Abstract
The lean combustion of a gas fuel within a highly porous medium has been investigated experimentally. A small-scale experimental burner system is built. The porous medium is made of stacked stainless steel 304 wire mesh, having a porosity of approximately 0.86. B-type and K-type thermocouples are used to measure the temperatures in the burner. Mass flow controllers are used to control and measure the flow rates of fuel and air. The system is integrated and controlled by using LabView program. Results show that for a given equivalence ratio, φ, there exists a range of stable burning flame speed. For φ = 0.6, the flame speed of methane in this porous burner is in the range between 23 cm/s and 74 cm/s, approximately 1.4 to 4.2 times the flame speed of freely burning flame. The leanest mixture that can be burned in the burner is approximately of φ = 0.4, much lower than the normal lean limit of 0.53. NO emission is within the measurable limit of the gas analyzer (about 1 to 2 PPM). CO emission, on the other hand, is over 2000 PPM, possibly due to the oxidation of carbon contained in the stainless steel.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 217-224 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Journal of the Chinese Society of Mechanical Engineers, Transactions of the Chinese Institute of Engineers, Series C/Chung-Kuo Chi Hsueh Kung Ch'eng Hsuebo Pao |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| State | Published - Jun 2001 |
Keywords
- Porous medium burner
- Stability limits
- Thermally-enhanced combustion