Computational Fluid Dynamic Analyses of Flow and Combustion in a Domestic Liquefied Petroleum Gas Cookstove Burner—Part II: Burning Characteristics and Overall Performance

Abstract

Abstract Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is widely used in domestic cookstoves as it is a clean and high energy content fuel in comparison with other traditional cooking fuels. With the increasing demand of LPG, study and improvement of cookstove performance have become an important subject. In the present work, a numerical study of the flow and thermal fields for a domestic cookstove burner has been investigated and the performance of the stove is analyzed at different parametric conditions, like the equivalence ratio of the primary fuel–air mixture, fuel flow rate, thermal load height, and loading vessel size. The maximum thermal efficiency has been found for an equivalence ratio of 1.4 for the LPG–air mixture and at load height of 20 mm. The heat flux distribution at the bottom of the vessel is found to be bimodal with the higher peak occurring closer to the center of the vessel. The thermal efficiency of the stove increases with the rise in the fuel flow rate, and it decreases with reducing cooking vessel diameter. As the vessel diameter increases, the fraction of the total heat supplied through the vessel bottom increases. The radiative component of the heat flux is found to be much smaller compared to the convective component.