The effect of the ceramic foam cell structure on the combustion performance of porous media burner: experimental study

Abstract

To investigate the effect of the ceramic foam cell structure on the combustion characteristics, a porous media burner(PMB) composed of foamed ceramic plates with Kelvin and WP cell models as structural features was designed and developed. The combustion chamber temperature, lean combustion limit, radiation efficiency and flue gas emission characteristics of the burner were analysed in the combustion of methane. The results show that with the same pore density, skeleton diameter and operating parameters, the combustion chamber temperature and radiation efficiency of the WP model are higher than those of the Kelvin model, while the CO and NOx emissions of WP model have an opposite tendency. When the ceramic foams are composed by WP cell model, under the same pore density and operating parameters, the burner has better combustion performance when the skeleton is thin. The combustion chamber temperature and radiation efficiency are higher, CO and NOx emissions are lower, and the lean combustion limit equivalent ratio is lower.