Combustion Dynamics of a Propane–Air Gas Mixture when It Is Ignited by a Streamer Microwave Discharge

The results of experimental studies of combustion of propane–air gaseous mixture when it was ignited by a microwave discharge have been described. The mixture with different propane content fills a sealed radio-transparent tube placed along the axis of a focused linearly polarized quasi-optical microwave beam at atmospheric pressure. Multi-point ignition of the mixture is carried out near one end of the tube by a pulsed microwave discharge with a surface-developed streamer structure. The growth of gas pressure in the tube as propane burned was recorded in the experiments. The microwave pulse energy being invested in high-temperature discharge plasma has been estimated in them. The minimum percentage of propane in the mixture at which the microwave discharge ignites it has been determined in experiments. The time dependence of the pressure increase in the tube as the propane burns determines the combustion process dynamics.