Mobile heating unit operated by means of liquid fuel

Abstract

A mobile heating device operated with liquid fuel is provided, having: a combustion chamber (2) comprising a combustion air inlet (3), wherein the combustion chamber (2) adjacent to the combustion air inlet (3) comprises a widening portion (20) the cross-section of which widens with increasing distance from the combustion air inlet (3) and in which in operation combustion air and fuel are converted in a flaming combustion; a fuel supply which is arranged such that fuel is supplied into the widening portion (20); and an air guide device (6) being adapted to feed combustion air into the widening portion (20) with a flow component directed in the circumferential direction such that an axial recirculation region forms in the widening portion (20) in which gases flow in the direction towards the combustion air inlet (3) oppositely to a main flow direction (H).

Claims

1. A mobile heating device operated with liquid fuel, said mobile heating device comprising: a combustion chamber having a widening portion and in which in operation combustion air and fuel are converted in a flaming combustion; a central combustion air inlet adjacent the combustion chamber, the widening portion having a cross-section which widens with increasing distance from the combustion air inlet; a fuel supply supplying fuel into the widening portion; and an air guide guiding combustion air into the widening portion at the central combustion air inlet with an axial flow component and with a flow component directing the combustion air in a circumferential direction such that an axial recirculation region forms in the widening portion in which gases flow in the direction towards the combustion air inlet oppositely to a main flow direction, the air guide device comprising a ring and including at least one spirally extending guide blade on an outer surface or the air guide, the spirally extending guide blade forming spirally extending channels.

2. The mobile heating device according to claim 1, in which the fuel supply includes at least one evaporator element for evaporating liquid fuel.

3. The mobile heating device according to claim 2, in which the at least one evaporator element at least partially surrounds the combustion air inlet.

4. The mobile heating device according to claim 2, in which the at least one evaporator element is ring-shaped and surrounds the combustion air inlet.

5. The mobile heating device according to claim 2, in which the at least one evaporator element is thermally coupled to the widening portion.

6. The mobile heating device according to claim 2, in which the evaporator element is partly covered by a cover and a fuel discharge portion is formed in a region of the evaporator element that is not covered by the cover.

7. The mobile heating device according to claim 6, in which the cover forms a wall of the widening portion.

8. The mobile heating device according to claim 6, in which the fuel discharge portion is arranged at the combustion air inlet.

9. The mobile heating device according to claim 2, in which the evaporator element is arranged such that evaporated fuel exits the evaporator element with a directional component directed opposite to the main flow direction.

10. The mobile heating device according to claim 1, in which the widening portion includes a continuously widening cross-section.

11. The mobile heating device according to claim 1, in which the widening portion widens with an opening angle of at least 20.

12. The mobile heating device according to claim 1, in which the air guide is formed such that the combustion air is supplied into the widening portion with a swirl factor of at least 0.6.

13. The mobile heating device according to claim 1, in which the heating device is adapted such that the combustion air is supplied into the combustion air inlet with flow velocities being higher than turbulent flame velocities arising in the combustion chamber.

14. The mobile heating device according to claim 1, in which the combustion chamber continuously has a free flow cross-section.

15. The mobile heating device according to claim 1, in which the combustion chamber, adjacent to the widening portion, has a portion with a cross-section remaining substantially constant.

Description

(1) Further developments and advantages will become apparent from the following description of embodiments with reference to the enclosed drawings.

(2) FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional illustration of the burner of a mobile heating device according to a first embodiment;

(3) FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective illustration of the burner from FIG. 1;

(4) FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective illustration of an air guide device in the burner from FIG. 1;

(5) FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of a housing surrounding the air guide device depicted in FIG. 3;

(6) FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of an evaporator element in the first embodiment; and

(7) FIG. 6 is a schematic illustration of the burner of a mobile heating device according to a second embodiment.

FIRST EMBODIMENT

(8) A first embodiment will be described in the following with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5.

(9) In the first embodiment, the mobile heating device operated with liquid fuel is in particular formed as a parking heater or auxiliary heater for a vehicle, in particular for a land vehicle. In the figures, only the burner 1 of the mobile heating device is illustrated. Further to the illustrated burner 1, the mobile heating device comprises in particular in a per se known manner a heat exchanger for transferring heat to a medium to be heated, such as in particular a liquid in a liquid circuit of a vehicle or air to be heated. The heat exchanger can for example cup-like surround the burner 1 in a per se known manner. Further, the mobile heating device comprises at least one fuel supply device, which can in particular be formed by a fuel pump; a combustion air conveying device, which can e.g. comprise a combustion air blower; and at least one control unit for controlling the mobile heating device.

