A continuous process for the production of ceramic materials has been studied. This method reacted metal and oxidizer in a diffusionally controlled process, demonstrated by reacting a magnesium particle stream and hot water vapor. Many small rich hydrogen/air diffusion flames provide an atmosphere of hot water vapor, hydrogen, and nitrogen for oxidizing the magnesium, which reacts with the water vapor in the form of a diffusion flame. The burner that provides the hot atmosphere has been characterized thermally using thermocouple measurements and a model that gives the true temperature from the measured values. A model was developed that gives the flame profile for the parallel flow geometry of particle stream combustion used in this study as defined in the cartesian coordinate system. / Graduation date: 1995