Abstract
The purpose of the study is to assess the extinguishing concentration of inert gases in engine nacelle fire. The experiment was performed with a two dimensional rectangular bluff body stabilized flames, where the fuel was ejected to counter flow and co-flow against an oxidizer stream. Two inert gases, $CO_2$ and $N_2$, were used for extinguishing agent in the oxidizer and methane was used for fuel. The main experimental parameters were the direction of injecting fuel, the kinds of agent and the velocity ratio between air and fuel streams, which controlled the mixing characteristic near bluff body and the strength of recirculation zone in the downstream. The result shows the flame structure and the mode were strongly dependent with fuel/air ratio and the fuel jet direction. For both flow configurations, the extinguishing concentration of $CO_2$ was smaller than the $N_2$ because of the large heat capacity of $CO_2$. However, the concentration of inert gasesat blowout was much smaller than those in the cup burner and coflow jet diffusion flames, which implies that the extinction mechanism of bluff body stabilized flames was mainly due to the aerodynamic aspect. Compared to co-flow fuel injection, the extinguishing concentration of inert gases under counter flow configuration was lower. The effect of direction might result from the mixing characteristic and strength of recirculation zonearound a bluff body. More details should be investigated for the characteristic of recirculation zone in the wake of bluff body using the LES(Large Eddy Simulation).