Simulation of Flare Flames

The structure of flare flames are among the most important issues in design of industrial flares. The present paper demonstrates the ability of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to predict the main features of flare flame structure, namely the length of the flame and its deflection due to cross wind. Results show that by fixing the ratio of cross wind to fuel jet velocities, the flame length increases by increasing the fuel volumetric calorific value. For a specified fuel, the flame length first decreases by increasing the cross flow velocity due to enhancement of mixing. However, further increase in the cross flow velocity causes flame deflection and degrades the mixing process causing an increase in the flame length. The present paper also proposes a correlation for flame deflection as a function of cross wind to fuel jet velocity ratio.