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Design and development of burner ring to enhance thermal efficiency of

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Conference Paper · February 2011

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International Conference on Recent
Design and Development of Burner Ring to
Enhance Thermal Efficiency of Domestic LPG
Stove and Assessment of its Performance
David. S. Bhatt Irfan A Mulla
PhD scholar, PhD scholar,
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Department of Aerospace Engineering,
IIT Madras, Chennai, INDIA IIT Madras, Chennai, INDIA
Abstract- In this paper the conventional design of the
burner and the pan support of a domestic LPG stove is
modified to increase its thermal Efficiency. The
conventional LPG domestic stove was tested for its
thermal efficiency and was found as low as 51% under
adverse conditions as against 64% specified as minimum
thermal efficiency by the BIS. This difference in efficiency
has generated an instinct to develop some means or to
develop a new burner plate for LPG domestic stove.
Authors tried to find out the various thermal losses
occurring in the stove and found that they are mainly a)
Related to combustion and its products and b) Related to
heat transfer. These were analyzed and it was found that
swirling flames, porous inserts and low thermal inertia
pan support can increase the thermal efficiency of the
domestic LPG stove. Among these the swirling flame
burner cap and pan support is very suitable modification
in the conventional stove. So these were designed and
experiments were carried out (as per BIS norms) with
different pan heights to find the thermal efficiency. It was
found that thermal efficiency increased by 2% (64.22 to
66.59) with the optimum pan height. This is sufficient to
save gas worth 361.677 crores as per the rate of 20 Rs./kg
on consumption of 5.56 MT annually
Keywords— Domestic LPG Stove, Swirl Burner, Pan
Support, Thermal Efficiency.
I. INTRODUCTION
In this modern era of globalisation where industrialization
is growing rapidly, the demand for energy is growing rapidly.
To meet the demand, optimum use of available sources or use
of alternate sources is expected. Since the available sources
are limited, we need to give more emphasis on developing
method and devices to use these sources more efficiently.
Presently 55.78 million households of India, uses LPG for
cooking purpose[1]. The energy consumption for LPG is
more in domestic sector than industrial. Thus enhancing
efficiency of the domestic gas stove will contribute to the
Indian economy.
When we tested the existing LPG domestic stove for its
thermal efficiency, we found its efficiency as 51% under the
conditions just similar to what it is used in houses. But the
BIS IS 4246: 2002[2] specifies minimum thermal efficiency
Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology
International
Conference
Innovations on Recent Innovations in Technology (ICRIT-2011)
in Technology
R.I.T., Kottayam, Kerala. February 10-12, 2011 pp 385-390
P. R. Dhamangaonkar
Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
College of Engineering, Pune, INDIA
as 64% in standard test conditions. So we found that there is
large scope to enhance the efficiency of LPG domestic stove.
Some Authors like Jugjai[3] and Sumreng[4] have tried to
increase the efficiency of a Thailand stove using a single ring
swirling flame burner. Although they reported an increase of
efficiency from 10% to 15%, their port loading (Heat
consumption rate) is 10 times higher than that of the Indian
stove and their efficiency is lower for conventional stove.
Higher port loading is not suitable for Indian stoves due to the
limitation of the pressure specified by BIS. Moreover, the
modification of pan supports to avoid flame interaction is not
reported elsewhere. Hence a double row swirl burner was
designed due to which there is more flame interaction.
The Indian domestic consumer is cost sensitive. Any costly
modifications or alterations in the existing set may create less
interest and will take the end user away from the task. Hence
we decided to undertake a project to design thermal efficiency
enhancing devices for the domestic LPG stove that can be
used with the existing stove at lesser prices. Thus the authors
came up with design of a burner cap and pan support.
II. DESCRIPTION OF EXISTING STOVE
The detail description of the Domestic Stoves is given in
Jones[5]. Following is a brief account of the parts in the
Indian stove as shown in Fig 1. Indian Stove is an
atmospheric gas burner, which uses the low-pressure gas (20
psi). It has the following parts:
Fig. 1. Components of Indian LPG stove
A. Mixing tube
In a mixing tube a part of air (usually 60%) is mixed with
LPG gas stream[6]. This is called Primary air. This air is
entrained due to the momentum transfer between the jet of
gas coming from orifice and the ambient air. The 60%
partially premixed flame is the most stable flame.
