This paper presents measurements of the simultaneous fuel distribution, flame position and flow velocity in a high pressure, liquid fueled combustor. Its objective is to develop methods to process, display and compare large quantities of instantaneous data with computations. However, time-averaged flow fields rarely represent the instantaneous, dynamical flow fields in combustion systems. It is therefore important to develop methods that can algorithmically extract dynamical flow features and be directly compared between measurements and computations. While a number of data-driven approaches have been previously presented in the literature, the purpose of this paper is to propose several approaches that are based on understanding of key physical features of the flow — for this reacting swirl flow, these include the annular jet, the swirling flow which may be precessing, the recirculating flow between the annular jets, and the helical flow structures in the shear layers. This paper demonstrates nonlinear averaging of axial and azimuthal velocity profiles, which provide insights into the structure of the recirculation zone and degree of flow precession. It also presents probability fields for the location of vortex cores that enables a convenient method for comparison of their trajectory and phasing with computations. Taken together, these methods illustrate the structure and relative locations of the annular fluid jet, recirculating flow zone, spray location, flame location, and trajectory of the helical vortices.
