Experimental Study of Methane Combustion over Metallic Palladium upon Flame Penetration through Obstacles

Abstract

In this paper, the flame penetration of a dilute methane–oxygen mixture through obstacles containing fine-meshed iron grids with Pd-wire turns is studied, using high-speed recording. It is shown that the Pd catalyst can, under certain conditions, suppress the development of flame propagation in a dilute methane–oxygen mixture since the Pd surface is highly efficient in the termination of active reaction centers. Therefore, kinetic factors can be important even under conditions of high turbulence. Numerical simulation using the Navier–Stokes equations for a compressible reaction medium in the low Mach-number approximation shows a qualitative agreement with a number of experimental regularities. The results obtained are of interest for the model development of turbulent flows in reactive media and in matters relating to explosion safety.