Furnace design and

operation

Combustion aerodynamics
The combustion process

 There are four stages in the combustion process

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The combustion process

 Any one of these processes can determine the rate of

combustion. In normal circumstances the fuel/air mixing
is the slowest and is the rate controlling step in the
process and largely determines the type of flame
produced because the chemical reaction is very fast for
most fuels
 Dispersion of the products is dependent on an effective
flue gas handling system. Unless the combustion
products are removed from the furnace, the incoming
air cannot enter and the reaction is starved of oxygen
and the flame extinguished
Types of flame

 Two types of flame are common, premixed and diffusion

 Premixed flames are short, blue, noisy and the reactions are virtually
complete
 Diffusion flames are long, yellow, quieter and the reactions are
incomplete
Types of flame
 In practice, most flames fall somewhere between these two
extreme conditions
 If the reactions in diffusion flames are incomplete, then why use
them at all ?
 Because in many practical situations, it is just too hazardous to premix
the fuel with air prior to the combustion chamber
 The distinction between flames of premixed gases and flames
utilising diffusion at an interface between different gases is both
convenient and basic
 In a premixed flame, we have essentially an explosion wave travelling
through a mixture where fuel and oxygen are in intimate contact
 In a diffusion flame, there is no true flame propagation or burning
velocity and, in many cases, the fuel has even decomposed thermally
before it reaches oxygen, because the fuel and oxygen are separated
by a wedge of intermediate combustion products
Premixed flames
 Premixed fuel and air are only capable of burning within the
flammable limits of the mixture
 The velocity at which a flame will travel through a flammable
mixture has an important influence on the design of both burner
devices and combustion chamber
 Too high a flame speed may lead to flame extinction or light back
through the nozzle into the mixing system, causing an explosion
 Too low a speed may overheat the burner or cause flame lift off

Propane/air - slow walk at 3 km/h (0.85 m/s)

Hydrogen/air - cycling at 16 km/h (4.4 m/s)
Hydrogen/oxygen - fast car at 130 km/h (36 m/s)
Flame stability

1 Flame flash-back limit

2 Flame blow-off limit
3 Lifted flame limit
4 Flame blow out limit
5 Flame drop back limit

Line A to B is a continuation
of the flame blow out limit
curve
Turbulent diffusion flames
 Scientists paid far less attention to diffusion flames than they did to
premixed flames, despite the fact that the majority of industrial
flames involve the simultaneous mixing and combustion of separate
streams of fuel and air
 The problem with analysing diffusion flames is that there is no
fundamental property, like flame speed, which can be measured
and correlated, even the mixture strength has no clear meaning
 When any jet mixes into its surroundings, steep concentration
gradients are set-up in the neighbourhood of the orifice as the
surrounding atmosphere is entrained
 Further downstream, turbulent mixing causes these gradients to
become less severe but then rapid and random oscillations and
pulsations occur
 Only after the jet has largely decayed can any approximation to
homogeneity be seen
Diffusion flame mixing
Heterogeneous flames
 Where solids and liquids are used as fuels an added complication
occurs because we have to achieve mixing between a solid or liquid
and the gaseous combustion air
 Historically this was achieved by burning these fuels in beds or
pools, hence the fuel was in surplus and the reaction rate limited by
the air supply
 Spakowski succeeded in burning oil in the form of a spray during
the 1860s and patented a commercial oil burner in 1866
 Burner designs using powdered coal finally succeeded between
1895 and 1898 with the development of the first successful rotary
cement kiln at the Atlas and Alpha cement works in Pennsylvania
 Liquids and solid fuels are normally burnt in turbulent jet diffusion
flames and need a spray of droplets or dispersion of powder to
increase the surface area available for the oxygen and to mix the
droplets or particles with the combustion air
Flame stabilisation
 Once a flame has been ignited on a burner, it will only continue to
burn if it receives feedback of heat from the reaction to maintain
ignition on, or close to, the nozzle, i.e. the flame is stable

Stable flame igniting at the

burner nozzle (left)

Unstable flame igniting at an

undefined distance from the
burner nozzle (left)
Flame stabilisation
 There are two practical methods of stabilising a flame, re-radiation
and recirculation
 Re-radiation comes back from the high temperature burning zone,
either direct from the flame, or reflected from the combustion chamber
walls
 Flow recirculation occurs when some of the flow in or around the flame
is caused to move in the “reverse” direction, i.e. opposite to that of the
dominant motion of the jet.
 In a flame recirculation transports hot combustion products back to the
nozzle or close to it.
 These hot products raise the temperature of the fuel which ignites and
hence "anchors" a flame on, or close to, the burner.
 It exists, to a greater or lesser extent, in all conventional combustion
systems because of the natural phenomenon of entrainment by a turbulent
jet.
Recirculation

