Dynamic simulation of liquefied petroleum gas vaporisation for burners

Highlights: • A thermodynamic model is developed to investigate the vaporisation characteristics of LPG in a cylinder. • Transient characteristics of LPG vaporisation are analysed under various conditions. • The effects of various parameters on LPG vaporisation and the residues in LPG are analysed. • A graphical procedure is proposed to determine the design value of Wobbe Index for burners. This study numerically describes the transient behaviours of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) natural vaporisation in a cylinder using an experimentally validated model. The model can be applied to easily predict transient compositions and thermophysical properties during the vaporisation process under various conditions. A simple graphical design procedure is presented to determine the Wobbe Index and the corresponding composition as design references for gas burners to avoid incomplete combustions. The effects of initial composition, surrounding temperature and discharge rate of LPG on both the LPG natural vaporisation and the residue amount in the cylinder are simulated and investigated. The results demonstrate that the present work may serve as a useful tool to evaluate the LPG behaviours throughout the vaporisation, design or retrofit gas burners, and predict the unburned residue.