초록 ▼

The present invention is a burner system that allows ‘quasi continuous burning’ of fluids at very high temperatures by using controlled continuous pulsing explosions or detonations instead of continuous flow and thus creating pulsing pressure waves that can be easily utilised for increasing heat exc

The present invention is a burner system that allows ‘quasi continuous burning’ of fluids at very high temperatures by using controlled continuous pulsing explosions or detonations instead of continuous flow and thus creating pulsing pressure waves that can be easily utilised for increasing heat exchanger efficiency. After initiation the explosions or detonations are maintained by use of infrared radiation. The pulsed explosions or detonations send their shock waves directly onto the heat exchanger walls thus introducing a bigger part of energy into the heat exchanger wall then would be possible with any other method of heat exchange. In addition the kinetic energy of the negative acceleration of the mass in the explosion or detonation wave is added as additional heat introduced into the heat exchanger walls.

대표청구항 ▼

1. A burner system comprising a reaction chamber and at least one long, small cross-section friction channel through which at least two pressurized fluid compounds flow into said reaction chamber where they react to produce a controlled continuous sequence of pulsing detonations and/or explosions, w

1. A burner system comprising a reaction chamber and at least one long, small cross-section friction channel through which at least two pressurized fluid compounds flow into said reaction chamber where they react to produce a controlled continuous sequence of pulsing detonations and/or explosions, wherein each explosion or detonation is followed by an interval during which no reaction takes place, wherein: a) said reaction chamber of said burner system has a shape and dimensions configured such that, after each detonation and/or explosion is initiated: i) a small part of the shock wave produced by each detonation and/or explosion is directed towards and travels into said friction channel; andii) the remainder of said shock wave strikes the interior walls of said reaction chamber causing said interior walls to emit infrared radiation, which is directed towards and focused by design at selected locations within said reaction chamber; andb) said friction channel has a shape and dimensions configured such that said small part of the shock wave produced by each detonation and/or explosion that travels into said friction channel and flows in the opposite direction to the flow of said at least two fluid compounds temporarily blocks the flow of said at least two fluid compounds into said reaction chamber thereby creating said interval until friction between said small part of the shock wave and the walls of said friction channel dissipates the energy of said small part of the shock wave in the friction channel whereupon the pressure of said at least two pressurized fluids and the vacuum created behind said shock wave of the explosion or detonation travelling in said friction channel causes said at least two fluid compounds to resume flowing into said reaction chamber, where said at least two fluid compounds pass through emitted infrared radiation until they reach the designated ignition point whereupon said focused infrared radiation ignites said two compounds. 2. The burner system of claim 1 comprising: a) two or more inlets adapted for introducing at least two fluid compounds that have been preheated and pressurized;b) an inlet chamber connected to each of said inlets, each inlet chamber adapted to prevent the compound that enters it from mixing with another compound;c) one or more outlet channels adapted to be connected to an outlet side of said reaction chamber in order to conduct the products produced in said detonations and/or explosions away from said reaction chamber; andd) an ignition system, adapted to initiate the pulsed operation of said burner system;wherein, the at least one friction channel is adapted at one end to receive said compounds from at least two of said inlet chambers; and the reaction chamber is adapted at an inlet end to be connected to a second end of said friction channel in order to receive said compounds that flow through said at least one friction channel. 3. The burner system of claim 2, wherein the pressure of the compressed compounds and the internal cross-sectional area and the surface characteristics of the inner surface of the friction channel are adapted to allow fast, free forward flow under pressure of said compounds through said friction channel into the reaction chamber and to create sufficiently high gas friction for the much faster wave front of an explosion or detonation that takes place in said reaction chamber to prevent said wave front from passing in the opposite direction through said friction channel into said inlet chambers; thereby sufficiently blocking said friction channel against the wave front of the detonation and/or explosion;thereby causing the continuous repeated interruption of the flow of said pressurized compounds in the direction towards the reaction chamber thus allowing the build-up of continuously repeating pulses of said compounds under pressure in said reaction chamber, which allows continuous repeating pulsing detonations and/or explosions to take place in said reaction chamber. 