DETERMINATION OF THE EFFICIENCY OF A DIGESTING BOILER UNDER PROPORTIONAL GAS REGULATION CONDITIONS

The study is devoted to the analysis of gas-fired cooking equipment operation under dynamically changing heat loads. The technological process of product preparation is characterized by cyclicity, including three main stages: heating to the boiling temperature, cooking itself and subsequent cooling. These technological cycles are repeated with each new product loading. The key parameter characterizing the energy efficiency of the equipment is the efficiency factor. The work considers two fundamentally different approaches to its definition. The first approach uses a calculation method with a number of significant limitations: significant influence of the variable factor - the specific heat capacity of the processed product, the value of which varies significantly depending on its chemical composition; the presence of numerous heat losses, including energy costs for heating the structural elements of the apparatus, heat losses during blowing the steam jacket in the initial phase of operation, heat dissipation through the boiler walls into the surrounding space, energy losses with exhaust gases. The second approach is an experimental method that provides higher measurement accuracy: gas consumption measurements were taken in various operating modes (automatic and manual); energy costs for bringing the product to boiling point, compensating for heat losses, and maintaining the boiling mode were quantitatively assessed; the useful component of thermal energy was determined; efficiency values for various operating modes of the equipment were calculated. Experimental studies made it possible to obtain reliable data on the actual energy efficiency of the boiler in real operating conditions, which is of particular value for optimizing its operating parameters.