The flame stabilizer apparatus, constructed at SDSU with funding from NASA, converts a spreading flame into a stationary one by moving (using a control system) the fuel sample in the opposite direction of the spreading flame.
The following video shows flame spread over a 50 µm thick PMMA sample (20 mm wide) in downward configuration (g is from right to left). Initially, the flame is spreading downward (towards left). When the stabilizer kicks in, the sample is moved upward (towards right) making the flame stationary.
The following publications describes the apparatus in more details.
Bhattacharjee, S., Bundy, M., Patel, G., Paolini, C. and Tran, W., A Novel Apparatus for Flame Spread Study Proceedings of the Combustion Institute, Vol 34, 18 June 2012, ISSN 1540-7489, 10.1016/j.proci.2012.05.076.