Claims
- 1. A water heater comprising:
- a water container;
- a combustion chamber adjacent said water container having at least one inlet to admit air and extraneous fume species into said combustion chamber; said at least one inlet comprising a metal plate having a thickness of about 0.4 to 1 millimeter and through which pass a plurality of ports, each said port having a quenching distance not greater than about 0.6 mm, and being capable of confining ignition and combustion of said extraneous fume species within said combustion chamber; and
- a burner associated with said combustion chamber and arranged to combust fuel to heat water in said container.
- 2. The water heater as claimed in claim 1 wherein said ports comprise slots.
- 3. The water heater as claimed in claim 2 wherein said slots have an L/W ratio of between about 3 to about 20, wherein L is the length of said slots and W is the width of said slots.
- 4. The water heater as claimed in claim 1 wherein said ports have a minimum distance between adjacent boundaries of about 1 mm.
- 5. The water heater as claimed in claim 4 wherein said minimum distance between adjacent ports is substantially the same.
- 6. The water heater as claimed in claim 1 wherein said ports are arranged in rows.
- 7. The water heater as claimed in claim 6 wherein a first port in every alternate row has its location offset with respect to a port of an adjacent row.
- 8. The water heater as claimed in claim 1, wherein said ports comprise slots arranged in rows in said inlet, with at least one peripheral row in said inlet comprising slots arranged parallel to each other and which have longitudinal axes at an angle of about 90.degree. to the longitudinal axes of slots in other rows.
- 9. The water heater as claimed in claim 1 wherein the ports are arranged in rows and one of said rows is a peripheral row having an interport spacing larger than that in others of said rows.
- 10. The water heater as claimed in claim 9 wherein said interport spacing of the ports in said peripheral row is in the range of about 2 mm to 4 mm and the interport spacing of ports in remaining rows is in the range of about 1 mm to 1.5 mm.
- 11. The water heater as claimed in claim 1 wherein said ports comprise circular holes about 0.5 mm in diameter.
- 12. The water heater as claimed in claim 1, wherein the ports are arranged in a pattern comprising an aligned and spaced array.
- 13. The water heater as claimed in claim 12, wherein the ports are arranged in a radial pattern.
- 14. The water heater as claimed in claim 12, wherein the ports are arranged in a circumferential pattern.
- 15. The water heater as claimed in claim 1, wherein said inlet is constructed such that peak natural frequencies of vibration of said inlet in combination with said combustion chamber structure are different from peak frequencies generated by an extraneous fume combustion process on the inlet within the combustion chamber.
- 16. The water heater as claimed in claim 1, wherein said inlet is constructed such that the peak resonant frequencies of said inlet are also different from peak resonant frequencies of a combination of said combustion chamber and an exhaust gas flow path when extraneous fumes are being combusted at the inlet.
- 17. The water heater as claimed in claim 1, wherein during combustion of said extraneous fume species over a prolonged period, a surface of said at least one inlet located outside of said combustion chamber remains sufficiently cool so as to prevent heating the extraneous fume species and air with it before it passes through said at least one inlet to a temperature above an ignition temperature of said extraneous fumes and air.
- 18. The water heater as claimed in claim 1 wherein said ports are spaced apart on said at least one inlet by a distance which enables the temperature of mixtures of extraneous fume species with air adjacent to the surface of the walls of said ports to remain below the ignition temperature of said mixtures.
- 19. The water heater as claimed in claim 1 wherein at least one of said ports is adjacent a pilot burner associated with said combustion chamber to ignite said extraneous fumes as they pass into said combustion chamber and before there is a potentially explosive accumulation of fumes in said combustion chamber.
- 20. The water heater as claimed in claim 1, wherein said combustion chamber is formed with a surrounding skirt having an end cap joined at one end thereof, with another end of said surrounding skirt abutting a surface of said water tank to form an upper wall of said combustion chamber.
- 21. The water heater as claimed in claim 20, wherein said surrounding skirt and said end cap are formed separate from an enclosure which encloses said container and said combustion chamber.
- 22. The water heater as claimed in claim 1, wherein said water heater comprises an outlet spaced apart from said at least one inlet allowing products of combustion to exit said combustion chamber.
- 23. The water heater as claimed in claim 1, comprising a metal to metal overlap portion between a peripheral edge of said plate forming said at least one inlet and a peripheral edge of an opening in the combustion chamber.
