Design Modifications of Gas Cooker Burner for Optimal Thermal Efficiency

Abstract

Design modification of gas cooker burner for domestic cooking is highly important to enhance acceptability of gas cooking facility globally. Typical material of existing burner was modified by increasing its thickness and also by changing the material of the product from mild steel to galvanize steel to eradicate corrosion at minimum cost. A progressive combination die coupled with drilling fixture for the production of burner were designed, manufactured and evaluated. The die and fixture were used for blanking, piercing and forming of four different burners of port sizes: 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 mm. The most effective burner port size was determined using response surface 3D to generate curves between cooking period, burner head temperature and food cooking temperature against port sizes. Uni-axial compressive test was carried out on cooked rice and beans to investigate their rheological properties. The rice and beans cooking temperatures were found to be: 170 and 180; 150 and 165; 140 and 160; 140 and 160 ^oC for 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 mm burner port sizes respectively. These results have shown that, burner port size of 2.0 mm exhibited optimum thermal efficiency than any other port sizes.  The poison ratios of cooked rice and beans were found to be: 0.25, 0.28, 0.30 and 0.35, 0.23, 0.26, 0.28 and 0.31 for 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 mm burner port sizes respectively. Likewise, the poison ratios of cooked beans were measured to be: for 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 mm burner port sizes, respectively.