mechanics, Transport phenomena (heat and mass) and Chemistry.

That’s why there has been a bulk

of progress in the combustion in 20th century.

Advancement of mathematical, computational and experimental techniques too have contributed

significantly in understanding the subject.

Flame
Flame is something which is deeply connected with the combustion and many times the word
combustion gives a mental picture of flame before anything else.

A flame is produced because the fuel system has the fuel vapor and air mixing at the right
proportions, chemically reacting to release heat which becomes the sustaining element for
continued reactions.

What is flame and how do we define it?

A flame is a visible, luminous gas phase of a fire. It occurs when a combustible material undergoes
combustion in the presence of oxygen or another oxidizer, producing heat, light, and various
products of combustion. Flames are central to the study of combustion because they represent
the visible manifestation of the chemical reactions involved in the combustion process.

We need to know the interacting feature of the fluid flow, heat transfer and chemical reactions,
in order to under to understand the flames in different environments. Flame produced in different
types of combustion will have different characteristics like a wood stove, a gas turbine combustor,
or a rocket engine combustor; and we must comprehend them all differently, so that, we can design
and predict reliably to predict the performance of the combustor.

Definition
A flame is the visible, luminous part of a fire produced by the combustion of gases, vapors, or
finely divided solid particles. It is characterized by the emission of light due to incandescence or
luminescence resulting from the heat of combustion.

Example:
Let us consider the burning of a candle. When the candle wick is lit, the heat melts the wax, which
is drawn up the wick by capillary action. As the wax reaches the flame, it vaporizes and undergoes
combustion in the presence of oxygen from the air. The resulting flame is the visible manifestation
of this combustion process, emitting heat and light as it consumes the fuel.

Types of flames
Flames are also of various types, which may not be important to discuss at this moment but we
must mention them for the sake of completeness.