Fire in zero gravity

Looks totally different than fire on Earth
by catalin | 11 months ago (Thu, Jun 14, 2012 7:22am EDT) | in Educational
Fire in zero gravity
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fire zero gravity
Basically in a normal flame you have hot combustion products which are less dense than the surrounding air so buoyancy makes them rapidly move upwards. As this is happening they are cooling down and there isn't enough time to complete combustion so soot is formed. Blackbody radiation from the soot is the characteristic orange part of the flame that we are used to seeing.

In microgravity there is no buoyancy-induced convection so what you see is a pure diffusion flame. That means that there is a thin interface in a sphere around the vaporized fuel stream where the fuel and oxidizer is perfectly mixed to make combustion take place. the fuel burns nearly completely without being pulled away by buoyancy effects, thus you just see a sphere of perfect blue flame.

More simple: Here on Earth, flames look the way they do because as the match burns, the air becomes very hot and rises. The rising air brings the flame up and away from the match. Because it's carried away, it cools and it doesn't get a chance to properly burn, which results in the orange/yellow flames we are used to.

In the zero gravity picture, the hot air produced by the flame doesn't rise because there is no gravity. Therefore, the combustion is able to stay near the fuel source (the match stick) and burn really hot & efficiently.

http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/v0dx1/fire_in_zero_gravity/
7 comments | Sorted by top | 7 new comments added since your last visit to this upload ( marked in pink background ). You must be logged in for this feature to work
  • Cigarmann | 11 months ago | +5
    How does this help me light cigars......?
  • zerx | 11 months ago | +3
    Zero gravity would light them much quicker CM ?
  • Turdusmcflurdus | 11 months ago | +1
    Ever since event horizon I always wanted to know what fire in zero gravity looked like, Im kinda dissapointed now
  • Beerfan | 11 months ago | +1
    This is kinda confusing. "In the zero gravity picture, the hot air produced by the flame doesn't rise because there is no gravity." I thought gravity made things go down, not up....
    • catalin | 11 months ago | +1
      Should probably have said no athmosphere instead of no gravity..
      • NUFF | 11 months ago | +1
        no gravity would be correct. With no atmosphere, there wouldnt be anything to burn. The gravity pulls the heavy, thick air down. the hot, thin, light air off the match is pushed up, much like a boat in water. With out gravity, well everything goes into chaos, or just looks really cool.
  • ZeroGravity | 8 months ago | +1
    OK but wait a second ... why should the blue flame in 0 gravity look like an umbrella? shouldn't it burn equally in all directions and look more like a sphere / ball??

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