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• The flame and flow dynamics under air flow pulsations are resolved by performing validated LES and simultaneous OH-PLIF/PIV. • Temporal variations of stretch rate and heat release rate can be used as a criterion for flame extinction/reignition. • A novel decoupled simulation which integrates the plasma source terms and the CFD model is developed. • Thermal and kinetic effects of microsecond repetitively pulsed discharge on combustion are quantitatively interpreted. This paper intensively investigates the inlet pulsation-induced extinction of a premixed swirl flame (PSF) and its plasma-assisted stabilization using the microsecond repetitively pulsed (MRP) discharge. A well-designed low-frequency flow pulsation is applied to the air feedline for the mimicking of transient operations/disturbances in practical engines, which exhibits significant deterioration on the lean blowout (LBO) limit. The MRP discharge is utilized to improve the stability of perturbed flames. It extends the LBO limit at a proper time delay between the air flow pulsation and the discharge, with discharge power less than 1% of the combustion power. Further, the validated large-eddy simulations (LES) and the simultaneous OH planar laser-induced fluorescence/particle imaging velocimetry (OH-PLIF/PIV) measurements are performed to capture the unsteady evolution of flames approaching lean blowout. The nonlinear flame response to the flow pulsation quantitatively reveals the phase difference between the maximum local stretch rates (κ max) and volumetric heat release rates (q ̇ c). A combined effect of the excessive stretch and the reduction of heat release due to flow pulsation can be used to interpret the flame extinction. Finally, a novel LES-ZDPlasKin combined approach, which decouples the discharge and combustion processes, is dexterously developed to simulate plasma-assisted combustion behaviors. The reignition and stabilization due to the plasma effects are well reproduced in the predictive model, pronouncing the indispensable and synergistic thermal and kinetic effects of the MRP discharge on flame stabilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]