A reliable and computationally efficient model for professional gas boilers

Gas boilers can be integrated into professional ovens for steamcooking processes. Their heat-transfer efficiency depends on several parameters, as exhaust gas temperature, combustion stability, fuel type, excess air. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD henceforth) provides a viable option to assess several digital prototypes of gas boilers under different operation conditions. Short setup-time, low computational cost and close matching with experimental results are key features of a CFD model suitable for the industrial design. We propose a reliable and computationally-efficient CFD model for gas boilers, operating under steady conditions. The model does not take explicitly into account both combustion and water boiling. The accuracy of the proposed model is confirmed by the excellent agreement between experimental measurements of the exhaust gas temperatures and the corresponding numerical results.