Internally
Fue recirculated jet
l fluid

Primar
y air Externally
Secondar recirculated jet
Flame stabilisation y air fluid Flame stabilisation
using a bluff body using swirl
Aerodynamic stabilisation
 Swirl on all or part of the combustion air is frequently used to
create recirculation
 This excellent method of stabilizing and intensifying combustion
became apparent to combustion engineers during the post-1940
development of gas turbine jet engines for aircraft
 Burners now utilise air swirl to stabilise the flame and to control the
fuel/air mixing.
 The presence (or absence) of an internal, or “central” recirculation zone
is controlled by the intensity of the swirl
 Increasing swirl intensity also increases fuel/air mixing rates
 To characterise the amount of swirl, a dimensionless swirl
number, S, is used
S = G / Gx r

G = Axial flux of angular momentum Gx = Axial flux of axial momentum

The physics of combustion

 For good combustion, it is necessary to ensure that

adequate air is supplied for complete mixing and that
the burner is designed to mix the fuel and air streams
effectively and efficiently
 In an ideal system, a stoichimetric ratio of air to fuel
would be adequate, but in practice a small amount of
excess air is necessary, as the diffusional mixing process
is not perfectly homogeneous
 Some small burners are designed to premix the fuel and
air prior to ignition, but most industrial burners are
designed for diffusion mixing of the combustion air and
fuel inside the furnace
Combustion air streams
 In a diffusion burner, any air that is premixed with, or conveys, the
fuel is termed primary air
 The balance of the air required for combustion is supplied through
one or more separate channels or ducts and, depending on their
relative locations with respect to the fuel jet, are termed as
secondary, tertiary, etc, air
 In most combustion systems the mass of air required for complete
combustion is at least ten times that of the fuel
 The momentum of the air is often greater than that of the fuel
alone, in which case it will probably dominate the mixing between
the fuel and air
Fuel/air mixing

 The mixing of air and fuel influences

 flame stability
 emissions
 thermal release profile
 Most burner systems employ some type of jet
entrainment device for fuel-air mixing
Secondary air

Jet boundary

Free jet entrainment Jet nozzle

Primary Potential core
air of jet
Entrainment
 The initial jet velocity is normally high enough to produce a
turbulent flow stream. Friction occurs between the boundary of the
jet and its surroundings, causing the surrounding fluid to be locally
accelerated to the jet velocity
 The accelerated air is then pulled into the jet, thus expanding it.
This process is known as entrainment
 The momentum flux of the jet controls the amount of entrained air
 The entrainment rate of a free jet is therefor a function of the mass
flowrate and velocity
Free jet entrainment

0.5
ρ 
mx
 0.32 1 
x
16
m0  ρ0  d0

where m0 - mass flowrate of jet fluid at the nozzle

mx - mass flowrate of jet fluid at distance x from
nozzle due to entrainment
ρ0 - density of nozzle jet fluid
ρ1 - density of entrained fluid
d0 - diameter of nozzle
Example
 If we assume „mixed is burnt‟ at 10% excess air conditions and ignition
occurs at the nozzle plane, what will be the length of a raw natural gas
flame issuing into stagnant air surroundings, at the same temperature, at a
rate of 1.5 kg/s through a 100mm diameter nozzle? The stoichiometric air
requirement of the natural gas is 9.751 m3/m3, with a density of 0.7615
kg/Nm3.
For complete combustion the jet must entrain the stoichiometric air requirement
together with 10% excess air. Thus
m0 = 1.5 kg/s
mx = 1.5+(1.5 x 1.1 x 9.751x 1.2928 / 0.7615) = 28.8146 kg/s
d0 = 0.1 m
ρ0 = 0.7615 kg/Nm3
ρ1 = 1.2928 kg/Nm3
using entrainment equation
x = 4.607 m
It is noted that for these conditions, the exit velocity of the gas from the nozzle is
250.8 m/s
Confined jet
 A confined jet, which is the normal situation inside a furnace, is
constrained in two ways
 The quantity of surrounding fluid being supplied to the furnace i.e. the
mass of secondary air, is controlled and limited
 the expansion of the jet is bound by the physical presence of the
furnace walls
 If the confined jet has momentum in excess of that required for the
complete entrainment of the Secondary air Externally recirculated jet fluid
secondary stream, then jet Jet boundary
recirculation will occur
Jet nozzle
Primary Potential core
air of jet
The role of primary air
 Primary air has two major roles in jet entrainment burners
 controls the rate of fuel-air mixing
 assists with flame stability
 Primary air is often defined as a percentage of the stoichiometric air
requirement
 The momentum flux of the primary air and fuel should be sufficient
to create recirculation
 The ratio of the jet momentum flux to the secondary momentum
flux can be used as a defining parameter for recirculation
Effect of recirculation on
flames
Characteristic of combustion Flame with recirculation Flame without recirculation
process

Fuel-air mixing Good Poor

Reducing/oxidising conditions Oxidising conditions exist Strongly reducing conditions

throughout the flame occur in fuel rich parts of the
flame. Oxidising conditions exist
elsewhere.

