As emission regulations become increasingly more stringent and policies evolve to combat global climate change impacts, reducing pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions emerge as one of the most important goals of combustion research. The implementations of advanced combustion concepts, such as matrix-stabilized combustion, are imperative to achieving low emissions and enhanced flame stabilization at fuel-lean conditions. Combustion of a gas mixture within the cavities of an inert porous matrix exhibits characteristics different from those of conventional burners that utilize a free flame. Specifically, porous media burners (PMBs) operate on the principle that the solid porous matrix serves as a means of internally recirculating heat from the combustion products upstream to the reactants. The internal recirculation of heat in PMBs reduces the lean flammability limit of a fuel-air mixture, which can enable lower emissions, reduced thermal stresses due to decreased flame temperatures, and complete fuel conversion due to lean combustion. However, the challenge lies in stabilizing these flames inside the porous matrix in the presence of complex thermophysical, transport, and heat-transfer processes.

The objective of this research program is to, computationally and experimentally, assess the feasibility of matrix-stabilized combustion as an alternative combustion strategy for real-world applications. Our efforts include developing unprecedented X-Ray CT diagnostics for quantitative 3D-temperature measurements inside the porous structures as well as high-resolution micro-CT images to construct digital renderings of the matrix topology. Tessellated models representing the porous matrix enable accurate pore-resolved simulations, the results of which are used for low-order model development and validation.