Frequency and Phase Characteristics of Candle Flame Oscillation

The combustion of candles exhibits a variety of dynamical behaviors. Binding several candles together will result in flickering of candle flames, which is generally described as a nonlinear oscillator. The impact on the frequency of the flame by several factors, such as the arrangement, the number and the asymmetry of the oscillators, is discussed. Experimental results show that the frequency gradually decreases as the number of candles increases in the case of an isolated oscillator, while alternation between the in-phase and the anti-phase synchronization appears in a coupled system of two oscillators. Moreover, envelopes in the amplitude of the oscillatory luminance are displayed when candles are coupled asymmetrically. Since the coupling between oscillators is dominated by thermal radiation, a “overlapped peaks model” is proposed to phenomenologically explain the relationship between temperature distribution, coupling strength and the collective behavior in coupled system of candle oscillators in both symmetric and asymmetric cases.