Flame impingement None. Recirculating gases protect Flame impingement occurs on the
bricks, walls and product bed brickwork/product at the point
from flame impingement. where the jet expands (at ~11o-
14o) to hit the kiln wall.
Impingement is especially severe
where a low primary
air/secondary air momentum ratio
occurs.

Carbon monoxide level in flue CO only produced at levels of CO produced at levels of excess
gases excess oxygen below 0.5%. oxygen as high as 2-4%.

NOx emissions in flue gases Can result in high thermal NOx Low NOx owing to lower flame
formation if early flame ignition is temperatures and reducing
not achieved. conditions in the flame.

Heat release pattern Rapid mixing gives high flame Poor mixing gives gradual heat
temperature near nozzle. release with a long flame.

Flame stability Good flame shape with stable Flame shape, ignition front and
ignition front and heat release heat release pattern considerably
pattern. affected by changes in secondary
air temperature, excess air, fuel
quality, etc.
Thring-Newby parameter
0.5
d  ρ0 
'
m0  m1
θ  0
  17
d1  ρ1  m0
d 0‟ - equivalent nozzle diameter
d1 - enclosing chamber diameter (or geometric equivalent)
m1 - mass flowrate of secondary fluid

 2m0  m1 
d0  20
πρ0 m0u0  m1u10.5
uo - velocity on nozzle fluid at the nozzle exit plane
u1 - velocity of secondary fluid at the nozzle exit plane
Craya-Curtet parameter
R2
m  1.5R  R  K
2
2
21
 d0 
 
 d1 
Where
2
u0  u1 ρ0  d0 2 
R   22
2 2

u1ρ1
d1 *
 δ   u0  u1 ρ0   d0 

 2   2

K - jet shape factor (K-=1 for a round jet)

δ* - boundary layer thickness (usually negligible except for very small jet
nozzles)
Parameter limits

Parameter Symbol Maximum Minimum Onset of Relationship Limitations

value value recirculation
Thring Newby θ' 0 infinite <0.9 =m0.5 d1/do'<20
parameter
Craya Curtet m infinite 0 >1.5 =θ2
parameter

mr 0.455
  0.5 19
m0 θ

mr
m0  m1

 0.430 m  1.65  23

Where mr - mass of recirculated fluid

Example
 A 3.5m internal diameter rotary kiln fires 1.5kg/s of natural gas, with the
same properties as in last example, through a burner consisting of a
100mm gas nozzle, surrounded by a concentric primary air nozzle 110mm
inside diameter and 230mm outside diameter. The kiln operates at 10%
excess air with 15% primary air, the balance of the combustion air being
supplied as secondary air around the burner over the whole of its cross
section. If the primary air and gas are at 20oC, and secondary air is at
850oC, will the resulting jet be recirculatory?

