The present invention relates to a burner nozzle, a burner and a surface treatment device according to preambles of the independent claims.
In the context of burners, fuels refer to fluids that store energy in forms that can be practicably released in exothermic reactions into heat energy. A burner is a device or a device arrangement by means of which these exothermic processes can be applied in a controlled combustion process.
A burner typically includes a nozzle that has an input for a fuel and for an oxidizing substance, and a carefully designed configuration of channels by means of which the fuel and the oxidizing substance are mixed into a combustible mixture and released into a combustion zone in front of the nozzle. Burners are usually divided into two main types, pre-mixed burners and post-mixed burners. In a pre-mixed burner the fuel and the oxidizing substance are completely mixed before they are discharged into the combustion zone. A post-mixed burner is one in which the fuel and oxidizing substance are kept separate until they are separately discharged into the combustion zone. A category of post-mixed burners is partially-aerated burners in which only a portion of the stoichiometric oxygen quantity that is necessary for complete combustion is mixed with the fuel before entry into the combustion zone. Additional secondary oxygen enters the flame after ignition to complete the process.
Pre-mixed burners are typically more effective, provide a more consistent flame than post-mixed burners, and for these advantages would be preferred in many application areas. For example, in surface treatment devices, pre-mixed burners are necessary to provide a uniform coating. However, it is understood that when a flammable mixture of fuel and air or oxygen is present in a gas volume upstream of the combustion zone, a flame can flash back into the gas volume that contains the pre-mixed flammable substances, and there is the possibility of an explosion due to uncontrolled rapid burning of flammable substances. Various mechanisms have been developed to arrest the flame and stop it from burning back up into the nozzle, but for safety reasons, post-mixed burners still tend to be preferred in many applications—even at the cost of performance. In applications where post-mixed burners are used, the limits for size where the nozzle must, for safety reasons, be kept are too small for many industrial applications, especially in the field of surface treatment devices.
An object of the present invention is thus to provide a burner configuration that provides a pre-mixed burner with the level of safety that is closer to level of safety of a post-mixed burner and with a good surface treatment efficiency. The object of the invention is achieved by a burner nozzle, a burner, and a surface treatment device, which are characterized by what is stated in the independent claims. The preferred embodiments of the invention are disclosed in the dependent claims.
The invention discloses a nozzle body that includes a slit such that a line passage to the slit opens in an outlet face surface. A plurality of channels is connected to the slit. A group of first channels is connected to a source of oxidizing substance, and a group of second channels is connected to a fuel source. Each of the first channels and second channels has a circumferential passage to the slit at a non-zero distance from the outlet face surface. Furthermore, each of the first channels and second channels is formed to output a directed tubular flow towards a side wall of the slit, or towards one or more circumferential passages in a side wall of the slit.
The invention is based on feeding the oxidizing substance and the fuel separately into a plurality of separate channel jets. The plurality of jets includes two types of jets. One group of jets provides flows of fuel and the other group of jets provides flows of oxidizing substance. The jets are directed to output a directed tubular flow towards one or more circumferential passages in a side wall of the slit, or towards a side wall of the slit such that they collide within the slit, and effectively mix within the slit on their way out to the combustion zone.
The slit is narrow so that the volume of premixed materials in flammable state within the nozzle remains at any time very small. Upstream from the slit, the channels contain only material from the fuel source or from the source of oxidizing material. This means that even if a flame flashback would occur, it would not continue beyond the slit, and therefore could not cause significant damage or explosions.
On the other hand, the depth of the slit enables the fuel and the oxidizing material to mix efficiently such that a pre-mixed combustive fluid enters the combustion zone.
In the following, embodiments will be described in greater detail with reference to accompanying drawings, in which
The following embodiments are exemplary. Although the specification may refer to “an”, “one”, or “some” embodiment(s), this does not necessarily mean that each such reference is to the same embodiment(s), or that the feature only applies to a single embodiment. Single features of different embodiments may also be combined to provide further embodiments.
In the following, features of the invention will be described with a simple example of a burner architecture in which various embodiments of the invention may be implemented. Only elements relevant for illustrating the embodiments are described in detail. Various implementations of burners, burner nozzles and flame devices comprise elements that are generally known to a person skilled in the art and may not be specifically described herein.
The nozzle body 102 includes a slit 106 that ends into a line passage (also called nozzle outlet) 104 opening in an outlet face surface 150 of the nozzle body 102. The term slit refers here to a long narrow space within a volume, i.e. an opening that has an elongate cross section where the length of the cross section is at least five times the width of the cross section, and has a non-zero depth. In
The intensity of this type of optimally burning continuous flame curtain is very high. The structure effectively reduces atmospheric secondary streams that tend to lower the temperature of the combustion, and potentially cause impurities and particle agglomeration in conventional nozzle configurations.
As shown in
In the exemplary embodiment of
At the point of collision 108 a jet of oxidizing substance from the first channel 112 of a pair and a jet of fuel from the second channel 114 of the pair are made to collide. This may be accomplished by arranging a section 116 of the first channel 112 beginning from the slit 106 and a section 118 of the second channel 114 beginning from the slit 106 to be at least partly opposite to each other.