- 24. The water heater as claimed in claim 1, wherein said plate comprises a ferrous based material.
- 25. The water heater as claimed in claim 1, wherein said ports are formed in said plate by a photochemical machining process.
- 26. The water heater as claimed in claim 1 wherein the metal plate is deformed from a flat form to include stiffening members extending across at least a portion containing said plurality of ports.
- 27. The water heater as claimed in claim 26 wherein said stiffening members intersect with ports.
- 28. The water heater as claimed in claim 26 wherein the metal plate is deformed from a flat form to include stiffening members extending across non-ported portions which subdivide said plurality of ports into an integral number of sub-portions.
- 29. The water heater as claimed in claim 1, wherein said inlet further comprises a cooling mechanism.
- 30. The water heater as claimed in claim 29, wherein said cooling mechanism comprises a water applicator for said inlet.
- 31. The water heater as claimed in claim 29 wherein the cooling mechanism directs a coolant to a face of the inlet external to the combustion chamber.
- 32. A water heater comprising:
- a water container adjacent said water container;
- a combustion chamber having at least one inlet to admit air and extraneous fume species into said combustion chamber; said at least one inlet comprising a ceramic plate having a thickness in the range about 9 mm to 12 mm through which pass a plurality of ports each having a quenching distance of 1.1 to 1.3 mm, and being capable of confining ignition and combustion of said extraneous fume species within said combustion chamber; and
- a burner associated with said combustion chamber and arranged to combust fuel to heat water in said container.
- 33. The water heater as claimed in claim 32 wherein said ports comprise slots.
- 34. The water heater as claimed in claim 33 wherein said slots have an L/W ratio of between about 3 to about 20, wherein L is the length of said slots and W is the width of said slots.
- 35. The water heater as claimed in claim 32 wherein there is a substantially equal minimum distance between adjacent ports.
- 36. The water heater as claimed in claim 32 wherein said ports are arranged in rows.
- 37. The water heater as claimed in claim 36 wherein a first port in every alternate row is offset with respect to a port of an adjacent row.
- 38. The water heater as claimed in claim 32 wherein said ports comprise circular holes having a quenching distance which is a diameter of about 1.1 to 1.3 mm.
- 39. The water heater as claimed in claim 32 wherein at least one of said ports is adjacent a pilot burner associated with said combustion chamber to ignite said extraneous fumes as they pass into said combustion chamber and before there is a potentially explosive accumulation of fumes in said combustion chamber.
- 40. A water heater comprising:
- a water container adjacent said water container;
- a combustion chamber having at least one inlet to admit air and extraneous fume species into said combustion chamber; said at least one inlet comprising a woven metal mesh having transverse wires of thickness about 0.2 to 0.5 millimeters defining a plurality of ports, each said port having a quenching distance equal to the greater of the side lengths of four-sided open areas between said wires and in the range of about 0.3 to 0.5 mm, and being capable of confining ignition and combustion of said extraneous fume species within said combustion chamber; and
- a burner associated with said combustion chamber and arranged to combust fuel to heat water in said container.
- 41. The water heater as claimed in claim 40 wherein at least one of said ports is adjacent a pilot burner associated with said combustion chamber to ignite said extraneous fumes as they pass into said combustion chamber and before there is a potentially explosive accumulation of fumes in said combustion chamber.
Priority Claims (2)
Number |
Date |
Country |
Kind |
PN2136 |
Apr 1995 |
AUX |
|
PN5591 |
Sep 1995 |
AUX |
|
RELATED APPLICATION
This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 08/626844 filed Apr. 3, 1996, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,797,355.
US Referenced Citations (79)
Foreign Referenced Citations (8)
Number |
Date |
Country |
0 560 419 A2 |
Sep 1993 |
EPX |
0 596 555 A1 |
May 1994 |
EPX |
0 657 691 A1 |
Jun 1995 |
EPX |
25 40 709 A 1 |
Mar 1977 |
DEX |
39 26 699 A 1 |
Feb 1991 |
DEX |
60-134117 |
Jul 1985 |
JPX |
62-162814 |
Jul 1987 |
JPX |
WO 9401722 |
Jan 1994 |
WOX |
Non-Patent Literature Citations (1)
Entry |
"Flame Traps--a Technical Note" Journal of Mines, Metals & Fuels, Jul. 1987. |
Continuation in Parts (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
626844 |
Apr 1996 |
|