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The gas fired pottery kiln design and use for schools

University of British Columbia

At the time of publication of this thesis little if any reliable technical data was available on the design, construct ion and operation of gas fired pottery kilns. A few publications have some information but for the most part very little information on the proportional relationships of the various' aspects of gas kiln designs are available. If one was to use only the information available in previous publications, inefficient, unsafe and illegally built kilns could easily be manufactured. Students, teachers and various public institutions are finding it necessary to design, build and operate gas kilns to fulfill the education of their students or fully explain the traditional methods of combustion firing and its unique results. It becomes more apparent that guidelines are necessary so that an efficient, safe and inexpensive kiln can be built and utilized without hampering the usefulness of a variety of designs available. This search for information about kiln design and construction had two main directions, the author consulted authorities having jurisdiction over gas kilns in British Columbia and Alberta and secondly he built and tested kilns using the data collected. These two sources of information were compared in relevant locations to publications available up to publication time. For the most part the investigation into kiln operation comes from informal instruction from a number of successful kiln builders and operators and provincial gas inspectors. It has been the researcher's finding that there is a very strong indication that the parameters given are a reliable and useful guide to safe, efficient and pollution controlled kiln design. The main parts of kiln design seem to be dimensional and dynamically interrelated and the parameters of design have shown a very high improvement in efficiency and pollution control which are important benefits. The dynamics of kiln design are only preliminary and broad in this thesis. Much more could be done with closer testing using more elaborate equipment and controls and with the guidelines used from this paper and further investigation even further improvements in design parameters may improve the efficiency and safety of future kilns. This thesis is designed to serve as a handbook which is the result of applied research. The thesis is set out in three parts. A brief essay establishing a rational for having a gas kiln, the model for designing a gas fired pottery kiln, and lastly examples of research and kiln firing logs from kilns designed using the model. Methods of construction, brick laying application of insulation and arch construction are not covered in this paper as they are well covered in the Olsen and Rhodes books. (see bibliography)

Text

2010-02-18

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/20427

Education

University of British Columbia

Graduate