Experimental analysis on combustion characteristics of single layer porous media for various burner sizes

Abstract

In this paper, the combustion characteristics of premixed butane-air combustion in three burners with different inner diameters (ID); i.e. 23mm, 31mm, and 44mm are investigated. Effect of the burner size can influence the effectiveness of the combustion of porous media with different equivalence ratios (φ). The present study is focused on a single layer of alumina foam (Al2O3) of burner with a thickness of 15mm. The experiment was run under rich (1.2< φ<2.0) combustion mode to investigate the thermal performance and flame temperature were recorded. All surface flame on top of the burner was captured using a thermal imaging camera. The results indicated the maximum average temperature of 826°C of the burner with ID = 31mm. Also, flame stability and thermal performance are better compared to other ID = 23mm and 44mm. Finally, the maximum thermal efficiency was calculated and found out to be 57%. The effects of some parameters on the feature of combustion in different size burners are also highlighted.