From the information in the previous example, the stoichiometric air requirement on
a mass basis = 9.751 x 1.2928 / 0.7615
= 16.5543 kg/kg
The primary air rate = 1.5 x 16.5543 x 0.15 = 3.7247 kg/s
The total air rate including the excess air = 1.5 x 16.5543 x 1.1 = 27.3146 kg/s
Thus secondary air rate = m1 = 27.3146 – 3.7247 = 23.5899 kg/s
Example (cont.)
The burner is of a composite construction, which for analysis is reduced to an
equivalent plain nozzle.
The primary jet rate = m0 = 1.5 + 3.7247 = 5.2247 kg/s
Gas density = 0.7615 x 273 / 293 = 0.7095 kg/m3
Primary air density = 1.2928 x 273 / 293 = 1.2046 kg/m3
Secondary air density = 1.2928 x 273 / 1123 =0.3143 kg/m3
Gas air port area = π x 0.12 / 4 = .007854 m2
Primary air port area = π x (0.232 – 0.112) / 4 = .03204 m2
Secondary air entry area = π x (3.52 - 0 .232) / 4 = 9.5796 m2
Volume flow of gas = 1.5 / 0.7095 = 2.1142 m3/s
Volume flow of primary air = 3.7247 / 1.2046 = 3.0922 m3/s
Volume flow of secondary air =23.5899 / 0.3143 = 75.0605 m3/s
Gas velocity at nozzle plane = 2.1142 / .007854 = 269.18 m/s
Example (cont.)
Primary air velocity = 3.0922 / .03204 = 96.50 m/s
Secondary air velocity = u1= 75.0605 / 9.5796 = 7.835 m/s
Mass weighted jet velocity = u0 =(1.5 x 269.18 + 3.7247 x 96.5) / 5.2247 = 146.07
m/s
Mass weighted jet density = ρ0 = (1.5 x 0.7095 + 3.7227 x 1.2046) / 5.2247 =
1.0624 kg/m3
Secondary air density at primary jet temperature = ρ1 =1.2928 x 273 / (293)
=1.2046 kg/m3
Geometric equivalent nozzle diameter = d0 =(5.2247 x 4 / (π x 1.0624 x 146.07)0..5
= 0.207 m
Thring-Newby equivalent diameter
d0‟ = 2 x (5.2247 + 23.5899 /((π x1.0624 x (5.2247 x 146.07 +23.5899 x 7.835))0.5
= 1.0245 m
d1/d0‟ = 3.5 / 1.0245 = 3.4
Example (cont.)
This value is less than 20 and therefor the Thring Newby parameter is not suitable,
and the Craya Curtet parameter will be used.
Since d1 is very large compared to the boundary layer thickness, δ*=0. K=1 as the
system is around jet.
R = ((146.07 – 7.835) x 1.0624 x (0.207 / 2)2) / ((7.835 x 1.2046 x (3.5 / 2)2)+
(146.07 – 7.835) x 1.0624 x (0.207 / 2)2)
= 0.051619
m = -1.5 x .0.0516192 + 0.051619 + (0.0516192 /(0.207/3.5)2)
m = 0.8094
The value of the Craya Curtet parameter, m, is less than 1.5 , and the jet will not
be recirculatory.
Further calculations can be made to show that the primary air would need to be
increased to >20%, or the combined jet velocity increased to >200 m/s to make the
jet recirculatory.
Combustion aerodynamics

 Fuel/air mixing largely controls the combustion

process
 Combustion airflow patterns have an overriding effect
on the system performance
 Poor airflow patterns have a detrimental effect on
 Air distribution between burners
 Combustion efficiency
 Heat transfer and flame shape
 Flame direction, leading to flame impingement and
refractory or tube wall damage
Influencing factors

 Airflow patterns in a furnace are influenced by a

range of factors including
 Design of the burner and the aerodynamic flow
patterns that it produces
 Shape and route of the combustion air supply
ducting
 The number and spacing of burners in multiple
burner installations
 The design of common windboxes and plenum
chambers
Causes for concern

 Poor airflow patterns are caused by

 Inadequate design of combustion air ducting
 Inadequate design of burner plenums and windboxes
 can ruin the performance of an otherwise excellent
burner
 Poor aerodynamic flow patterns are very
common
 cause problems for both single and multiple burner
installations
Single burner systems
 Common single burner installations include
 Firetube boilers
 Air heaters
 Rotary kilns and dryers
 It is normal to use package burners on boilers,
heaters and dryers
 whole installation - burner, windbox, ducting and fan
- are supplied by the burner manufacturer as a bolt
on unit
 problems arise when the package unit is modified
 e.g. fan mounted remotely and connected by additional
ducting
Single burner systems
 Rotary kilns are used to process a wide range of solids
 Alumina, chrome ore , chrome oxide, nickel, titanium
dioxide
 Cement, lime and clays
 Mineral and tar sands
 Petroleum coke
 They are also used to
 Burn the organic matter out of inorganic materials
 incinerate medical and hazardous wastes
 Kiln operation is not simple owing to aerodynamics
despite the fact that it is a mature technology
Rotary kiln aerodynamics

 Normally all the fuel is injected through the burner

with 10-30% of the combustion air
 Remaining air enters through the coolers or kiln hood
Rotary kiln aerodynamics

 Problems arise because the burner is usually an

„add-on‟ package
 the aerodynamic design is not under the control of
the burner designer
 the secondary air flow is controlled by the kiln
designer
 often without serious consideration as to the flow
patterns that are likely to result
 rotary kilns often exhibit poor air/fuel mixing
 designers often ignore or are ignorant of known and
valuable design techniques
Rotary kiln aerodynamics

High secondary air velocity

in the narrow hood deflects
the flame

View of flame following

correction of secondary
airflow patterns
Rotary kiln aerodynamics

Swirl is induced by ‘improved’ cooler

inlet design - early 1970’s
The cooler centre line was offset relative
to the inlet port in the kiln shell
This was later removed at very high cost