It is understood that when the jets collide in the point of collision, they very efficiently mix with each other. The mixing will continue in the narrow slit 106 on the way towards the nozzle outlet face surface 150. As a result, during operation, a premixed jet of combustion material flows out of the nozzle outlet (also called line passage) 104. However, if the flame for one reason or another should burn into the slit 106, the volume of readily combustible material in it is very small, and no exposition or essential damage can be caused. The flame will shut down, latest at the point of collision 108. Tests have shown that a very effective premixed-type flame may be achieved in a safe manner. The desired improvement is a result of collisions of directed tubular jets to each other or to side walls of the slit.
According to an embodiment of the invention, it is advantageous to arrange the circumferential passages of the group of first channels 112 to have the same distance to the outlet face surface 150 of the nozzle body, and to have the distance from the outlet face surface 150 of the nozzle body 102 to the circumferential passages of the group of first channels 112 to be at least five times the distance from the closed, bottom end of the slit 106 to the circumferential passages of the group of first channels 112. Similarly, according to another embodiment of the invention, it is advantageous to arrange the circumferential passages of the group of second channels 114 to have the same distance to the outlet face surface 150 of the nozzle body 102, and to have the distance from the outlet face surface 150 of the nozzle body 102 to the circumferential passages of the group of second channels 114 to be at least five times the distance from the closed, bottom end of the slit 106 to the circumferential passages of the group of second channels 114.
The surface 702 that forms the part of the first side wall may be directly opposite to the surface 712 that forms the part of the second side wall. Alternatively surface 702 that forms the part of the first side wall and the surface 712 that forms the part of the second wall may be configured to form sides of an angle. In the exemplary configuration of
Returning back to
Correspondingly, the fuel source 122 may be connected to a second elongate gas space 130 that extends essentially to the length of the slit 106, and is connected to the string of second channel 114 inlets. Advantageously, the second elongate gas space 130 extends parallel to and to the whole length of the slit 106. Furthermore, the second elongate gas space 130 may be connected to the fuel source 122 with two or more feed channels, spaced apart from each other.
As discussed above, the collision of jets from the first channel and the second channel occurs at a point of collision 108. In order to facilitate appropriate opposite position of the first and second channel sections 116, 118, the first and second elongate gas spaces 124, 130 need to be offset from the slit 106. Advantageously one or each one of the elongate gas spaces 124, 130 has a linear form, and the cross section of the elongate gas space is point symmetrical around a centre point. For collision, the centre line along the length of the gas space may have a non-zero distance to the slit 106, both in the horizontal x-direction as well as in the vertical y-direction, as shown in
At least part of the first channel 112 or the second channel 114 may have a convergent form, where a narrower cross-section of a channel is in the end of the slit 106. The convergent form of the flow channel increases the velocity of the jet of volatile material within the channel. The convergent form of the channels may thus be used to intensify the collision of the jets and thereby ensure efficient mixing at the point of collision 108. Alternatively, the cross section of the section 116 of the first channel 112 beginning from the slit 106, or the cross section of the section 118 of the second channel 114 beginning from the slit 106 constant.
The invention may be applied for various types of burners, but it is specifically useful for high firing rate burners, for example for oxy-fuel burners that apply oxygen or ozone as the oxidizing substance. In such burners, pre-mixed combustion is not commonly used in industrially applicable dimensions because of safety reasons. By means of the present invention, a premixed combustion may be achieved with improved safety level.
The burner 850 of
A surface treatment device 900 of
In
Some precursor materials have a tendency to start creating agglomerated particles in low temperatures when they get exposed to oxygen. Prematurely created large particles are typically not applicable for the desired purpose of the combustion-induced process, and in conventional premixed burners, such materials have been problematic. If the particle generation begins already during premixing, the generated particles tend to clog the channels and uncontrollably increase the risk of explosions. With the configuration of the present invention, the particle agglomeration takes place very late, just before the nozzle outlet. As a further advantage, the amount of undesired particles may thus be significantly reduced. This means that a variety of substances that could not be applied by means of conventional pre-mixed burners may be applied safely with the claimed configuration.
It will be obvious to a person skilled in the art that, as technology advances, the inventive concept can be implemented in various ways. For example, as clear to a person skilled in the art, the length, width and the depth need to be adjusted according to the applied fluids and jet velocities. The length of the slit must, however, be at least five times the width of the slit. In high firing-rate applications, the length of the slit can, within tolerances, be extended to at least fifty times the width of the slit. This means that very wide flame curtain can be achieved even with these difficulty controllable substances. It has been further detected that a very consistent intensity can be achieved when the distance between two successive circumferential passages in a side wall of the slit is one third or less than the depth of the slit. Advantageously, in the high firing-rate burners, the size of the slit should be smaller than 200 square millimeters.
It is essential that at least the first channels and second channels are configured to mix in their respective points of collision. For a person skilled in the art it is, however, clear that the nozzle body may include one or more further channels for volatile materials, leading to the point of collision. Such additional channels may be used, for example, to include more precursor materials to the process that takes place in the thermal reactor of the combusting materials. As another example, such additional channels may be used to lead to the mixture controllable amounts of combustion control substances. Additional channels may be used for a variety of further purposes within the scope of protection.
The invention and its embodiments are not limited to the examples described above but may vary within the scope of the claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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20135655 | Jun 2013 | FI | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/FI2014/050467 | 6/10/2014 | WO | 00 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2014/199015 | 12/18/2014 | WO | A |
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20160123581 A1 | May 2016 | US |