Flickering candle flames and their collective behavior

TL;DR

This study investigates the flickering behavior of candle flames in bundles, revealing how their collective oscillations depend on factors like candle number, packing topology, and oxygen levels, through experiments and a modified theoretical model.

Contribution

It introduces a modified dynamical model that captures the experimental observations of collective flickering behavior in candle flames.

Findings

Flickering frequency varies with candle number and oxygen concentration.

A discontinuous phase transition occurs between synchronized states.

The modified model aligns with experimental results.

Abstract

Oscillation and collective behavior of diffusion flames is a fascinating phenomena. Considering candle bundles with different sizes in variable oxygen concentration, the flickering dynamics of the flames are experimentally and theoretically investigated. Trends for the flickering frequency as a function of the candle number in the bundle and oxygen concentration is revealed for various topologies of the candles packing. The collective behavior of the flames as a function of their separation distance is studied by measuring an appropriate synchronization order parameter and trough the common oscillation frequency. In agreement with previous results we find a discontinuous phase transition between an in-phase synchronized state at small separation distance and a counter-phase synchronized state at larger separation distances. A previously used dynamical model is modified in order to accommodate our experimental findings.