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 International Conference on Recent Innovations in Technology
B. Burner
Burner consist of two parts, the bottom part through which
the gas is issued is called burner hood and secondary burner
cap that consist of number of flame ports. The burner hood
serves the two purposes first it directs the air gas mixture to
the flame ports and secondly it avoids the flashback.
C. Flow control valve
Flow control valve controls the rate of gas flow from seam
value to full value.
D. Pan support
It is made up of C.I. and has four prongs on which pan is
supported. Prongs of the support have suitable taper to
accommodate round bottom pans.
III. HEAT LOSSES IN EXISTING STOVE
Various losses that take place in the stove are classified as:
A. Combustion losses
Combustion losses take place due to the incomplete
combustion. Incomplete combustion occurs mainly due to the
insufficient amount of air and vitiation of air. If the
combustion air mixes with the combustion products, the air is
vitiated.
The two causes of vitiation were identified; Firstly
operation of appliances where combustion products are
discharged into the room air, thereby vitiating primary and
secondary air to an extent depend on the heat input, room size
and ventilation rate; secondly local circulation of combustion
products within the appliance during operation, whereby
primary or secondary air can become highly vitiated.
Thus incomplete combustion occurs due to the insufficient
amount of air and vitiation of air. Both these factors are out of
the control of designer. Thus the only factor left to the
designer is to achieve complete utilization of available air for
the combustion.
B. Heat Loss Due To Convective Heat Transfer
Convection is the principle heat transfer mechanisms and
losses associated to it are as follows:
In atmospheric burner, Convection is due Buoyancy force
of the hot gases. (The flow velocity is negligible).
Heat losses due to the ineffective convection heat transfer:
Heat transfer due to convection depends mainly on the area
of contact of flame and vessel, which in turn depends upon
flame spread and height of vessel from the burner. Now if we
decrease height from burner top to vessel bottom the flame
spread area increases, but at the same time the heat losses due
to radiation and convection to the stove body increases. Also
the amount of air entrainment decreases. On the other hand if
we increase the height above a certain limit, then the flame
contact area decreases reducing the heat transfer coefficient.
Also the losses to the surrounding air increases. Thus the
main controlling parameter is the optimum height, which
must be controlled properly to have maximum heat transfer
coefficient.
Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology
Secondly the convection heat transfer depends on the time
for which the flame is in contact with the vessel. The heat
transfer is a transient process and in the case of heat transfer
from the flame to vessel large temperature gradients do exist.
Hence by increasing the flame contact time will increase the
efficiency considerably.
C. Radiation heat transfer
Since in the domestic open flame combustion occurs hence
most if the heat due to radiation is lost. But still it accounts
for 1% of heat release.
Water vapour condensation:
A considerable amount of heat is lost in latent heat of water
vapour. This heat is transferred to the vessel if some amount
of this water vapour is condensed at the vessel bottom. But
this water vapour again creates a barrier for the further heat
transfer and hence condensation is not desirable. The amount
of heat lost to the latent heat of water vapour resulting from
combustion can be calculated and accounts for approximately
7.589% of HHV.
D. Ways to Reduce the Heat Losses
There is less time available for the heat transfer from the
flame to the target due to less residence time. Few ways that
can increase the residence time and reduce the heat losses are
discussed below:
Imparting swirl motion
Swirl is the spiral motion [8] imparted to the gas stream.
Experiments have shown large scale effects on flow fields; jet
growth, entrainment and decay (for inert jets) and flame size,
shape, stability and combustion intensity (for reacting flows)
are affected by the degree of swirl imparted to it. This degree
of swirl is characterized by the swirl numbers, which is a
dimensional number representing axial flux of swirl
momentum divided by axial flux of axial momentum times
equivalent times nozzle radius.
Swirl flows can be generated by three principle methods
[15]
1. Tangential entry (axial plus tangential entry swirl
generator).
2. Guided vanes (swirl vane pack or swirler).
3. Direct rotation (rotation pipe).
All the above methods are applied to industrial burners
and are not suitable for domestic burners except tangential
entry. Due to the low momentum of entrainment air, the effect
is not significant.
Another method as suggested by Jugjai S. [3], which can be
