.

Comparison between the flame lengths measured by the 50% and 10% contours in Figure 2
reveals potential difficulties in quantifying the flame through its mean length. Obviously, the
flame length defined by a location where flame can be found 50% of the time will be shorter than
the length defined by flame occurring at a location only 10% of the time. Hence, the flame
length is inherently arbitrary, but to facilitate a simple model for any chosen definition of flame
length it is important that the different definitions produce the same trends in flame length. The
propane flare does show the same trends across all wind speeds but the natural gas/propane flare
contains an anomaly at the higher wind speeds. The natural gas/propane flame length defined by
the 50% contour shows trends consistent with the propane flame, but the 10% contour does not
show the continually shortening of flame length at higher cross wind speeds. Further data
collection is required to properly interpret this observation.

To help understand the flow characteristics that establish the local maximum flame length, the
data shown in Figure 2 has been plotted with respect to velocity ratio (Vj/U∞) and a density
weighted velocity ratio (Mv) in Figures 3 and 4, respectively. The density weighted velocity
1
ρ  2 Vj
ratio, defined as  j
 ρ ∞
 U ∞ where ρj is the density of the fuel and ÿ∞ is the density of the
cross-flowing air, is representative of the momentum ratio between the jet and crosswind flows.
Even with this limited amount of data there appears to be a better correlation for local maximum
flame length with Mv, and that the local maximum flame length occurs at Mv = 0.24.

Conclusions

The flame lengths of propane and natural gas/propane jet diffusion flames in a crosswind have
been measured as a function of their probability of flame occurrence. The data collected suggest:
• flame length depends strongly on the entrainment rate of air into the flame
• different definitions of flame length can potentially produce different trends in how the flame
length changes with crosswind speed
• the local maximum flame length occurs at a density weighted velocity ratio of 0.24

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
(NSERC) through a Strategic Project (STP0199993001), NSERC Grants of DJW and LWK,
Environment Canada through PERD funding, and the Canadian Association of Petroleum
Producers through ERAC funding.

References

1. Brzustowski, T.A., (1976). “Flaring in the Energy Industry”, Progress in Energy and
Combustion Science, Vol. 2, pp. 129-141.

2. Kalghatgi, G.T., (1983). “The Visible Shape and Size of a Turbulent Hydrocarbon Jet
Diffusion Flame in a Cross-Wind”, Combustion and Flame, Vol. 52, pp. 91-106.

3. Gollahalli, S.R., Brzustowski, T.A. and Sullivan, H.F., (1975). “Characteristics of a

Turbulent Propane Diffusion Flame in a Cross-Wind”, Transactions of the CSME, Vol. 3, pp.
205-214.
Figure 1. Mean flame image with shading and contours indicating regions of flame-presence
probability. Flame length is defined at the 10% contour.
120
Vj = 1.0 m/s
100 U∞ = 2.0 m/s

Flame Tip
80
Y-Position (cm)

60

10%
40
50%
90%
20
ngth
la me Le
F
0

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160

X-Position (cm)
Figure 2. Flame length defined at the 50% and 10% contours, as a function of crosswind speed.

180
C3H8, M = 44 kg/kmol
160 10th Percentile Contour
50th Percentile Contour
140 0.79CH4 + 0.21C3H8, M = 22 kg/kmol
Flame Length (cm)

10th Percentile Contour

120 50th Percentile Contour

100

80

60

40

20
0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 10.0 12.0

U∞
Figure 3. Flame length defined at the 10% contour, as a function of the velocity ratio.

180

C3H8, M = 44 kg/kmol
160
0.79CH4 + 0.21C3H8, M = 22 kg/kmol
Flame Length (cm)

140

120

100

80

60
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4
Vj/ U∞
Figure 4. Flame length defined at the 10% contour, as a function of the density weighted
velocity ratio.
180

C3H8, M = 44 kg/kmol
160
0.79CH4 + 0.21C3H8, M = 22 kg/kmol
Flame Length (cm)

140

120

100

80

60
0.0 0.3 0.6 0.9 1.2 1.5 1.8
Mv