High turn-down modulating burner
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing burners have limited turn-down ratios, leading to inefficient combustion at low heat output settings, resulting in high minimum heat settings that are not justified by heating demands, frequent shut-offs, and energy losses due to long start-up times and cycling frequencies.
Innovation Solution
A high turn-down burner design that adjusts the effective combustion area by regulating fuel flow pressure through a sliding disk mechanism or rotatable inner housing, allowing for optimal fuel distribution across a variable combustion surface without external power, enabling efficient combustion across a wide range of fuel flow rates.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the burner uses a fixed combustion surface area, then the structure is simple and manufacturing is easy, but the burner cannot support combustion at very low combustion rates and has limited turn-down ratio
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the dynamics principle by making the combustion surface area variable rather than fixed. A movable disk with combustion orifices can be positioned at different heights along the burner tube, dynamically adjusting the effective combustion surface area to match varying fuel flow rates. This enables the burner to maintain efficient combustion across a wide turn-down ratio from high to very low combustion rates.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the burner is shut off periodically to achieve high turn-down at low heat output, then the minimum heat output setting is reduced, but the amount of materials heated drops rapidly causing user discomfort and energy losses occur during start-up and shut-down phases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent eliminates the need for cyclic shut-off by continuously adjusting the combustion surface area through the movable disk mechanism. This allows the burner to operate smoothly at any heat output level within its turn-down ratio range, maintaining stable heating without the energy losses associated with repeated start-up and shut-down cycles.
3Speed
If the burner uses a fixed combustion surface area, then the device complexity is low, but the typical start-up times are quite long and the burner cannot respond to sudden load demands
Solution Approach 1:
The movable disk mechanism enables rapid adjustment of the combustion surface area in response to changing load demands. When sudden heating requirements occur, the disk can be quickly repositioned to expose larger combustion orifices, allowing the burner to respond rapidly without the long start-up times associated with fixed-surface burners.
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 burner achieves a high turn-down ratio with sustained combustion at low fuel flow rates, reducing energy losses and preventing overheating, while maintaining efficient heating and precise temperature control without complex external power sources.
Implementation Method 1
the fuel flow is configured to exert a force equivalent to the weight of the disk thereby sustaining an optimal flowrate of the fuel flow through a plurality of apertures below the disk
Data Source
AI summary
A high turn-down burner adapted to receive a fuel flow for combustion. The burner includes a housing having a side wall with an interior surface forming an inner periphery, a bottom wall adjoining the side wall, a top wall adjoining the side wall and a plurality of apertures disposed on the side wall; a supply tube adapted through the top wall of the housing, the supply tube including a side wall having an outer surface forming an outer periphery, a top end, a bottom end, wherein the supply tube is adapted to receive the fuel flow at the top end of the supply tube; and a disk having an opening adapted to accommodate the supply tube, wherein the disk is configured to slide along a length of the supply tube within the space delineated by the inner periphery of the housing and the outer periphery of the supply tube.