(10) In the following, the burner 1 of the mobile heating device will be described more in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5. The burner 1 comprises a combustion chamber 2 in which fuel and combustion air are converted in a flaming combustion during operation of the mobile heating device. In FIG. 1, the burner 1 is illustrated in a schematic sectional illustration, wherein the sectional plane is chosen such that a longitudinal axis Z of the burner 1 lies in the sectional plane. The burner 1 is formed substantially rotationally symmetric with regard to the longitudinal axis Z. The combustion chamber 2 comprises a combustion air inlet 3 at which combustion air is supplied into the combustion chamber 2 during operation.

(11) Immediately adjacent to the combustion air inlet 3, the combustion chamber 2 comprises a widening portion 20 the cross-section of which widens with increasing distance from the combustion air inlet 3. In the depicted embodiment, the widening portion is confined by a conical wall which is formed by a cover 4 which will be described more in detail below. In a main flow direction H, a substantially cylinder-jacket-shaped wall 5 adjoins the conical wall of the widening portion 20, such that the combustion chamber 2 comprises a portion 21 having a cross-section remaining substantially constant adjacent to the widening portion 20. The size relations are chosen such that the diameter relation V between the outer diameter D.sub.L of the air guide device 6 and the diameter D.sub.K of the portion 21 of the combustion chamber 2 is smaller or equal to 0.5 (V=D.sub.L/D.sub.K and V0.5).

(12) The widening portion 20 widens with an opening angle of at least 20. The opening angle is the angle which is formed between the wall of the widening portion 20 and the longitudinal axis Z. In the depicted embodiment, the opening angle amounts to e.g. between 40 and 50. The combustion chamber 2 comprises an overall free flow cross-section so that no components hindering a free flow of gases protrude laterally into the combustion chamber 2 such that the gas flows in the combustion chamber 2 can develop according to the geometry of the widening portion 20 and of the adjacent portion 21, as will be described more in detail below.

(13) Upstream of the combustion air inlet 3, an air guide device 6 is provided which is adapted in order to introduce the combustion air into the widening portion with a flow component directed in the circumferential direction. The air guide device 6 is formed such that a very large swirl is impressed onto the combustion air. The air guide device 6 is formed such that the air is introduced into the combustion air inlet 3 with a swirl factor of at least 0.6. The burner 1 is adapted such that a decrease in pressure in a range between 2 mbar and 20 mbar occurs over the air guide device 6. The air guide device 6 will be described more in detail with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.

(14) In the embodiment, the air guide device 6 comprises an approximately ring-shaped shape and is provided on the outside with spirally extending guide blades 60 between which also spirally extending channels 61 are formed. In the mobile heating device according to the embodiment, the air guide device 6 is inserted in a substantially hollow-cylindrical casing 7, which is illustrated in FIG. 4. The air guide device 6 is inserted in the casing 7 such that the spirally extending channels 61 are circumferentially closed by the casing 7. Thus, the spirally extending channels 61 are only open at their respective face sides such that combustion air can pass through. In FIG. 3 it is illustrated that the air guide device 6 is provided with a central cylindrical through-bore 62. This through-bore 62 can e.g. be used as lead through into the combustion chamber 2 for an ignition element. In the illustrated embodiment, the through-bore 62 is however closed by a plug 63 in the assembled state of the burner 1, as illustrated in FIG. 1.

(15) In the first embodiment, the air guide device 6 is arranged such that combustion air at one face side enters into the channels 61 closed by the casing 7, flows through the spirally extending channels 61, and is introduced into the widening portion 20 of the combustion chamber 2 at the combustion air inlet 3 at their other face side. The combustion air is impressed with a swirl by the spirally-shaped design of the channels 61. The channels 61 are formed such that the combustion air is impressed with the required swirl factor of at least 0.6 when passing through. As schematically illustrated in by arrows B in FIG. 1, the combustion air is supplied to the air guide device 6 by a combustion air conveying device (not shown) which can e.g. comprise a blower.

(16) Due to the described design of the air guide device 6, the combustion air is introduced at the combustion air inlet 3 into the widening portion 20 with a flow component directed hi the circumferential direction.

(17) In the first embodiment, further a fuel supply is provided such that fuel is also supplied into the widening portion 20 at the combustion air inlet 3, as schematically illustrated by arrows in FIG. 1. The mobile heating device is designed for operation with liquid fuel and can e.g. be operable with fuel which is also used for a combustion engine of a vehicle, in particular diesel, benzine and/or ethanol. In the first embodiment, the fuel supply comprises at least one evaporator element 9 for evaporating supplied liquid fuel.

