Liquid heating apparatus

Abstract: In a liquid heating apparatus, an internal drum (2) is arranged at a spacing from and within an external drum (1), a combustion gas descending chamber (3) is provided therebetween, an outer water chamber (6) having a hot water outlet port (4) and a water supply port (5) in the upper and lower sections thereof is arranged outside of the combustion gas descending chamber, an inner water chamber (7) communicating by way of communicating tubes (8) in the upper and lower sections thereof with the outer water chamber is provided inside the combustion gas descending chamber, a combustion chamber (9) communicating with the combustion gas descending chamber in the upper section thereof is arranged inside the internal drum, an exhaust port (10) is provided at the bottom of the combustion gas descending chamber, a smoke collecting chamber (14) having a larger cross-sectional area than that of said exhaust port is provided under the exhaust port, and a smoke exhaust port (15, 16) is provided in this smoke collecting chamber.

Description: This invention relates to a liquid heating apparatus, such as a boiler, utilizing an ascendant/descendant flow system of a combustion gas. Liquid heating apparatus as described above includes, for instance, what this applicant proposed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 15168/1956, which apparatus is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. In this apparatus, an internal drum 22 comprising a dual wall is arranged within and at a space from an external drum 21 also comprising a dual wall, and a combustion gas descending chamber 23 is provided therebetween. An outer water chamber 26 having a hot water outlet port 24 and a water inlet port 25 in the upper and lower sections thereof respectively, is provided outside of the combustion gas descending chamber 23, and an inner water chamber 27 which communicates with the outer water chamber 26 by way of upper and lower communicating tubes 28 is provided inside the combustion gas descending chamber 23. A combustion chamber 29 which communicates with the combustion gas descending chamber 23 in the upper section thereof is provided in the internal drum 22, and an exhaust port 30 is provided below the combustion gas descending chamber 23. A flue 33 communicates with this exhaust port 30, and a combustor 32 is detachably mounted to extend through the outer and inner water chambers 26 and 27. Numeral 34 indicates a clearing port. In the liquid heating apparatus as described above, combustion gas successively heated by the combustor 32 travels up in the combustion chamber 29, the radiant heat being absorbed therein, and then the combustion gas is inverted in the upper section thereof and flows down through the combustion gas descending chamber 23 at a flow velocity g m/sec, the flow velocity being increased to a velocity G m/sec at the exhaust port 30, and is exhausted to the flue 33. During this process, the combustion gas rapidly increases the temperature of the liquid by delivering heat through radiation or conduction to the liquid in the outer and inner water chambers 26 and 27 and raising the heat exchange rate between the combustion gas and the liquid, whilst at the same time the descending fluidity is raised and the combustion efficiency is improved, so that incomplete combustion is advantageously prevented. Although this known type of liquid heating apparatus provides the advantage described above, it has the following problem. Namely, the flow path for combustion gas in the combustion gas descending chamber 23 is narrow so that delivery of heat is efficiently carried out through contact by the combustion gas. In other words: (1) The combustion gas flowing down in the said narrow flow path flows laterally, having turned substantially through a right angle, at the flow velocity G as described above, in the flue 33 below the exhaust port 30, and thereafter flows upwardly, again after turning substantially through a right angle, outside of the external drum 21. Thus an extremely large air exhaust resistance is generated, which prevents the combustion gas from flowing smoothly, and the expected effect thus cannot be achieved, which is a problem to be solved. (2) If the cross-sectional areas of the exhaust port 30 and the flue 33 are made larger in order to solve this problem by permitting smooth flow of the combustion gas, thus overcoming the large exhaust resistance, disturbance comes in at a flow velocity of V m/sec from the exhaust port of the flue 33, as indicated by the arrow mark in FIG. 1. Then, if the flow velocity V is lower than the flow velocity G of the combustion gas (V < G), normal combustion is maintained, but if V > G, the disturbance extends into the combustion chamber 29, which prevents normal combustion. When fire is caught, the draft power in the flue 33 is generally expressed by the equation of Df ∝ H x (Tgm - To) (wherein Df is draft power, H is