Coiled Tube Burner-Heat Exchanger for Stable Surface Combustion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional heating systems require separate components for burners and heat exchangers, leading to inefficiencies and increased complexity, making them less compact.
Innovation Solution
An integrated heat exchanger and burner assembly featuring a coiled tube with a fuel and air supply system, an ignitor, and an electronic control unit that stabilizes combustion on the heat exchanger surface, reducing the number of components and enhancing efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If separate burners and heat exchangers are used, then the system is easier to manufacture and maintain, but the system size increases and efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the burner and heat exchanger into a single integrated assembly where the heat exchanger tubes serve dual purposes as both heat transfer surfaces and burner support structures. The combustion chamber is formed around the heat exchanger tubes, eliminating the need for separate burner and heat exchanger components while improving thermal efficiency through direct contact between combustion gases and heat exchange surfaces.
Solution Approach 2:
The heat exchanger tubes perform multiple functions simultaneously: they serve as heat transfer surfaces for heating water, as structural support for the burner assembly, and as flow channels for combustion gases. This multi-functionality reduces the overall component count while maintaining or improving system efficiency.
2Ease of manufacture
If separate burners and heat exchangers are used, then each component can be optimized independently, but the overall system becomes less compact
Solution Approach 1:
The burner components are nested around the heat exchanger tubes, with the combustion chamber enclosing the tubes and fuel burners positioned at strategic locations along the tube length. This nested arrangement maximizes space utilization and creates a compact integrated assembly while allowing each component to maintain its optimized design characteristics.
Solution Approach 2:
The heat exchanger tubes are arranged in a three-dimensional configuration within the combustion chamber, with tubes positioned at various heights and orientations. This spatial arrangement allows for compact packaging of the integrated assembly while maintaining adequate space for combustion processes and heat transfer efficiency.
3Loss of energy
If combustion is stabilized on the heat exchanger surface, then efficiency improves, but combustion stability becomes more difficult to control
Solution Approach 1:
The integrated design allows for direct observation and control of combustion characteristics on the heat exchanger surface. Sensors and control systems can monitor combustion stability and adjust fuel and air supply in real-time to maintain optimal combustion conditions, ensuring both efficiency and reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The heat exchanger tubes have varying characteristics along their length, with different sections optimized for specific functions such as primary combustion, secondary combustion, or heat transfer. This local differentiation allows for stable combustion to be maintained in specific zones while maximizing overall system efficiency.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The integrated system improves efficiency and compactness by allowing the heat exchanger to serve as the burner, ensuring stable combustion and reducing component count, resulting in a more efficient and space-saving heating solution.
Implementation Method 1
a tube coil (22) having an inlet (24) and an outlet (26)... Fuel and air are provided to the upstream side of the tube coil... The tube coil forms a spiral with the turns located substantially in a plane
Implementation Method 2
an ignitor (30) provided at a downstream side of the tube coil (22)
Implementation Method 3
a thermocouple (32) disposed in an exit housing (28)
Implementation Method 4
an ion sensor (38) disposed in the exit housing (28) and electronically coupled to the ECU (40)
Data Source
AI summary
It is common in heating systems, such as in a hot water heater for there to be a combustor with the exhaust gases from the combustor provided to a heat exchanger to heat up the water. Disclosed herein is an integrated heat exchanger and burner assembly in which the combustion occurs proximate the surface of the heat exchanger. Such a system may include at least one tube that is coiled into a number of turns, that is a tube coil with the at least one tube having an inlet and an outlet and the distance between adjacent turns is less than a predetermined distance, i.e. a the quench distance.