Abstract: Porous medium was added to the central area of a conventional scale Swiss-roll combustor, and an experiment research was conducted. The starting process of the combustor under different conditions and its lean flammability characteristics were analyzed by monitoring the combustors temperature development and the transformation of the combustion products. The experimental results show that, ignition at the central area takes a shorter time for complete combustion compared with that at the entering point and the temperature distribution of the porous media is more uniform; the porous media properties and that the pre-mixed gas flow rate have great influence on the startup characteristics. Furthermore, when the temperature of the combustor center is between 950 K and 1 200 K, it can burn 13% natural gas/air premixed gas, indicating that porous medium built-in Swiss-roll combustor can expand the fuels lean flammability, and is well applicable to low-calorific gases.

Key words: Swiss-roll combustor, porous media, startup characteristics, combustion characteristics