(18) In the first embodiment, the evaporator element 9 has the shape of a truncated hollow cone, as can be seen in FIG. 5. The evaporator element 9 comprises an opening angle which corresponds to the opening angle of the widening portion 20. The evaporator element 9 is formed from a porous and heat-resistant material and can in particular comprise metal non-woven fabric, metal network and/or metal woven fabric. As illustrated in FIG. 1, a plurality of fuel lines 10 for supplying liquid fuel to the evaporator element 9 is provided. Although exemplarily two fuel lines 10 are illustrated in FIG. 1, also e.g. only one fuel line 10 can be provided or more fuel lines 10 can be provided.

(19) At a side facing away from the combustion chamber 2, the evaporator element 9 is covered by a rear wall 11 through which the fuel lines 10 are passed through. At the side facing the combustion chamber 2, the evaporator element 9 is covered by the cover 4 already described before which can in particular be formed from a metal sheet. The evaporator element 9 is arranged such that it ring-shaped surrounds the combustion air inlet 3. At the combustion air inlet 3, the evaporator element 9 comprises an uncovered fuel discharge portion 12 at which evaporated fuel can exit from the evaporator element 9. The other sides of the evaporator element 9 areexcept for the fuel lines 10each covered such that fuel can only exit from the evaporator element 9 at the fuel discharge portion 12. The fuel discharge portion 12 ring-shaped surrounds the combustion air inlet 3 so that fuel can be evenly supplied from all sides. It has to noted that the evaporator element 9 does not necessarily need to have a closed ring shape and that also several separate evaporator elements 9 can be arranged distributed over the circumference, as the case may be. The evaporator element 9 is thermally coupled to the widening portion 20 via the cover 4 such that, in operation of the mobile heating device, heat is transferred into the evaporator element 9 from the flame anchored in the widening portion 20 in order to provide the evaporation heat necessary for fuel evaporation there. An ignition element for starting the burner which at least partially protrudes into the combustion chamber and which is not depicted in FIG. 1 for reasons of simplicity can further be provided.

(20) By arrangement of the evaporator element 9 in the described manner in which the fuel lines 10 are spatially spaced from the fuel discharge portion 12, even dispersion of the supplied liquid fuel in the evaporator element 9 is achieved such that the whole evaporator element 9 is utilized for fuel evaporation. By the described arrangement in which the outlets of the fuel lines are arranged more downstream in the main flow direction H than the fuel discharge portion 12, it is further achieved that the fuel exits from the evaporator element 9 with a directional component which is directed opposite to the main flow direction H. In this manner, a particularly homogeneous mixing of the exiting fuel with the combustion air exiting from the air guide device 6 is attained such that good mixing of combustion air and evaporated fuel is attained immediately at the combustion air inlet 3.

(21) The components of the burner 1 described above are surrounded at the outside by a substantially hollow cylindrical burner flange 13 which forms a flow space for supplied combustion air. The burner flange 13 further serves for fixation of the burner to further components of the mobile heating device situated at the rear side which are not illustrated. The burner flange 13 is formed such that a ring-shaped slit is formed between the inner side of the burner flange 13 and the outer side of the portion 21 of the combustion chamber wall which is adjacent to the widening portion 20, through which slit a part of the supplied combustion air can flow. At a downstream end with respect to the main flow direction H, the burner flange 13 is connected to the portion 21 such that the slit is closed there. As can be seen in FIGS. 1 and 2, the portion 21 of the combustion chamber wall adjacent to the widening portion 20 comprises a plurality of holes 22 and 23 through which combustion air can also enter into the combustion chamber 2. Due to the chosen geometry, the combustion air supplied by the combustion air conveying device is divided in a predetermined relation such that a part of the combustion air is supplied into the widening portion 20 via the air guide device 6 at the combustion air inlet 3 and another part of the combustion air is supplied into the combustion chamber via the slit and the holes 22 and 23.

(22) By the described design, during operation of the burner 1 stable anchoring of the flame in the widening portion 21 is achieved over a large bandwidth of different heating powers, as will be described more in detail in the following.

(23) The combustion air exiting from the air guide device 6 is mixed at the combustion air inlet 3 with the fuel exiting there from the evaporator element 9. Due to the strong swirl of the combustion air in combination with the strong widening of the widening portion 20, the current of the combustion air-fuel-mixture remains resting against the wall of the widening portion 20 due to acting centrifugal forces. Formation of thus-called dead water zones on the outer side at the wall can reliably be prevented even in the case of a strong widening. The current flows along the wall of the widening portion 20 with relatively high velocities such that during operation of the burner good convective heat transfer to the cover 4 and via thermal conduction to the evaporator element 9 placed behind it takes place.

