Experimental Evaluation of the Surface-Stabilized Combustion of a Confined Porous Inert Media Burner

This paper presents an experimental study of the characteristic parameters of the surface-stabilized combustion of a confined porous media burner with premixed methane/air flames. Parameters such as the stability range, emissions, and temperature profile of the confined porous medium were evaluated using a burner with geometric features that resulted in gas recirculation due to backward-facing step flows. An analysis of the flame morphology using the OH-planar laser-induced fluorescence technique was also conducted to determine the flame height with respect to the porous medium surface. The results show that the confinement causes gas recirculation, which displaces the flame downstream. Correspondingly, the confined/unconfined condition affects the heat transfer regime, which is observed in the variation of the combustion stability range and the temperature profile within the porous medium. The experiments show that for the confined condition, the porous medium temperature profiles did not vary significantly when the specific power (W/m2) increased for a fixed equivalence ratio (ϕ = 0.70).