Numerical Investigation of the Effect of Different Conical Turbulators on the Performance of a Liquid Fuelled Boiler

Abstract

The increment in the combustion of fossil fuels for heating and power generation in recent years has led researchers to design more efficient energy conversion systems by increasing the efficiency of the existing systems and by minimizing energy losses. In this study, increasing the efficiency of the liquid fuelled smoke tube boilers used for domestic heating was researched. In this context, turbulators with full conical and frusto-conical geometries placed to smoke tubes of boiler and their effects on flame structure, heat transfer and boiler efficiency were investigated numerically. Calculations were carried out at two dimensional axisymmetric conditions and Fluent was used as the computational fluid dynamics software. In all cases, the standard k-ε model was used for modelling the turbulent flow and the species transport model was used for modelling the combustion. The results obtained by using these turbulators were evaluated for each placement condition of the turbulators. Besides, the temperature and the stream function distribution and the pressure drop in the boiler were investigated according to the type of turbulators. Finally, it was discussed which type of turbulator would be most appropriate at boilers.

Keywords: Spray Combustion; Combustion Modelling; Boilers; Conical Turbulators