Numerical and experimental investigation on heat transfer enhancement by adding fins on the pot in a domestic gas stove

Heat transfer and premixed combustion are two working processes of domestic gas stoves, and poor heat transfer is the primary cause of low thermal efficiency. The investigation aims to strengthen the heat transfer capacity of the pot numerically and experimentally, thus improving the thermal efficiency of gas stoves and saving energy. With the increase in loading height Z, the thermal efficiency predicted by numerical simulation decreases gradually in agreement with the experimental results. After adding fins to the pot wall, it is found that the thermal efficiency increases with an increase in fin height H. The fin height H = 8 mm is used because of the better compromise between thermal efficiency and the max temperature of fins. By considering the total mass of the pot and thermal efficiency, we select the fin number N = 42, and its thermal efficiency is increased by 7.12% compared with the original pot. Experimental results confirm that the increase is 8.2% under the same conditions. Moreover, it is shown that the thermal efficiency at first increases to a maximum value then decreases with the augment of inclination angle. The optimal angle occurs at α = 30°, and its thermal efficiency is 9.48% higher than that of the original pot. •The enhanced heat transfer of gas stoves is studied numerically and experimentally.•Thermal efficiency from the numerical simulation agrees with the experimental data.•The shape, spacing, and inclination angle of the fin on the pot wall are designed.•The velocity and temperature distributions at the fin position are investigated.•An improvement in thermal efficiency for the optimized pot with fins is 9.48%.