For the purpose of solving the safety problems of fire and explosion which may occur during hydrogen pipeline transportations, this paper experimentally investigates premixed hydrogen-air flame quenching behaviors under action of metal wire mesh in a closed tube. High-speed schlieren photography system is employed to reveal flame quenching results. Pressure transducer is adopted to test pressure changes. View from schlieren images, it is found that the wire mesh significantly enhances wrinkles of inverted flame front in lean-fuel combustion case (Phi = 0.42), but weakens the flame inversion extent for Phi = 1.00, 1.59, and 2.38 conditions. In addition, the results indicate that the flame quenching performance is improved pretty as the volume of metal wire mesh (V-M) increases. Besides, compared with lean-fuel combustion cases, the wire mesh presents a more effective suppression effect on rich-fuel cases due to the coupling suppression effects on pressure waves and combustion process together. Moreover, it is found that the critical quenching speed increases linearly as V-M increases, but the maximum critical quenching pressure is always kept at a constant value of approximately 0.115 MPa. The results may provide a significant reference for designing hydrogen flame arrestors to improve the safety of hydrogen pipeline transportations and engineering applications. (C) 2020 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.