(24) From the point of view of fluid dynamics, the design of the widening portion 20 acts like a discontinuous widening of the cross-section such that with the swirling current a strong widening of the core swirl occurs. Due to the resulting local static pressures, subsequent to the widening of the core swirl a break-down of the core swirl occurs such that a strong back current opposite to the main flow direction H forms in a radially inner region close to the longitudinal axis Z, as schematically depicted by arrows in FIG. 1. With the described geometric design of the burner 1, the recirculation vortices forming in this manner have a position which is substantially independent from the mass flow of the combustion air-fuel-mixture such that self-stabilization or anchoring of the flame in the widening portion 20 takes place. Formation of these flow characteristics can be explained by the fact that the swirling current radially widens in the widening portion 20 wherein deceleration in the axial direction occurs. The tangential directional component of the velocity effects a radial pressure gradient whereby the static pressure decreases in the direction towards the longitudinal axis Z. Due to these pressure conditions, the recirculation zone forms.

(25) Due to the described design, the burner 1 can be operated over a large bandwidth of different heating powers, in particular in a power range from 0.8 kW to approximately 20 kW.

(26) The combination of the combustion chamber design and the evaporator element 9 enables stable operation even at relatively low heating powers. By the evaporator element 9, stable supply of fuel into the combustion chamber 2 takes place even if air bubbles should form in the fuel line 10. Due to the resulting self-stabilization or anchoring of the flame in the widening portion 20, high heat input into the evaporator element 9 takes place at high heating powers such that the required large amount of fuel per time can reliably be evaporated there. At a lower heating power, correspondingly smaller heat input takes place such that the process of fuel evaporation can also reliably be maintained to the desired extent over a large bandwidth of heating powers. By the achieved flowing-through of substantially the whole volume of the evaporator element 9, it is reliably acted against formation of residues in the evaporator element 9. A particularly cost-efficient design of the burner 1 is further enabled by the fuel supply via the evaporator element 9.

(27) Since a well-defined, good mixing of fuel and combustion air is attained with the described design, a combustion which is very low in emissions is achieved. In the described mobile heating device, the combustion air is introduced into the widening portion 20 with a high flow velocity. In this manner, undesired back-burning can reliably be prevented.

SECOND EMBODIMENT

(28) A second embodiment will be described in the following with reference to FIG. 6, wherein only the differences to the first embodiment will be described more in detail in order to avoid repeating and the same reference signs as in the first embodiment are used for the same elements or components.

(29) The second embodiment differs from the first embodiment in that the fuel supply comprises an atomizing nozzle 90 for atomizing the liquid fuel instead of the evaporator element 9 for evaporating the liquid fuel provided in the first embodiment, as will be described more in detail. Also in the second embodiment, the widening portion 20 comprises a cross-section which widens with increasing distance from the combustion air inlet 3. Also in the second embodiment, the widening portion 20 is confined by a conical wall which however, in contrast to the first embodiment, is not formed by a separate cover 4 but by a rear wall 40 of the combustion chamber 2.

(30) Further, in the second embodiment the through-bore 62 in the air guide device 6 is not covered by a plug 63 but the atomizing nozzle 90 is arranged in the through-bore 62 instead. The liquid fuel is supplied to the atomizing nozzle 90 via a fuel line 100, as schematically illustrated in FIG. 6. In the second embodiment, the air guide device 6 is arranged such that the air exiting from the air guide device 6 enters into a tapering portion 19 which is situated in front of the combustion air inlet 3. In the example shown in FIG. 6, the tapering portion 19 is formed by a tapering truncated cone. The tapering portion 19 surrounds the atomizing nozzle 90 and effects that the combustion air is forced to flow around the discharge region of the atomizing nozzle 90 after exiting the air guide device 6 and to thereby cool the latter. Thus, cooling of the atomizing nozzle 90 is effected by the supplied combustion air. In this manner it is further achieved that the reverse flow of hot gases from the combustion process in the combustion chamber 2 cannot reach to the atomizing nozzle 90. Furthermore, the reduction in cross-section effects an increase in the tangential velocity component of the through-passing combustion air and brings the axial velocity portion closer to the longitudinal axis Z.

(31) The atomizing nozzle 90 is formed such that the fuel is discharged from the atomizing nozzle 90 into the widening portion 20 substantially hollow-cone-shaped, as schematically illustrated in FIG. 6 by dashed lines. The opening angle of the hollow cone with which the atomized fuel exits from the atomizing nozzle 90 is preferably selected such that the fuel enters the shear flow region which forms between the gases flowing off at the wall of the widening portion 20 and the gases flowing back in the axial recirculation zone. In the illustrated embodiment, the opening angle of the hollow cone with which the atomized fuel is supplied amounts to between 20 and 40, preferably between 25 and 35. Again the angle between the exiting atomized fuel and the longitudinal axis Z is designated as opening angle.