At first glance, inverse flame studies might seem to be mere academic exercises. However, they may offer useful insight into the more familiar area of backdraft phenomena.

Inverse flames differ from normal flames in physical shape, the nature and quantity of the soot produced and the relative amounts of CO and CO2 produced.

Backdraft phenomena typically occur when a fuel-rich compartment is exposed to a jet of fresh air entering through a broken window. When ignition occurs, the jet of air becomes, in effect, the core of an inverse flame.

There have been a number of studies of inverse flames in recent years. For anyone interested in taking a closer look at what has been done, I suggest starting with the 2005 Ph.D. thesis of Mark A. Mikofski (UC Berkely) entitled "Flame Structure and Soot Formation in Inverse Diffusion Flames." This treatise explains the rationale for the study and contains an excellent list of citations for earlier work in the field. A copy of the thesis can be downloaded from the following website:

[repositories.cdlib.org]