used for domestic burner, is to drill number of radial skewed
holes in the burner. Due to this the swirling motion is
imparted to the flame.
Effects of swirl:
Various effects of swirling flames have been identified
[15]. It includes
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 International Conference on Recent Innovations in Technology
a. Effect of swirl on residence time
Due to the swirling motion, the path travelled by flame
increases the residence time. Hence more time is available for
diffusion and the chemical reaction to get completed.
b. Effect on heat transfer
In case of impinging swirling flame as in case of domestic
burner, it increases the heat transfer rate. In non-swirl flames
the flame takes a direct 90º turn at a flat impinging surface;
whereas in cases of swirling flame, it rotates on the surface of
impinging target. This increases, the contact time, shear
stresses thereby increasing heat transfer efficiency.
c. Homogeneity of mixing
If the swirl is imparted prior to the combustion to the
air/gas mixture, a homogenous mixture of air and gas is
generated. This is due to the swirling motion. Due to
homogeneity of air fuel mixture, completeness of the
combustion can be achieved.
d. Porous ceramic insert
For better combustion and heat transfer the flame residence
time is to be increased. But there is certainly a limit for the
residence time. We cannot have along residence time to
enhance heat transfer. Then the good alternative is to use
radiation heat transfer being the fastest mode of heat transfer.
But the open flame cannot generate enough radiation; hence
the porous media can be used to convert the gas enthalpy into
radiation.
e. Lower thermal inertia of parts
The part that comes in the proximity of the flame and the
vessel is the pan support. Hence if we reduce the thermal
inertia (i.e. the heat capacity) of the pan support, the
efficiency can be increased slightly.
IV. DESIGN OF SWIRL BURNER AND PAN SUPPORT
Among the above ways, authors tried to design, develop
and a performance analysis of Swirling flame burner and Low
thermal inertia pan support.
a Design of Swirl burner
Assumption made:
i) The equivalence ratio is unity.
ii) Complete combustion takes place.
iii) No dissociation takes place, all carbon is found in
CO2 and all fuel hydrogen is formed in H2O.
iv) The simplified composition for air is 21% O2 and
79% N2 (by volume) i.e. for each mole of O2 in air
there are 3.76 moles of N2.
v) Mass Flow Rate As that of CB
vi) Primary Aeration 60% by Volume
vii) LPG Composition 27.5% C3H8, 14.7% C4H8,
55.7% C4H10
The design is done in following steps:
1. Find the extinction diameter of the LPG Gas. The
extinction diameter d0 = 3.224 mm. We took d = 2.0
mm which is sufficiently less than d0.
Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology
Fig. 2. Swirl Burner Details
2. Find number of ports: Area of jet issuing from the
nozzle calculated. By momentum and energy
balance, Optimum area of ports is calculated.
This is the total area of ports, knowing the port
diameter; we can find the total number of ports.
The swirl motion is imparted to the flame by drilling
multiple holes having an inclination in two planes in the
burner with a certain pitch circle diameter as shown in fig. 2
The inclination of the ports is β with respect to horizontal
plane and α with respect to radial direction. Their significance
is described below.
Effect of the swirl angle (α)
The rotation of the flame influences the tangential
components of the gas and air jet velocities, which are raised
by an increase of α. With all of the other parameters
unchanged, the larger tangential component of the velocity
increases the residence time of the hot combustion products in
the vicinity of the vessel bottom, which improves the thermal
efficiency of the burner. The pressure drop caused by the
flame vortex promotes suction of secondary air in to the
combustion zone, where a larger amount of secondary air
improves combustion by reducing heat losses because of
chemically incomplete combustion. However, secondary air
at ambient temperature reduces the temperature of the hot
gases in the flame. The existence of the optimum value of α,
at which maximum thermal efficiency is achieved, takes into
account the abovementioned counteracting effects.
The optimum value of was found to be 15º. [10]
Effect of angle (β )[1th all of the other parameters being
equal, the angle β defines the residence time of the gas-air
mixture in the reaction zone. For small values of β, the
residence time is longer since the mixture flows first towards
the burner centre and then spreads out of the reaction zone
over the base of the heated vessel. It may then be expected
that heat losses will be smaller than for β > 90º because of
chemically incomplete combustion. For the latter case, the
mixture emerging from the burner ports flows immediately
beyond the combustion zone along the vessel base. For a
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 International Conference on Recent Innovations in Technology