4. The burner system of claim 3, wherein the internal shape of the reaction chamber is configured to reflect and focus heat radiation in a form, determined and thus controlled by the shape of the inner surfaces of said reaction chamber to specific locations including into the path of the compounds streaming into said reaction chamber, thereby creating specific fields of overlapping infrared radiation that heat said compounds and eventually reach a sufficiently high temperature to ignite said compounds at a specific point inside said reaction chamber and thus initiating a detonation and/or explosion only after said reaction chamber has been filled by a specific amount of compounds that have entered said reaction chamber. 5. The burner system of claim 3, wherein the internal shape of the reaction chamber at the entrance side is conical, in the middle essentially cylindrical, and at the outlet side hemispherical. 6. The burner system of claim 1, comprising a secondary reaction chamber fitted over the outlet end of a first reaction chamber, said secondary reaction chamber supplied with at least two preheated and compressed fluid compounds through inlets and friction channels, wherein said first reaction chamber and said secondary reaction chamber are connected together such that said compounds that enter said secondary reaction chamber are ignited by the wave fronts of the hot gases that were formed in a first reaction inside said first reaction chamber and then detonate and/or explode. 7. The burner system of either one of claim 2 or claim 6, wherein at least the part of the external wall of said system that is covering and thus confining the reaction chambers and outlet channels is adapted as a heat exchanger that is surrounded by or otherwise in contact with a medium to be heated by the energy of the pulsing pressure waves or shock waves created by the detonations and or explosions that take place inside the reaction chamber that is transferred on impact of said waves with the internal walls of said reaction chamber through said heat exchanger to said medium. 8. The burner system of claim 1, adapted to function as a linear engine by fitting a partially cone shaped expansion chamber at an outlet end of the last reaction chamber; said expansion chamber provided with inlets adapted to feed a fluid in addition to the at least two pressurized compounds through channels into it and said system adapted such that the energy of explosions or detonations that take place in said reaction chamber or reaction chambers is used to heat the walls of said expansion chamber thereby to rapidly evaporate said fluid. 9. A heat exchanger comprising interior walls that define at least the exterior walls of the reaction chambers of at least one burner system according to claim 1. 10. A method of increasing the efficiency of a heat exchanger, said method comprising: a) adapting said heat exchanger such that it has a common wall with a reaction chamber of a burner system according to claim 1, said wall functioning as the interior wall of said heat exchanger and the exterior wall of said reaction chamber;b) causing a flow of at least two pressurized fluid compounds into said reaction chamber;c) initiating a reaction between said fluid compounds to produce a controlled continuous sequence of pulsing detonations and/or explosions, wherein each explosion or detonation is followed by an interval during which no reaction takes place; andd) preventing the formation of boundary layers at the walls used for transferring heat, which would reduce the performance of the heat exchange process, by causing said detonations and/or explosions to take place at a location from which the wave fronts of the shock waves that are produced by said explosions or detonations will propagate and impact on the interior walls of said reaction chamber;thereby allowing both heat resulting directly from said detonations and/or explosions and also heat generated by the kinetic energy resulting from the negative acceleration of said wave fronts upon impacting said interior walls to be transferred from said reaction chamber to said heat exchanger through said common wall between them. 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the detonations and/or explosions are maintained by use of infrared radiation. 12. The method of claim 10, wherein the frequency of the detonations and/or explosions is controlled by adjusting the pressure of the fluid compounds. 13. The method of claim 10, wherein a build-up of continuously repeating pulses of the compounds under pressure in the reaction chamber is realized by adapting the pressure of said compounds and the internal cross-sectional area and the surface characteristics of the inner surface of a channel through which said compounds enter said reaction chamber to allow fast, free flow under pressure of said compounds through said channel into said reaction chamber and to create sufficiently high gas friction to prevent the much faster wave front of an explosion or detonation that takes place in said reaction chamber from travelling in the opposite direction through said channel; thereby causing continuously repeating interruption of the flow of said compressed compounds forward into the reaction chamber, which sufficiently blocks said channel against the wave front of the detonation and/or explosion thus allowing continuous repeating pulsing detonations and/or explosions to take place in said reaction chamber. 14. The method of claim 10, wherein the reaction chamber is a component of the burner system of claim 1.