Numerical and experimental analyses of LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) combustion in a domestic cooking stove with a porous radiant burner

This paper deals with numerical and experimental analyses of combustion of LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) (48% n-butane, 25% iso-butane, 23% propane, 4% ethane by mole fraction) in a domestic cooking stove with a two-layer porous radiant burner. The combustion zone consists of SiC matrix with 90% porosity, and the preheating zone is made of 3.0 mm diameter alumina balls. In the numerical study, for the 1-D planar geometry of the burner, the gas and the solid-phase energy equations, continuity equation, species conservation equation and ideal gas equation are simultaneously solved using the finite volume method. The volumetric radiation term appearing in the solid-phase energy equation is also computed using the finite volume method. Numerical results of temperature distributions, flammability limits and pollutant emissions for various equivalence ratios and thermal loads are found to have reasonably a good agreement with the experimental data. Towards improving the thermal performance of the cooking stove, effects of SiC matrix thickness, preheater thickness, solid-phase conductivity and scattering albedo on CO emissions and radiative flux are studied. In addition, following guidelines of the World Health Organization, the most effective burner on the basis of the minimum CO emission and the maximum thermal efficiency is proposed. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.