A Low-power Liquid-fuelled Burner Using a Novel Atomization Concept

ABSTRACT

The design of and experimental results for a low-power heating oil burner, operating between 1.25 and 5.1 kW with exhaust gas emissions within the normative regulations for domestic usage, are presented. In contrast to common domestic heating oil burners, the atomization and combustion sections are spatially separated to allow the implementation of a novel atomization concept for low-power liquid-fuelled burners proposed in a previous study. The main working principle for spray generation is the secondary atomization of a droplet chain impinging on a pin downstream. Through pulse-width modulation (PWM) of the droplet generator, modulation of the spray flowrate over a wide range with constant spray quality was achieved. Phase-Doppler anemometry measurements under non-reacting conditions were performed to obtain the droplet size distribution of the spray. Three model liquids were used to determine the influence of liquid properties on the droplet size distribution. The Sauter mean diameter (SMD) values obtained for all liquids and operation parameters studied are in the range of 10% of the primary droplet diameter, which is 30 µm for the setup in this study.

KEYWORDS:

• Low power
• low emission
• oil burner
• droplet chain
• droplet generator

Acknowledgments

The present research work contributes to the AiF German Federation of Industrial Research Associations, which is leading the Central Innovation Programme for small- and medium-sized enterprises (project number: ZF4171302AB6). Additionally, the authors wish to thank the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers (HGF) for funding.

Author Contributions

This paper was written with the contributions of all authors. All authors have given approval of the final version of the paper.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the AiF German Federation of Industrial Research Associations [ZF4171302AB6];Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers.