Pore-scale flame oscillations and patterns of upstream combustion wave propagation in a one-layer porous burner

Abstract

Upstream propagation of filtration combustion wave in a one-layer porous burner is studied experimentally using thermal imaging and high-speed filming. The burner is the one-layer packed bed of spheres modeling porous media and providing optical access to the flame. This design allowed us to study macroscopic propagation of the combustion wave as well as non-stationary flame behavior at the pore scale. Experimental results demonstrate that upstream propagating combustion wave forms non-uniform porous medium temperature distribution in transverse direction which consists of hot areas separated by low-temperature regions. Macroscopic flame propagation can be accompanied by oscillations of some flame fragments at the pore scale. The mechanism of these pulsations is identical to the flames with repetitive extinction and ignition in narrow channels with external heating. Experimental results suggest that large scale evolution of the thermal wave affects the non-stationary behavior of the flame fragments at the pore scale and vice versa. The interplay between pore-scale and macro-scale processes manifests itself in the multiple repetitions of some patterns of the combustion wave propagation. Two most typical and common patterns are described and discussed. These patterns are step-wise transition of the flame fragment into the upstream pore and transition through the series of flame oscillations with repetitive extinction and ignition. It is shown that highly simplified one-dimensional model describes flame propagation in externally heated variable cross-section channel with heat conducting walls is capable to describe main features of these two patterns. Parametric study allows to predict the effect of problem parameters on the regions of existing of one or another pattern of upstream flame propagation.Novelty and Significance StatementThis paper presents new experimental data on temperature characteristics of upstream propagating filtration combustion wave in a one-layer porous burner. For the first time the patterns of combustion wave propagation uniting macro-scale processes of the thermal wave propagation and oscillations of the flame fragments at the pore scale are described on the basis of experimental data and numerical modeling. Results obtained for the one-layer burner can apparently be generalized to the case of combustion in three-dimensional porous media and packed beds. These results are significant because extend fundamental knowledge on porous media combustion by information on pore- and macro- scale flame dynamics as well as on the interplay of these scales. Experimental results can also be useful for validation of pore-resolved numerical simulations actively developed in the last decade.