Burner for operating a heat generator

• US 5,954,490 A
• Filed: 11/20/1998
• Issued: 09/21/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Alstom SA
• Original Assignee: ABB Research Ltd. (ABB Ltd.)
• Inventors: Ruck, Thomas, Knopfel, Hans Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Price, Carl D.
• Application Number:
  US09/196,115
• Time in Patent Office: 305 Days
• Field of Search: 431/115, 431/116, 431/181, 431/182, 431/183, 431/187, 431/188, 431/350, 431/351, 431/352, 431/353, 431/354
• US Class Current: 431/115
• CPC Class Codes: F23C 2900/07002 Premix burners with air inlet slots obtained between offset curved wall surfaces, e.g. double cone burners
• CPC Class Codes: F23C 7/002 the air being submitted to a rotary or spinning motion cyclonic combustion chamber F23C3/006
• CPC Class Codes: F23D 11/402 Mixing chambers downstream of the nozzle
• CPC Class Codes: F23D 14/02 Premix gas burners, i.e. in which gaseous fuel is mixed with combustion air upstream of the combustion zone
• CPC Class Codes: F23D 14/74 Preventing flame lift-off
• CPC Class Codes: F23D 17/002 gaseous or liquid fuel

Abstract

A burner for operating a combustion chamber, which burner essentially comprises a swirl generator (100), a transition piece (200) arranged downstream of the swirl generator, and a mixing tube (20), transition piece (200) and mixing tube (20) forming the mixing section of the burner and being arranged upstream of a combustion space (30). At the end of the mixing tube (20) in its region leading out to a downstream combustion space (30), the mixing tube (20) has a first radius (R₁) which runs convexly relative to the burner axis (60). This radius (R₁) merges into a second radius (R₂) which extends up to the outlet plane (70) of the mixing tube (20) and runs concavely relative to the burner axis (60), the covered sector (β₁ +β₂) of the two radii (R₁, R₂) being 90° at most. With this configuration, enlargement and stabilization of the backflow zone (50) as well as axial orientation of the marginal flow are achieved.

Claims

1. A burner for operating a heat generator, the burner comprising:

a swirl generator for a combustion-air flow and means for injecting at least one fuel into the combustion-air flow,

a mixing section arranged downstream of the swirl generator and having, inside a first part of the section in a downstream direction of flow, a number of transition passages for passing a flow formed in the swirl generator into a mixing tube arranged downstream of the transition passages, wherein at an end of the mixing tube, in a region leading out to a downstream combustion space, a wall of the mixing tube is formed by a first arc having a first radius R₁ which runs convexly relative to an axial burner axis, wherein the first arc merges into a second arc having a second radius R₂, the second arc further forming the mixing tube wall and extends to an outlet plane of the mixing tube and runs concavely relative to the axial burner axis, and

wherein the first arc forms a first sectorial angle β

₁ and the second arc forms a second sectorial angle β

₂, the angles β

₁ and β

₂ being complementary angles such that a covered sector β

₁ +β

₂ of the two arcs is <

90°

.

2. The burner as claimed in claim 1, wherein a length of each of the two radii R₁, R₂ is in each case >

10% of a length of an inside diameter of the mixing tube.

3. The burner as claimed in claim 1, wherein the outlet plane is provided with a step S in a radial direction from an end edge of the second arc.

4. The burner as claimed in claim 3, wherein the step S has a depth >

3 mm.

5. The burner as claimed in claim 1, wherein the swirl generator consists of at least two hollow, conical sectional bodies which are nested one inside the other in the downstream direction of flow, wherein the sectional bodies each have respective longitudinally symmetric axes that run mutually offset to one another so that adjacent walls of the sectional bodies form tangentially extending slots relative to the longitudinal axes for accommodating the combustion-air flow, and wherein there is at least one fuel nozzle in an interior space formed by the sectional bodies.

6. The burner as claimed in claim 5, wherein further fuel nozzles are arranged in a region of the tangential slots along the longitudinal axes of the sectional bodies.

7. The burner as claimed in claim 5, wherein the sectional bodies have a blade-shaped profile in cross section.

8. The burner as claimed in claim 5, wherein the sectional bodies have one of the following shapes, a fixed cone angle, increasing conicity, and decreasing conicity in the direction of flow.

9. The burner as claimed in claim 5, wherein the sectional bodies are nested spirally one inside the other.

10. The burner as claimed in claim 5, wherein the number of transition passages in the mixing section corresponds to a number of partial flows formed by the swirl generator.

11. The burner as claimed in claim 1, wherein the mixing tube is provided in a peripheral and downstream flow direction with bores for injecting an air flow into an interior of the mixing section.

12. The burner as claimed in claim 11, wherein the bores run at an acute angle relative to an axial axis of the mixing tube.

13. The burner as claimed in claim 1, wherein a flow cross section through the mixing tube downstream of the transition passages approximately equals the flow cross section at a downstream end of the swirl generator.

14. The burner as claimed in claim 1, wherein there is a jump in cross section between mixing section and combustion space, the jump in cross section induces the initial cross section of flow of the combustion chamber, and wherein a backflow zone takes effect in a region of the jump in cross section.

15. The burner as claimed in claim 1, wherein the burner includes a diffuser section upstream of the first arc.

16. The burner as claimed in claim 1, wherein the burner includes a venturi section upstream of the first arc.