Vipul Vibhanshu
Combustion Research Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016
Sangeeta Kohli
Combustion Research Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016, India
M.R. Ravi
Combustion Research Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016, India
Forced draft gasifier cookstoves for domestic application use commercially available fans typically used in computers. The airflow supplied by the fan to the combustion chamber depends on two curves: head-discharge characteristics of the fan and flow rate-pressure drop characteristics of the system. In the present work, these two curves are generated experimentally for the case of a commercially available gasifier cookstove. The system characteristics are also generated analytically with very good agreement with the experimental results. The fan characteristics are generated experimentally for three commercially available fans at three values of supply voltage. The results show that much of the air supplied by the fan enters through the secondary holes due to a large pressure drop through the bed. System characteristics without fuel and with fuel in cold conditions are nearly the same. Air supply is seen to decrease by nearly 45% when the supply voltage for the fan is reduced from 12 V to 6 V. This work can help in selecting a suitable fan to supply desirable airflow rate in a cookstove at different operating conditions.