A low temperature co-fired ceramic burner for studying micro flames

A micro stagnation-point flow burner was fabricated using low temperature co-fired ceramic tapes (LTCC) to study counterflow diffusion flames. Methane/oxygen diffusion flames with luminous zones of less than 1 mm in length and 250 μm in width were stabilized in the burner reaction channel. The burner was built with 25 layers of LTCC tapes that were pre-laminted into 7 blocks. Integrated sapphire windows and sub-millimeter sized internal channels provide optical accessibility and reactant feeds, respectively. Optical diagnostics of micro diffusion flames were implemented using microscopic imaging spectroscopy. One-dimensional spatial distributions of CH* and C ₂ * species across micro diffusion flames were measured and compared with numerical solutions. Results show that the location of the CH* emission maximum evolved linearly with the oxygen flow rate when the fuel flow rate was fixed. A quasi-linear C₂ */CH* decrease towards the oxidizer size was found across the micro diffusion flame. The experimentally resolved flame structures were in agreement with the contours obtained from the three dimensional numerical simulation. The study successfully demonstrated the feasibility of utilizing LTCC tapes to fabricate microburners for homoegeneous gaseous combustion. In addition to the current application for studying micro flame dynamics, the burner can be applied to microthrusters, micro fuel reformers, in situ toxic incinerators, etc.