Modular Burner System Information

MODULAR BURNER SYSTEM INFORMATION

This section controls everything related to the burners that various hot air balloons use to inflate (and maintain inflated) the envelope that keeps them aloft. This system is a simple one, and takes into consideration the following things:

Burner fuel is always liquid propane gas.
Multiple burners, since some balloons are equipped with several burners for failure tolerance.
Burners can have different modes of operation, for example a main "blast" mode for maximum power, and a quieter "whisper" mode for less power and noise.
Burner heating power and fuel consumption is modeled and will depend on the valve(s).

The different components available are as follows:

Burner: This defines one or more liquid propane gas burners for a hot air balloon.
Valve: This defines one or more valves required by the burners of a hot air balloon.

The following is a simple example for the setup of a typical set of burners used by a balloon:

[BURNER_SYSTEM]
Burner.1 = Name:Burner_1
Burner.2 = Name:Burner_2
Valve.1 = Burner:1 #MaxFlowRate:0.149 #Power:10000000 #Name:Burner1_Main
Valve.2 = Burner:1 #MaxFlowRate:0.12 #Power:8000000 #Name:Burner1_Whisper
Valve.3 = Burner:1 #MaxFlowRate:0.000154 #Power:0 #Name:Burner1_Pilot
Valve.4 = Burner:2 #MaxFlowRate:0.149 #Power:10000000 #Name:Burner2_Main
Valve.5 = Burner:2 #MaxFlowRate:0.12 #Power:8000000 #Name:Burner2_Whisper
Valve.6 = Burner:2 #MaxFlowRate:0.000154 #Power:0 #Name:Burner2_Pilot

It should be noted that you will need to set up a fuel consumer for each burner in the [FUEL_SYSTEM] section of the flight_model.cfg. This consumer should be a burner, and it should be connected to a valve (which is used as the pilot light valve) and a tank for the fuel. You will also need to ensure that the fuel_type is set to propane gas (6), for example:

[FUEL_SYSTEM]
Version = Latest
fuel_type = 6
Curve.1 = 0:0, 0.2:44, 1:92
Burner.1 = Name:Burner# Index:1
Tank.1 = Name:Tank1 #Title:TANK1 #Capacity:15 #UnusableCapacity:3 #Position:0, -1, -0.5 #PressureCurve:1 #OutputOnlyLines:TankToValve1
Tank.2 = Name:Tank2 #Title:TANK2 #Capacity:15 #UnusableCapacity:3 #Position:0, -1, 0.5 #PressureCurve:1 #OutputOnlyLines:TankToValve2
Line.1 = Name:TankToValve1 #Source:Tank1 #Destination:TankValve1
Line.2 = Name:TankToValve2 #Source:Tank2 #Destination:TankValve2
Line.3 = Name:TankValveToJunction1 #Source:TankValve1 #Destination:Junction
Line.4 = Name:TankValveToJunction2 #Source:TankValve2 #Destination:Junction
Line.5 = Name:JunctionToBurnerValve #Source:Junction #Destination:BurnerValve
Line.6 = name:ValveToBurner #Source:BurnerValve #Destination:Burner
Valve.1 = Name:TankValve1
Valve.2 = Name:TankValve2
Valve.3 = Name:BurnerValve
Junction.1 = Name:Junction #InputOnlyLines:TankValveToJunction1, TankValveToJunction2 #OutputOnlyLines:JunctionToBurnerValve
Trigger.1 = Name:"Autostart" #Condition:Autostart_Enabled #EffectTrue:OpenValve.TankValve1, OpenValve.BurnerValve1
Trigger.2 = Name:"Autoshutdown" #Condition:Autoshutdown_Enabled #EffectTrue:CloseValve.BurnerValve2, CloseValve.BurnerValve1

Finally, you can use SimVars to get and set information related to the balloon burner system. These SimVars are listed here:

Balloon Variables

Burner.N

The main component of the burner system is the burner itself. Each burner is created as a hash map comprised of the following multiple key:value pairs, separated by the # symbol:

Burner.N = Name:<burner_name> #PilotLightFlowRate:<flow_rate>

Note that you may have more than one burner, so in these cases you would add further Burner components and increment the N index, starting from 1. A full example of a single burner definition would be like this:

Burner.1 = Name:Burner_1 #PilotLightFlowRate:0.000154

Key	Value	Description	Required
`Name`	String	This is a name string that is used as an alias to identify the burner. It will also be used as the reference index for SimVars, and note that the name is the only guaranteed reference to the component due to the fact that the Modular Aircraft Merging process may change the index. The name cannot contain special characters or spaces.	Yes

The following SimVars are available for this component:

Valve.N

For a burner to work correctly it needs to have at least 1 valve to control the output of the associated burner. Each valve is created as a hash map comprised of the following multiple key:value pairs, separated by the # symbol:

Valve.N = Name:<valve_name> #Burner:<burner_index> #MaxFlowRate:<flow_rate> #Power:<power_btu>

Note that you may have more than one valve to create different flowrates for a specific burner, so for each one you should increment the N index, starting from 1. A full example of a single valve definition would be like this:

Valve.1 = #Name:Burner1_Main Burner:1 #MaxFlowRate:0.149 #Power:10000000

Key	Value	Description	Required
`Name`	String	This is a name string that is used as an alias to identify the valve. It will also be used as the reference index for SimVars, and note that the name is the only guaranteed reference to the component due to the fact that the Modular Aircraft Merging process may change the index. The name cannot contain special characters or spaces.	Yes
`Burner`	Integer	This is the index of the burner that the valve should be associated with.	Yes
`MaxFlowRate`	Float	This defines the fuel consumption, in lbs/s, when this valve is open.	Yes
`Power`	Float	This defines the heating power, in BTU/hour, applied to the air inside the envelope when the burner is firing by opening this valve. There are essentially two types of valves, based on the heating power: If the heating power is set to 0, then the valve is for a pilot flame, which will not contribute to the heating of the envelope. If this setting is used then a very small flow-rate should also be used. If the heating power is set to greater than 0, then the valve is for a regular burner and will be able to ignite neighbouring burners that also have an open valve with power greater than 0.	Yes

It should be noted that if you open multiple valves on the same burner (for example the "main blast" and "whisper" valves), the fuel consumption and heating power will be the sum of all the valves’ values. This is not 100% accurate to burners in the real world where fuel consumption and heating power would reach a value lower than the sum of each valve’s flow rate.

The following SimVars are available for this component:

BURNER VALVE OPEN VALUE