Swirler Vane Cooling Unit for Combustion Burner
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional combustion burners face challenges in uniformly atomizing liquid fuels and preventing carbon deposits on swirler vane surfaces due to high temperatures, leading to inefficient combustion and increased NOx production.
Innovation Solution
A combustion burner design featuring a fuel nozzle, swirler vanes, and a cooling unit that includes multi-purpose injecting holes for gas and water injection, as well as a water cooling circuit within the swirler vane, to reduce the temperature of the vane surface and prevent carbon deposits by forming a water film and mixing water with liquid fuel.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If the swirler vane surface is heated to high temperature by compressed air for effective liquid fuel atomization, then fuel atomization is improved, but carbon deposit forms on the vane surface
Solution Approach 1:
The invention divides the swirler vane into two distinct surfaces: a heated vane pressure surface that receives liquid fuel for atomization, and a cooled vane suction surface that prevents carbon deposit formation. This segmentation allows each surface to have different temperature characteristics optimized for its specific function.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the swirler vane are given different thermal properties. The vane pressure surface is designed to be heated by compressed air for effective fuel atomization, while the vane suction surface is cooled to prevent carbon deposit. This local differentiation of thermal quality resolves the contradiction between atomization effectiveness and deposit prevention.
2Stability of the object's composition
If liquid fuel is injected toward the compressed air flow for atomization, then fuel mixing is improved, but combustion temperature increases leading to higher NOx production
Solution Approach 1:
The invention changes the physical state of water from liquid to vapor through evaporation on the vane suction surface. This phase change allows water to be introduced into the combustion system in a form that effectively lowers combustion temperature without disrupting fuel-air mixing uniformity, thereby reducing NOx production while maintaining stable combustion.
Solution Approach 2:
Water vapor acts as an intermediary substance that mediates between the conflicting requirements of good fuel-air mixing and low combustion temperature. The evaporated water vapor mixes with the fuel-air mixture and moderates the combustion temperature, enabling both good mixing and temperature control.
3Object-generated harmful factors
If a cooling unit is added to prevent carbon deposit on the swirler vane, then deposit prevention is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The vane suction surface serves multiple functions: it is the surface where water evaporates to cool the vane and prevent carbon deposit, and simultaneously it is part of the swirler vane structure that generates the swirling flow for fuel atomization. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate cooling components.
Solution Approach 2:
The compressed air flowing through the combustor automatically serves as the cooling medium for the vane suction surface. The air that would otherwise be wasted or used for other purposes is utilized to cool the vane surface through evaporation, making the system self-sufficient and reducing the need for external cooling systems.
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 effectively prevents carbon deposit formation, enhances fuel atomization, and reduces NOx emissions by cooling the swirler vane surface and maintaining a lower combustion temperature, thereby improving combustion efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
a water film is formed on a vane suction surface of each of the swirler vanes 130, to cool the vane suction surface
Implementation Method 2
compressed air A flows through the air passage 111 from upstream (from the left-hand side in FIG. 8) to downstream of the air passage 111
Implementation Method 3
A clearance (gap) 121 is kept between the tip (tip) of the external circumference of each of the swirler vanes 130 and the inner circumferential surface of the burner tube 120, generating a leaking air flow that flows around a vane pressure surface of each of the swirler vanes 130 to a vane suction surface thereof. This leaking flow interferes with the compressed air A to generate a vortical air flow.
Implementation Method 4
By way of such a vortical air flow, the compressed air A is effectively mixed with vaporized and atomized fuel F injected from a point near the tip of the fuel nozzle 110 to the vane surface
Implementation Method 5
the injected liquid fuel is sheared by the compressed air flow, and becomes atomized and mixed with air
Implementation Method 6
vaporized and atomized fuel F injected from a point near the tip of the fuel nozzle 110 to the vane surface
Implementation Method 7
the injected liquid fuel is sheared by the compressed air flow, and becomes atomized and mixed with air
Implementation Method 8
Air compressed by the compressor is mixed with fuel supplied into the combustors, and is combusted. Such combustion takes place in each of the combustors to generate high temperature combustion gas.
Data Source
AI summary
A combustion burner including a fuel nozzle, a burner tube that surrounds the fuel nozzle to form an air passage between the burner tube and the fuel nozzle, swirler vanes that are arranged in a plurality of positions in a circumferential direction on an external circumferential surface of the fuel nozzle, each of which extends along an axial direction of the fuel nozzle, and gradually curves from upstream to downstream, a liquid fuel injecting hole that is formed on the fuel nozzle, and from which a liquid fuel is injected to a vane pressure surface of each of the swirler vanes, and a cooling unit that cools a part of the vane pressure surface on which the liquid fuel hits. The cooling unit injects a mixed fuel prepared by mixing water and the liquid fuel evenly from the liquid fuel injecting hole to the vane pressure surface of the swirler vane.