A simple, highly idealized radiation efficiency model has been developed for a porous radiant burner with or without a screen to assess the thermal performance of an ideal porous burner that yields the highest radiation efficiency and against which test results and/or more realistic model predictions could be benchmarked. The model is based on thermodynamics principles (first law of thermodynamics) with idealizations made for some of the physical processes. Empirical information, where necessary, is then used to close the model equations. The maximum radiation efficiency at a given firing rate is predicted. The effects of input parameters such as the firing rate, the equivalence ratio, and the effective emittance of the burner on the radiation efficiency of the porous radiant burner are reported.

Units: SI