Experimental Study of Flame Stability in SiC Porous Media

In this paper, the effect of equivalence ratio, pore diameter and firing rate on flame stability in a SiC porous media has been studied experimentally. Based on the position of the flame, four regimes are observed as follows: Surface flame, submerged flame, under-surface and detached flame. The surface flame regime as a rich flame is one of the stability threshold and the detached flame as a lean flame is the other threshold of the flame stability. Change the pore diameter causes so little change in equivalence ratios corresponding to the detached flame threshold but increasing the pore diameter decreases the equivalence ratio changes for the surface flame. Also increasing the firing rate decreases flame stability range in the porous media. Flame position was estimated using axial temperature distribution in the sidewall of the burner. Temperature profiles versus equivalence ratio in a firing rate are approximately similar but the profiles are different for various firing rates. According to the results, flame is stable in near the upper surface or in the half bottom of the porous media.