large angle β (β > 90º) the flame resembles the band-form sheet metal of 0.5mm thickness. The optimum height of the
flame of the conventional burner but it swirls. The larger the pan support from the top of the burner was determined
angle β is, the easier it is for the secondary air to be sucked experimentally for the maximum efficiency. This height was
and diffused into the reaction zone of the swirling flame. 20 mm.
Therefore, a greater amount of air results in reduced heat
losses because of chemically incomplete combustion; on the
other hand, this ambient secondary air cools the hot
combustion products. Thus, for β < 90º, a longer residence
time is achieved for the gas in the combustion zone but a
smaller amount of secondary air reaches the combustion zone;
for β > 90º, the opposite is true. Consequently, two optimum
values exist for β at which the thermal efficiency is relatively
high.
Two optimum angles of the β were found experimentally
[10] for synthetic gas (20% C3H8, 20% C3H6, 30% C4H10, and
30% C4H8), one is acute angle whereas the other obtuse.
Those angles are 26º and 142º
Values of α and β were not available for LPG hence we
tried different values of α and β nearer to the above values Fig. 3. The test set-up
and obtained optimum values. S. Jugjai has tested a two row
burner, whose outer row ports were given a swirl angle α = V. EXPERIMENTATION, RESULTS &DISCUSSIONS
15º and inclination angle β = 26º. He used LPG as fuel whose
a. Thermal Efficiency Testing
composition was 40% propane (C3H8) and 60% butane
(C4H10) by volume. Addition to this, we propose a double-row To determine the thermal efficiency of the burner trials
burner, both rows with the swirl angle. Initially SB1 was were carried on three types of burners viz. Conventional
designed; later SB2 was designed to give enhanced Burner, Swirl Burner1 (SB1) and Swirl Burner2 (SB2). Each
performance. burner was tested for different heights and different pan
The summary of burner geometry is given in the Table. 1 supports. The observations were recorded. Thermal efficiency
test was carried out, as per BIS norm IS 4246:2002. The test
TABLE 1. procedure is as follows
BURNER GEOMETRY
The test setup and test procedure:
Burner Inner ring Outer ring Port
The test set up was fabricated conforming to IS 4246:2002.
Type n α Β n α β mm2
area
The schematic diagram is as shown in Fig 3. The pan height
CB 0 0 270.6 was varied with the help of 4 studs, which supported the pan.
SB1 30 15 26 60 15 142 282.7
SB2 30 15 26 60 20 137 282.7 b. Observations:
For each trial, the following parameters were observed.
t1 = initial temperature of water in ºC,
The number of ports was reduced from 138 to 90 by
t2 = final temperature of water in ºC,
increasing the port diameter from 1.58 mm to 2 mm. This M = gas consumption in Kg,
reduced the cost considerably. we have also increased the H = height of the pan bottom from the burner top.
depth of the burner ports from 5 mm to 8 mm (normal From these efficiency is calculated.
length). So the flow is developed and sufficient swirling
motion is imparted to the flame. The P.C.Ds were selected so
as to fit all the holes in the available space, so that the new
burner fits on the existing burner hood.

