Design, fabrication and testing of a swirl burner for alpha v-shaped stirling engine

Abstract

This study presents the design, fabrication and testing of a swirl burner that was used as part of the heater head section for a 194 cc. V-Shaped alpha stirling engine. The incorporation of a swirl burner with a stirling engine fulfilled its multi-fuel characteristic, since a hot producer gas from a gasification or combustion of any source of fuel can be utilized including biomass. The swirl burner with two heat input channels was designed based on the swirl number, S, which was calculated as 19.6. The swirl burner was made of 4 mm of mild steel and internally covered with 10 mm of cement. The flare from the mixture of air and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) was torched through the primary inlet and swirled uniformly through the area of an annulus in between the hot working cylinder and the outer swirl burner. The flame temperature inside the swirl burner was found to exceed 1000°C and produced the hot temperature up to 770°C. The required hot temperature inside the stainless steel expansion-working cylinder of 550 and 650°C was realized by the swirling effect of the flare inside the burner. Like a swirl combustor, the mathematical equation of the swirl number, S was found to be applicable to the swirl burner with the swirling effect only at the area of an annulus. The hot temperature increased with the increase of heater temperature inside the swirl burner and improved the expansion process.