height, Tgm is the average temperature in the flue 33, and To is the temperature of the peripheral air). Then, if the flue 33 has a large cross-sectional area, the quantity of heat radiated from the surface of the flue increases and the draft power is lost, which has a bad influence on combustion. Then, if combustion is stopped, external air comes in from an open exit of the flue 33 having a large cross-sectional area, which cools heat insulation gas residing in the apparatus and generates convection therein, whereby the heat insulation gas is exhausted via the flue 33 to the outside and the temperature falls. Consequently, if such a system is used as an automatic hot water supply system, the combustor 32 operates unnecessarily, which results in waste of energy and an increase in the running cost. Also the combustion state in the apparatus becomes unstable, causing interrupted combustion in the combustor 32 or the generation of oscillating combustion, as well as generating noise, which is another problem to be solved. Document JP-A-2213646 of Patent Abstracts of Japan Vol. 14 No. 514 (M-1046) discloses a liquid heating apparatus comprising an internal drum arranged at a spacing from and within an external drum, a combustion gas descending chamber between said drums, an outer water chamber arranged outside of the said combustion gas descending chamber and having a hot water outlet port and a water supply port in the upper and lower sections thereof respectively, an inner water chamber arranged inside said combustion gas descending chamber and communicating by way of communicating tubes in the upper and lower sections thereof with the outer water chamber, a combustion chamber arranged inside the said internal drum and communicating by way of communicating tubes with the said combustion gas descending chamber in the upper section thereof, and a smoke collecting chamber provided with a smoke exhaust port. The present invention is characterised in that an additional exhaust port communicates the combustion descending chamber with the smoke collecting chamber, the said smoke collecting chamber having a larger cross-sectional area than that of the said additional exhaust port and being located under the said additional exhaust port. In operation of such an apparatus, a combustion gas flowing upwardly in the combustion chamber is inverted at the top and descends through the combustion gas descending chamber, and during this process the combustion gas supplies a liquid inside the inner and outer water chambers with heat. Thus the descending fluidity is improved whilst the combustion efficiency is increased, which prevents incomplete combustion and increases the temperature of the liquid by increasing the heat exchange rate between the combustion gas and the liquid. The flow velocity of the combustion gas exhausted at a high velocity from the additional exhaust port to the smoke collecting chamber is reduced because the cross-sectional area of the smoke collecting chamber is larger than that of the exhaust port, whereby a proportion of the dynamic pressure, according to the difference, changes to a static pressure, which maintains the discharge pressure to the additional exhaust port, and for this reason if an external disturbance enters the smoke collecting chamber from an exhaust port of the flue, the flow velocity decreases and the external disturbance is dispersed and weakened. An embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:- FIG. 1 is a cross-section of a known type of liquid heating apparatus, viewed from the front side in the longitudinal direction; FIG. 2 is a cross-section taken along the line 2-2 in FIG. 1; and FIG. 3 is a cross-section of a liquid heating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, viewed from the front side in the longitudinal direction. The apparatus shown in FIG. 3 comprises an external drum 1 having a dual wall covered with heat insulating material 19, and an internal drum 2 arranged at a spacing from and within the external drum 1, the internal drum having a dual wall to define a combustion gas descending chamber 3 between the drums. An outer water chamber 6, having a hot water outlet port 4 and a water supply port 5 in the upper and lower sections thereof respectively, is provided outside of the combustion gas descending chamber 3. An inner water chamber 7, which communicates by way of communicating tubes 8 in the upper and lower sections thereof with the outer water chamber 6, is provided inside the combustion gas descending chamber 3. A combustion chamber 9, which communicates in its upper section with the combustion gas descending chamber 3 via communicating tubes 37, is provided inside the internal drum 2, an exhaust port 10 is provided under the combustion gas descending chamber 3, a flue 13 communicates with this exhaust port 10, and a combustor 12 is detachably mounted to extend through the outer and inner water chambers 6 and 7. In this