b. Design of Pan Support:

The conventional pan support weighs 580.5gms. Hence the
new pan support of lightweight of 132.5gms was designed
which reduced the thermal inertia considerably. Moreover the CB SB1
prongs of the conventional support interfered with the flame Fig. 4. Flame Structure
that was required to be minimized. To achieve this for the While observing the flame structure with SB1 we noted the
swirl burner, the prongs have given skew angle of 15º from following shortcomings:
the radial axis in the horizontal plane i.e. they are tangential 1) A sufficient amount of swirling flame was observed at
to an imaginary circle. The pan support is made from G.I. the inner ring of the burner, but at the outer ring such a swirl

Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology 388

 International Conference on Recent Innovations in Technology

was not observed. The flame emerging from the port was
deflected from the theoretical direction at the vicinity of the
burner. Thus the effect of the swirl was destroyed as the flame
approached the vessel. This may be because of the less swirl
angle (α = 15º).
2) We also noticed that the outer ring flame was diverting
outside the vessel bottom for low heights. We thought that
this might be due to the more value of β.
To overcome the above shortcomings a new burner (SB2)
with the following modifications was suggested and tested
keeping other parameters same.
i) Swirl angle α was increased from 15º to 20º
ii) Inclination angle β was reduced from 142º to 137º
iii) The port depth was increased from 5 mm to 8 mm to
enhance laminar flow development.
The efficiencies of SB2 and SB1 for different heights were
calculated and compared with that of CB.
With this modification there was increase in the efficiency
of SB2 over SB1.
The values of efficiency were interpolated and a third
degree equation was formed, using these equations the curve
of efficiency versus height for different burners was plotted
on a single graph. The optimum points i.e. the height for the
maximum efficiency was calculated from the equations of the
curve.
The equation of curves for the three burners and their
optimum heights are tabulated as follows
TABLE 2
EFFICIENCY AS A FUNCTION OF HEIGHT
Sr No Type Efficiency equation
1 CB η = 41.452 + 4.31413H-.22818H2 +
3 But because a slightly greater swirl angle (i.e. 20ºin SB2 over
2 SB1 0.00153733H
η = 53.817 + 2.17417H - 0.1058H2 +
3
3 SB2 0.00153733H
η = 69.7946 - 1.1357 + 0.101954H2 -
0.002495H3
Variations of efficiency w.r.t Height H
Results for varying Height for different burners are shown
in the Fig. 5
combustion zone is relatively short and, hence, the reaction is
not completed. The flame is quenched as it approaches the
relatively cold bottom of the vessel and the flame temperature
does not reach its maximum value. On the other hand, large
values of H cause the combustion products to cool before
reaching the pan bottom.
Sr. No Burner type Optimum Maximum
. height efficiency
1 CB 15.0966 67.5365
2 SB 1 15.535 67.823
3 SB2 19.434 67.9162
TABLE 3.
OPTIMUM HEIGHT AND MAXIMUM EFFICIENCY
c. Difference between SB1 and SB2:
The SB1 and SB2 Characteristics on varying heights are
nearly same except for a shift in the optimum value of the H
or the dome of the curve. This is mainly due to change in α
and β values of the outer ring ports. In case of SB2 the
inclination angle β was reduced so that the ports were tilted
more inwardly. Due to this the flame spread area was lower at
lower heights. Hence lower value of efficiency is reported,
whereas in case of SB1, due to greater inclination angle,
flame spread was more at this value. Due to these reasons, the
optimum value of height obtained for SB2 was greater than of
SB1.
Secondly the effect of α cannot be clearly distinguished.
15º in SB1) was given in SB2, the residence time might be
increased leading o a slight increase in efficiency.
d. Pan Support:
Efficiency testing on modified and conventional pan
support was performed for different burners. The calculation
for efficiency is done as earlier. Table. 3 show efficiency
variation for different burners and pan supports.

