An Experimental Study on the Three Dimensional Turbulent Flow Characteristics of Swirl Burner for Gas Furnace

Abstract

This paper represents the vector fields, three dimensional mean velocities, the turbulent intensities, the turbulent kinetic energy, and the Reynolds shear stresses in the X-Y plane of gas swirl burner with a cone type baffle plate measured by using X-probe from hot-wire anemometer system. This experiment is carried out at flow rates 350 and 450l/min respectively, which are equivalent to the combustion air flow rate necessary for heat release 15,000 kcal/hr in gas furnace, in the test section of subsonic wind tunnel. The vector plot shows that the maximum axial mean velocity component exists in the narrow slits situated radially on the edge of gas swirl burner, for that reason, there is some entrainment phenomena of ambient air in the outer region of burner. Moreover, mean velocities in the initial region are largely distributed near the outer region of burner at Y/R≒0.97, but they diffuse and develop into the center flow region of burner according to the increase of axial distance. The turbulent intensities and the turbulent kinetic energy due to large inclination of mean velocity and swirl effect show that the maximum value in the initial region of burner is formed in the narrow slits situated radially on the edge of gas swirl burner and large values are mainly formed in the entire region of burner after X/R=2.4358, hence, the combustion reaction is anticipated to occur actively near this region. And the Reynolds shear stresses are also largely distributed from slite to vanes of gas swirl burner in the intial region, but their values largely disappear after X/R=3.2052.