Premixed silaneoxygennitrogen flames

The burning velocities of lean premixed silaneoxygennitrogen flames were measured in the silane and oxygen concentration ranges from 1.6% to 2.9% and from 4% to 24%, respectively. Combustion product analyses and flame temperature measurements were also carried out. The burning velocity of a silaneair flame is around 55 cm/s at a silane concentration of 2%. For lean mixtures, when the oxygen concentration is reduced, dependence of burning velocity upon silane concentration decreases but does not significantly affect the flame temperature. For extremely lean flames, the degree of hydrogen production increases with decreasing silane, although silane is consumed almost completely. On the other hand, if the silane concentration exceeds stoichiometric, the burning velocity increases gradually with increasing silane concentration. In that case, silane as well as oxygen are consumed completely and, at the same time, hydrogen rather than water production becomes dominant. The mechanism of silane combustion is discussed, based on numerical calculations, where the mechanism used in the calculation is assembled by analogy of silane to methane combustion.