Numerical Investigation on the Effects of Pressure Drop on Thermal Behavior of Porous Burners

This article aims to study the effect of pressure drop on the thermal behavior of porous burners. Since the reticulated ceramics are used in the burners’ construction, in the previous researches pressure drop arising from flow velocity was ignored. This research has showed that due to the increase of speed resulting from combustion, the consequence pressure drop creates considerable effects on the thermal performance of porous burners. To study this subject, the temperature of a point on the burner axis has been taken to be constant. The burned gas and exit surface temperature were obtained almost the same for two conditions, one with the pressure held constant and the other with a pressure drop. Results show that the firing rate was decreased up to 18%, compared to the constant pressure case. The thermal radiative efficiency of radiant porous burners, in which the pressure drop has been considered, was increased about 3–5% for the studied equivalence ratio of methane-air combustion.