Gaseous explosion models generally assume the gas mixture to he uniform However, in a real explosion, the vapor cloud may not be homogeneous, and repartitioning of the reactivity inside the cloud can be subject to wide spatial variations In this work, experimental tests were run to study the flame propagation and acceleration in nonuniform mixtures Experiments were performed in a long vertical confined tube with a square cross section, composed of four equal sections A gate valve separated the tube into two parts, and the composition of the gases was different on each side of the valve The opening of the valve permitted the mixing of gases by molecular diffusion For nonuniform mixtures, a mode of propagation identical to that seen in uniform mixtures was observed, however, a third phase of propagation was found, in which the flame velocity increased strongly This increase occurred with higher hydrogen concentration in an upward-propagating flame A concentration gradient can appreciably modify the trajectory and acceleration of a flame Here, however, the incidence of pressure effects remained modest., since the combustion was confined and the final pressure depended mainly on the quantity of reactants available (C) 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Frog 29 224-230, 2010