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ANP QUARTERLY PROGRESS REPORT
Not ural -Gas Burner
L. A. Mann
Aircraft Reactor Engineering Division
R. Curry
Pratt & Whitney Aircraft
The exploratory tests on gas burners, described
previously,6 were used as a basis for new burner
developments. Designs for obtaining better mixing
of air and gas and higher pressures in the burning
chamber have been investigated, and some tests
have been made in which preheated air and gas
were used. The test units were based, in general,
on designs developed by the Esso Marketers in
the past few years. In these units, the burning
chamber serves also as a flame holder and a
burning-rate controller. A schematic diagram of
the basic design is shown in Fig. 3.7.
The first burner that was built was operated
at approximately 310OOF and 400-kw heat release
without a pressure-forming barrier at the exit of
the burner. It was then operated at about 3200°F
and 250-kw heat release at about $ atm pressure
drop from burner to air to simulate a heat ex-
changer after the burner.
A second burner was designed on the basis of
data from the first burner, plus specific provision
for preheating the air and gas. Tests were con-
ducted in which a temperature of about 330OOF
and 1-Mw heat release were obtained by using
unpreheated air and gas. Auxiliary tests indicated
that premixed air and gas fuel could be preheated
to 160OOF or more without serious preignition.
TRAP FOR FLUORIDE VAPORS
W. G. Cobb A. G. Grindell
W. R. Huntley
Aircraft Reactor Engineering Division
In operating a high-temperature system with a
molten fluoride salt containing appreciable quan-
tities of zirconium fluoride and blanketed with
inert gas, it is difficult to prevent plugging of
the gas lines leading to or from the vessel. A
vapor-trap device has therefore been developed
which provides a sufficiently large vapor con-
denser to prevent plugging in an operating period
of several thousand hours with reasonable gas
movement (no excessive continuous bleed) and to
enable adequate heating of the gas line between
'I-. A. Mann and L. F. Roy, ANP Quar. Prog. Rep.
Sept. 10, 1954, ORNL-1771, p 41.
50
GAS
---%
GAS.
BURNED GAS
It
UNCLASSIFIED
ORNL-LR-DWG 4526
Fig. 3.7. Natural-Gas High-Intensity Burner.
the trap and the fluoride-containing vessel.
Gas line plugging with zirconium fluoride vapor
condensate occurred frequently at the pump tank
of the ARE component test at K-25. Plugging
was eliminated by heating the gas line to 130OOF
and by installing the vapor trap so that no cold
surfaces for vapor condensation were avai table
until the gases reached the large cross-sectional
area of the trap. This type of unit was first tested