TABLE 4.
EFFICIENCY FOR DIFFERENT PAN SUPPORTS

Burner type CB SB1 SB2

Type of pan support Thermal efficiency (%)
Conventional 64.22 65.89 65.21
Modified 64.24 66.108 66.59

Table. 4 show that the modified pan support has no effect

Fig. 5. Efficiency plot for varying pan heights
As shown, there is an optimum distance H at which the
thermal efficiency attains its maximum value. For very small
values of H, the mean residence time of the gases in the
Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology
on conventional burner, since the values are nearly same. This
effect was observed because the modified pan support was
designed for swirl burner and the skewed prongs interfered
more than the conventional support. But this effect might
have been compensated due to the reduced thermal inertia.
But in case of swirl burner the prongs slightly interferes the
flame at the tip of the prongs and hence efficiency of this
burner was increased to1.5%.
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 International Conference on Recent Innovations in Technology
VI. CONCLUSION
SB2 burner when used with modified pan support increases
the thermal efficiency of the stove from 64.22 to 66.59. This
slightest rise in efficiency will save approximately Rs. 431.31
crores in domestic sector only.
Because of this the operating cost per cylinder will be
reduced by Rs.11/-. The cost of the existing burner is
approximately Rs.100/- whereas the total cost of proposed
burner might be Rs.150/- in mass production. And the cost of
pan support will be Rs.50/- Thus the extra cost of the new
burner can be recovered within the usage 5 cylinders.
This proposed change can be easily adopted on existing
stove.
Experimental set up can be developed for a different
combination of port angles and their optimum value can be
found out.
Further efficiency can be enhanced by developing a
recuperator, which utilizes a waste heat of the flue gases to
preheat the air (reactants), required for the combustion. Also a
porous media burner can be developed in which the
combustion flame is embedded.
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VII. REFERENCES
[1] Antonette D’Sa and K.V. Narasimha Murthy, “LPG as a cooking fuel
option for India”, Energy for Sustainable Development, Volume VIII
No. 3, September 2004
[2] IS4246: 2002 Indian standard Domestic Gas Stoves For Use With
Liquefied Petroleum Gas – Specification (Fifth Revision)
[3] S. Jugjai, “Thermal efficiency improvement of an LPG gas cooker by a
swirling central flame," International Journal of Energy Research
2001; 25; 657-674.
[4] Sumrerng. Jugjai, S. Sanijai, “Parametric studies of thermal efficiency
in a proposed porous radiant recirculated burner (PRRB): a design
concept for the future burner”, RERIC Int. Energy Journal. 18 (1996)
97–111.
[5] Jones H. R. N., “Application of combustion principles to Domestic
Gas Burner Design”, London: E and F. N. Spon, 1989.
[6] E .J. Weber and F. E. Vandaveer. “Gas BurnerDesign” Gas Engineer’s
Handbook
[7] E. Baukal, Jr. and B. Gebhart, “Review of empirical flame
impingement heat transfer correlations” International. J. Heat and
Fluid Flow, 17, 386-396, 1996.
[8] David G. Lilley, “Swirl Flows in Combustion: A review”, AIAAA
Journal, Vol. 15, No. 8, August 1977.
[9] N. Delalic, Dz. Mulahasanovic, E.N. Ganic,” Porous media compact
heat exchanger unit––experiment and analysis”, Experimental Thermal
and Fluid Science 28 (2004) 185–192.
[10] Abraham Tamir, Ida Elperin, And Shlomo Yotzer, “Performance
characteristics of a gas burner with a swirling central flame”,
Energy,Vol. 14, No. 7, Pp. 373-382, 1989
[11] Stephen R. Turns, Introduction to combustion, McGraw Hill., 1996.
[12] Charles e. Baukal and Benjamin Gebhart, “A review of semi-analytical
solutions for flame impingement heat transfer” Int. Journal of Heat
and Mass Transfer. Vol. 39, No. 14, pp. 2989-3002, 1996.
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