liquid heating apparatus, as in the known one described above, combustion gas flowing up in the combustion chamber 9 is inverted at the top and descends through the combustion gas descending chamber 3, during which process the combustion gas supplies a liquid inside the outer and inner water chambers 6 and 7 adequately with heat so that the descending fluidity is improved and the combustion efficiency is increased, which prevents incomplete combustion and increases the heat exchange rate between the combustion gas and the liquid, whereby the temperature of the liquid is rapidly increased. In this embodiment, an external wall of the external drum 1 is extended downward, to form a smoke collecting chamber 14 therein, by means of an extended peripheral wall 17. Smoke exhaust ports 15 and 16 are provided in the peripheral wall 17 and in the bottom wall 18 of the smoke collecting chamber 14, and flues 11 and 13 are detachably mounted on the smoke exhaust ports 15 and 16. It should be noted that the peripheral wall may be formed as a separate body from the external drum and mounted to the external drum 1, and one of the smoke exhaust ports 15 and 16 may be omitted. In such a construction, the cross-sectional area D of the smoke collecting chamber 14 is larger than the cross-sectional area d of the exhaust port 10, and the results of an experiment show that the relation between them should preferably be the one expressed by the equation of D ≥ √ 1.5 x d. In such an apparatus, when combustion gas flows down at a high flow velocity g through the combustin gas descending chamber 3, and is discharged from the exhaust port 10 to the smoke collecting chamber 14, the flow velocity g is reduced to g' which is lower than g because the cross-sectional area of the smoke collecting chamber 14 is larger than that of the exhaust port 10, and the dynamic pressure according to the difference is changed to a static pressure which maintains a discharge pressure at the exhaust port 10. Furthermore, if an external disturbance having flow velocity of V enters the smoke collecting chamber 14 from the exhaust port of the flue 13, the flow velocity V is reduced to a flow velocity v which is smaller than V, and the external disturbance is dispersed and weakened. Thus, in the embodiment of the present invention as described above, combustion gas can flow smoothly without generating a large exhaust resistance when it is exhausted, and any external disturbance can hardly enter from the exhaust port of the flue even if the cross-sectional areas of the exhaust port and the flue are not increased. Accordingly, any external disturbance does not enter the combustion gas descending chamber nor the combustion chamber, which prevents energy from being wasted and the running cost from increasing and also prevents disruption of combustion in the combustor due to unstable combustion conditions in the apparatus, whereby not only the generation of oscillating combustion but also the generation of noise, is prevented.

Claims: A liquid heating apparatus comprising an internal drum (2) arranged at a spacing from and within an external drum (1), a combustion gas descending chamber (3) between said drums, an outer water chamber (6) arranged outside of the said combustion gas descending chamber (3) and having a hot water outlet port (4) and a water supply port (5) in the upper and lower sections thereof respectively, an inner water chamber (7) arranged inside said combustion gas descending chamber (3) and communicating by way of communicating tubes (8) in the upper and lower sections thereof with the outer water chamber (6), a combustion chamber (9) arranged inside the said internal drum (2) and communicating by way of communicating tubes (37) with the said combustion gas descending chamber (3) in the upper section thereof, and a smoke collecting chamber (14) provided with smoke exhaust ports (15,16), characterised in that an additional exhaust port (10) communicates the combustion descending chamber (3) with the smoke collecting chamber (14), the said smoke collecting chamber (14) having a larger cross-sectional area than that of the said additional exhaust port (10) and being located under the said additional exhaust port (10). Apparatus as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the relation between the cross-sectional area D of the said smoke collecting chamber (14) and the cross-sectional area d of the said exhaust port (10) is such that D ≥ √ 1.5 x d. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 1 or 2, wherein the said smoke exhaust port (15, 16) is provided in the side or at the bottom of the smoke collecting chamber (14). Apparatus as claimed in any of Claims 1 to 3, wherein the said external drum (1) is covered with a heat insulating material (19).

Inventors: MARUYAMA NOBORU, MARUYAMA, NOBORU
Applicants: MARUYAMA NOBORU, MARUYAMA, NOBORU
Application year: 1993
Main classification: F24H1
IPC codes: F23J13, F23J11, F24H1