Improvements were made to a low-NOx axial swirl burner (LNASB), aimed at mitigating slagging in a 600-MWe boiler burning bituminous coal. The new design is referred to as improved low-NOx axial swirl burner (ILNASB). This paper describes investigations of the influence of swirl burner structure on the gas/particle flow characteristics using a three-dimensional particle-dynamics anemometer. In comparing results from both ILNASB and LNASB, a central recirculation zone is seen to form in the region x/d = 0.1-0.3 within the ILNASB. This zone had shifted from the region between primary and secondary air in LNASB to a region between inner and outer secondary air. In the vicinity of the burner outlet, particle volume flux is reduced significantly in the central recirculation zone. In contrast, this flux is high near the central axis in ILNASB, thus concentrating a great fraction of pulverized coal near the central axis. Form the study, the gas/particle flow characteristics of the ILNASB show that the improved burner has the ability to ease slagging and reduce NOx emissions. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.