Dr. Hurst,

Thank you for these postings. They were quite interesting and certainly worthy of thought. I am curious about when the various authors mention "inverse flames", do you know if they're referring to a situation where fuel rich gases surround a pocket, if you will, of oxygen "rich" gas? I might presume this would be the "inverse" of what many of us have seen while observing the cross section of a laminar diffusion flame such as that of a burning candle in which the opposite is true; a fuel rich area surrounded by an area of higher perecentage of oxygen where gases from the two regions diffuse towards each other.

Do you have any thoughts as to other situations besides a backdraft-type scenario in which such conditions might arise? I could imagine this sort of thing in a scene in which a compressed air or oxygen tank might erupt inside a ventilation-limited fire compartment full of fuel-rich gases.

Again, thank you. It's an interesting phenomenon to ponder.