A model FLOX® combustor, featuring a single high momentum premixed jet flame, has been investigated using laser diagnostics in an optically accessible combustion chamber at a pressure of 8 bar. The model combustor was designed as a large single eccentric nozzle main burner (Ø 40 mm) together with an adjoining pilot burner and was operated with natural gas. To gain insight into the flame stabilization mechanisms with and without piloting, simultaneous Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and OH Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) measurements have been performed at numerous two-dimensional sections of the flame. Additional OH-LIF measurements without PIV-particles were analyzed quantitatively resulting in absolute OH concentrations and temperature fields. The flow field looks rather similar for both the unpiloted and the piloted case, featuring a large recirculation zone next to the high momentum jet. However, flame shape and position change drastically. For the unpiloted case, the flame is lifted, widely distributed and isolated flame kernels are found at the flame root in the vicinity of small scale vortices. For the piloted flame, on the other hand, both pilot and main flame are attached to the burner base plate, and flame stabilization seems to take place on much smaller spatial scales with a connected flame front and no isolated flame kernels. The single shot analysis gives rise to the assumption that for the unpiloted case small scale vortices act like the pilot burner flow in the opposed case and constantly impinge and ignite the high momentum jet at its root.
