INVESTIGATION OF THE FUEL-AIR FLOW INSIDE A VORTEX FURNACE WITH A FLUIDIZED BED USING A SPECIAL AIR-DISTRIBUTING NOZZLE

The article presents the results of an experimental study of the fuel-air flow inside a vortex furnace with a fluidized bed using a special air distribution nozzle. Nowadays, the issue of dependence on fossil energy resources is the most important problem for the countries of Europe. One of the promising solutions to this problem is the use of vortex solid fuel furnaces for burning low-calorie types of fuel, such as waste from the woodworking and agricultural industries. Our country has developed agricultural and woodworking sectors of the economy, so the amount of waste from these industries is significant, which allows them to be used to cover the energy needs of the state. At the same time, there is a significant number of solid fuel boilers on the territory of Ukraine that can be used for this task. The main difficulties in burning low-grade fuels in solid-fuel boilers are the low level of efficiency of these vortex furnaces and insufficient theoretical information about this. To conduct the experiment, a special installation in the form of a cylinder with a nozzle inside is used. The nozzle has a plate inclination of 15 °, which does not exceed 10% of the total live cross-sectional area of the chamber of the experimental setup. In the course of the experiment, the boundary conditions for the formation of a vortex flow at different amounts of fuel and different air flows were determined, and the values of pressure loss and flow velocity were shown. The results are presented in graphical and tabular form. For example, for 2.9 kg of sawdust, the maximum speed of vortex flow formation is 0.72 m/s, for 5.8 kg this value is 0.57 m/s. The obtained results make it possible to formulate recommendations for the improvement of existing solid fuel furnaces due to the use of special nozzles for the intensification of combustion processes. This creates prospects for the development of the country's energy sector. Keywords: fuel combustion, vortex furnaces, furnace aerodynamics, special nozzle.