Abstract: Combustion characteristics of pulverized coal were studied on self-made bench which could achieve thermal gravimetric measurement at constant temperatures in simulated furnace flue gas atmosphere (i.e. high-temperature low-oxygen atmosphere). Results show that in the constant temperature environment, the weight loss curve of pulverized coal has a turning point, and with the decrease of coal rank, this phenomenon becomes more obvious. The pulverized coal burns strongly at 1 500 ℃, and the burnout time at 900 ℃ is 6 times of that at 1 500 ℃; temperature has little influence on the early stage of combustion above 1 300 ℃. For the same rise rate of oxygen concentration, the increasing degree of weight loss rate at 1 300 ℃ is smaller than at 800 ℃. The effect of water vapor volume fraction on the promotion of coal devolatilization and combustion would be more obvious in the early stage of combustion when the water vapor volume fraction gets up to 10%. The weight loss rate would be reduced if the volume fraction of CO₂ is kept to be raised after having got up to 15%.