Extreme role of preferential diffusion in turbulent flame propagation

In this paper we demonstrate the essential role of molecular diffusion in the structure and propagation of turbulent flames. We first show that mixtures whose concentrations are near or beyond the conventional flammability limits can be rendered to burn strongly in turbulence, provided the controlling molecular mass diffusivity of the mixture exceeds its thermal diffusivity, namely the mixture Lewis number (Le) is less than unity. The associated...