Fuel/air mixing between

burner jet and secondary
air delayed by strong high
momentum swirl induced
by satellite cooler inlets
Single burner systems

 The consequences of poor aerodynamic flow

patterns are
 reduced output
 poor product quality
 higher fuel consumption and emissions
 premature failure of equipment
 e.g. refractories

 These problems can be resolved by modelling

Multiple burner systems

 Used on a wide range of process plant

 petrochemical heaters, steel re-heating furnaces,
glass tanks, annealing furnaces, brick kilns, etc.
 Used on water tube boilers for steam and power
generation
 four or six burners for small units
 sixty four burners relatively common on 600MWe
units
Multiple burner systems

 Similar problems owing to poor aerodynamic

flow patterns as for single burner units
 Added complexity of
 Ensuring even supply of air between individual
burners
 Minimising any detrimental aerodynamic interference
between the flames
 Intermixing between flames is quite limited, despite
appearance of a highly turbulent environment
 It is not possible to compensate for poor air distribution
between the burners in the windbox
Air distribution between
burners
 To operate effectively a burner needs the
correct mass flow of air to achieve complete
combustion
 stoichiometric air flow plus the target amount of
excess air
 excess air defined by the burner designer
 for example, the air distribution to an array of
burners designed to operate at 5% excess air
(approximately 1% oxygen in the flue gases) must be
better than ! 2% otherwise
 some burners will have virtually no excess air
 other burners will have far too much
Multi-burner systems

 It is particularly difficult to achieve satisfactory air

distribution where a large number of burners are
supplied by a common air duct
 Dampers are often provided to permit 'air balancing'
between burners, but in practice it is very difficult to
achieve a satisfactory balance, since adjustment of one
burner damper influences the air supply to all the other
burners
 This method of balancing is only possible with a limited
(<6) number of burners
Air duct design

 Burner 4 will probably receive most of the air

 effect of increasing static pressure as velocity drops
along the duct
 dynamic pressure becomes converted to static pressure
 Burner receiving least air is unpredictable
 probably 1 or 2, possibly 3
Air duct design
 The result of poor duct design can be seen on this
example of a petrochemical heater

 18 burners in a common windbox

 inlet to burner air duct adjacent to burner No 8
Air duct design

 Constant velocity duct

 Minimises static pressure recovery

 minimises the additional pressure at Burner No 4
 does nothing to eliminate the vortices in the root of the
burner off-takes
 air distribution between burners remains poor
 variations of ± 20% typical
Air duct design

 Typical design for good air distribution

 Use splitters to ensure good flow distribution in the duct

from the fan
 Use weirs, bluff bodies or turning vanes to control flow
to individual burner ducts
 design using modelling
Air duct design

 The effect of dampers

 dampers of air doors are often adjusted
in a fruitless attempt to correct poor air
distribution
 blade type dampers severely affect the
air distribution within the burner
 owing to vortex shedding
 and a tendency to direct the air flow
across the damper blade to the burner wall
 Dampers should be
 fully open
 or fully closed
Air duct design
 Adjusting dampers to correct air flow
distribution is totally ineffective
 adjusting one damper affects the flow to all other
burners as well as the one being adjusted
 with more than two or three burners it becomes an
impossible task to balance the flows, even
approximately
 Poor distribution can only be corrected by
modelling
 must be careful in selection of modelling technique,
as transient flow instabilities may be the cause of
some combustion problems (physical model vs. CFD)
 Air duct design

 Application of modelling to petrochemical heater duct

 variation reduced to ± 5% after installation of duct modifications

Windbox design

 Windbox air distribution issues are similar to

burner air ducts
 additionally boiler burners
generally need good
radial air distribution
 locally high or low radial
flows, or a significant
swirl component results
in severely distorted
flames
Boiler windbox design

 The use of flow splitters and weirs

Flow
splitters

Fig. 5.11(a) Uncorrected flows Fig. 5.11(b) Corrected flows

Boiler windbox design
 Multiple burner windboxes are more difficult and time
consuming to correct

Intense swirl
Flame interaction

 Gaseous expansion
modifies combustion
chamber aerodynamics
 whether a burner group is
shut down or firing is highly
significant
 flames exchange radiant heat
with each other and
the adjacent walls
Flame interaction

 Flames in multiple burner applications

 tend to be longer than those produced by a single
identical burner
 the closer the pitch, the longer the flames
 middle flames are hotter than wall flames
 single burner test data measuring NOx etc. is not
directly transferable
Furnace draft