[Stoves] Designation of TLUD gasifier devices.

[Paul Anderson]

Julien,

Well said.   Certainly not everyone will agree with you (us), but well said.

Paul

Doc  /  Dr TLUD  /  Prof. Paul S. Anderson, PhD
Email:  psanders at ilstu.edu
Skype: paultlud      Phone: +1-309-452-7072
Website:  www.drtlud.com

On 9/21/2015 9:56 PM, Julien Winter wrote:
> Hi All;
>
> I have to agree with Paul Anderson on having a clear definition of a 
> TLUD.  It is essential for the science of cookstoves, and combustion 
> science, that terminology is clear and unambiguous.
>
> It is very clear to me what Paul means by the TLUD process.  There is 
> a migrating pyrolytic front, and two phases of combustion can be 
> identified: (1) flaming pyrolysis, followed by (2) bottom-up char 
> combustion.
>
> It is a process that has under fed air at a rate slow enough that the 
> ignition front is a flaming pyrolysis front, and not so fast that it 
> is a complete combustion front.  It is a process that is burning a 
> type of fuel that supports a migrating ignition front (and doesn't 
> channel the fire to the grate).
>
> In science, the TLUD, as Paul describes it, is called a "paradigmatic 
> example".  It is a special theoretical model against which other cases 
> can be compared and contrasted.  These exemplars are vital to 
> scientific discourse, hypothesis testing, and developing theories.
>
> When I search through the Web of Science, I will not find much on the 
> keyword "TLUD" (yet), but I can find articles with close synonyms "pot 
> stove" or "underfed batch combustion".   I haven't done a count, but I 
> have about 50-75 articles where laboratories have experimented with 
> what are ostensibly forced draft TLUDs.  I can trace the articles back 
> to 1946.  I found these articles because the definitions of terms 
> (although there are synonyms) are clear.  If that clarity didn't 
> exist, the scientific literature would be impenetrable.  "TLUD" is not 
> common in the academic literature yet, but it is a good synonym that 
> is clearly understood in the general stove community. When papers are 
> published on TLUD stoves, they should include the close synonyms 
> (above) in the list of key words below the abstract, so the article 
> can be found.
>
> As for the stove world in general, there are "TLUD-like" stove/fuel 
> combinations that may not fit the ideal description of a TLUD, but 
> their mechanism can be usefully compared and contrasted with the 
> paradigmatic TLUD.
>
> Trying to classify cookstoves in general is a bit of a challenge.  One 
> may come up with other paradigmatic exemplars.  In general, however, 
> people are faced with the fact that, most of the time, things in the 
> world and human words don't match up unambiguously.  The world around 
> us, language, and minds are such variable crazy things, that it is 
> surprising that we can actually speak to one another.
>
> In the first half of 20th century, analytic philosophers tried to come 
> up with language based on definitions with "necessary and sufficient 
> conditions".  They failed.
>
> What are the necessary and sufficient conditions of being a "sport" 
> such that it includes skiing, baseball, underwater hockey, hula hoops 
> and tiddlywinks.
>
> What are chairs?  If the definition of a "chair" is "that which 
> supports human buttocks", then if I am sitting on an elephant, it must 
> be a chair.  Are all elephants chairs by virtue of my having sat on one?
>
> Except for a few very useful exemplars like TLUD, trying to put all 
> stoves into categories faces the same general problem of trying to 
> match up words (concepts) with groups of things.
>
> In 1953, Ludwig Wittgenstein published his "Philosophical 
> Investigations".  In it he argued that most categories denote things 
> grouped because they have "family resemblances" rather than definable 
> essences (see the attached cartoon).  Somehow, we seem to more-or-less 
> agree on what is a chair, or a sport, even if our language if vague.  
> We still manage to communicate.  (Amazingly, because no two human 
> minds have ever contain exactly the same "chair" thoughts.)
>
> In the face of this fog, science needs TLUDs.
>
> Soon, I hope, I am going to write a paper on my experiments on 
> gasification rate and TLUD reaction temperature.  My experiments were 
> conducted to make sure that I got TLUD conditions.  My paper is not 
> about a TLUD-like stove; is about a TLUD!!!   My job as a scientist is 
> conduct experiments that will contribute to building detailed TLUD 
> theories.  That way, we can make predictions.
>
>
>
> Cheers,
> Julien
>
> -- 
> Julien Winter
> Cobourg, ON, CANADA
>
>
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