Multi-Tube Burner Design for Thin-Profile Gas Grill Firebox
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional gas grill fireboxes are bulky, heavy, expensive, and thermally inefficient due to large burner designs required for sufficient heat and combustion testing, which makes them difficult to make thinner while passing combustion tests.
Innovation Solution
Designing a burner with multiple tubes and adding venturi tubes to communicate with manifolds, along with flow restrictors to equalize gas pressure, allowing for shorter, weaker flames that avoid impingement on the cooking grate and pass combustion tests, enabling a thinner firebox profile.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a single tube burner is used, then the burner structure is simple, but the firebox must be bulky to achieve sufficient heat and pass combustion tests
Solution Approach 1:
The burner is divided into multiple tubes (typically three tubes) with multiple ports distributed across them. This segmentation allows the heat output to be distributed across more ports, creating shorter and weaker individual flames that avoid impingement on the cooking grate while still achieving sufficient total heat output, thereby enabling a thinner firebox profile.
2Length of stationary object
If the burner tube is located closer to the cooking grate to make the firebox thinner, then the firebox profile is thinner, but the flames become taller and stronger causing combustion test failure
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the burner into multiple tubes with multiple ports, the same gas flow is distributed across more exit points. This reduces the flame height and intensity at each port, preventing flame impingement on the cooking grate even when the burner is positioned closer to it, thus enabling a thinner firebox without combustion test failures.
Solution Approach 2:
The burner design creates local variations in flame characteristics by distributing ports across multiple tubes at different positions. Each tube segment produces localized, controlled flames that are shorter and weaker, while the overall system maintains sufficient heat output for cooking.
3Length of stationary object
If multiple tube burners are used to reduce flame height, then combustion test passes and firebox can be thinner, but the burner structure becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The burner is segmented into multiple tubes that can be arranged in a modular fashion. Each tube serves as an independent unit with multiple ports, and the tubes are connected to a common gas supply manifold. This modular segmentation achieves the desired flame control while maintaining reasonable structural complexity through systematic arrangement.
4Reliability
If a bulky firebox is used with conventional burner design, then sufficient heat is achieved and combustion tests pass, but the grill is heavy and expensive to manufacture
Solution Approach 1:
The multi-tube burner design with multiple ports distributes heat output more efficiently, allowing the firebox to be thinner and lighter while still achieving sufficient total heat output for cooking and passing combustion safety tests. The segmented structure optimizes the heat-to-weight ratio.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes key parameters including the number of tubes (from 1 to 3), the number of ports per tube, and the port distribution pattern. These parameter changes optimize the flame characteristics to be shorter and weaker, enabling a lighter firebox construction while maintaining required heat output and combustion safety.
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 solution results in a more efficient, even heating system with reduced preheat time, increased thermal efficiency, elimination of hot spots and flare-ups, and a significantly thinner firebox, saving manufacturing and material costs while maintaining superior performance.
Implementation Method 1
an additional venturi tube or tubes are added, to communicate with multiple manifolds
Data Source
AI summary
A burner assembly for a gas grill has a venturi tube for conveying gas to a burner. A burner tube has front and back manifolds, with the venturi tube connected to the front and back manifolds. A flow restrictor is placed at a connection interface between the burner tube and front manifold.