Vortex Burner—A Useful Tool for Studying the Flame Stability of Gaseous Fuels and Fuel Mixtures

摘要

A vortex burner has been developed that permits direct comparison of flame stability of fast‐burning and of slow‐burning gaseous fuels and their mixtures. In this burner, air is introduced tangentially into a chamber to generate a vortex. The vortex is then accelerated by means of a converging nozzle which directs the air into a throat section where fuel is injected radially from ports in the periphery of the throat. The flame is stabilized in space in a divergent, pressure‐recovery section and burns as a whirling inverted cone. Flame stability is independent of tangential velocity at any given air rate. However, changes in other parameters, such as throat diameter and length of the pressure‐recovery section, do have an effect on flame stability. The results of these investigations with the vortex burner suggest that further studies with longer recovery sections are of interest. Likewise, the effect of gas temperature on flame stability will be studied.