FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present subject matter relates generally to cooktop appliances and more particularly to gas burner assemblies for cooktop appliances.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Gas burners are commonly used on the cooktops of household gas cooking appliances including e.g., range ovens and cooktops built into cabinetry. For example, gas cooktops traditionally have at least one gas burner positioned at a cooktop surface for use in heating or cooking an object, such as a cooking utensil and its contents. Control knobs are typically used to adjust the power level of the heating element, e.g., the amount of fuel directed to the burner, and thus the amount of heat delivered by the gas burner.

Normally aspirated gas burners rely on the energy available in the form of pressure from the fuel supplied to the gas burner to entrain air for combustion. Because the nominal pressure in households is relatively low, there is a practical limit to the amount of primary air a normally aspirated gas burner can entrain. Introducing a fan or another forced air supply into a gas burner assembly may improve the mixture of fuel and air for improved operation at higher outputs, with shorter flames and improved stability, and with improved efficiency. Forced air burners often use tall, narrow, and closely spaced burner ports to minimize the burner footprint and flame lengths, thereby improving heat transfer efficiency.

However, commonly used methods of manufacturing burner heads have limited ability to accommodate such high aspect ratio burner ports. For example, when die casting a burner head, the dies used to produce the burner ports would have very thin walls and would lack the strength and wear properties to withstand the stresses of injecting molten metals. Similarly, forging methods would require dies having long, thin projections too fragile to form the high aspect ratio burner ports.

Accordingly, an improved gas burner assembly is desirable. More particularly, a gas burner assembly including an easily manufactured forced air burner having tall, narrow burner ports would be particularly beneficial.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Aspects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the following description, or may be apparent from the description, or may be learned through practice of the invention.

In one exemplary embodiment, a gas burner assembly for a cooktop appliance is provided. The gas burner assembly defines an axial direction, a radial direction perpendicular to the axial direction, and a circumferential direction extending around the axial direction. The gas burner assembly includes a plurality of flame ports arranged in an annular array and defining a flame ring of the gas burner assembly. Each flame port of the plurality of flame ports is collectively defined by and between an outer ring and an inner ring. The outer ring and the inner ring are concentrically aligned and concentrically mated so as to define the plurality of flame ports which extend radially between the inner ring and the outer ring.

In another exemplary embodiment, a cooktop appliance is provided. The cooktop appliance includes a top panel and a gas burner assembly positioned on the top panel. The gas burner assembly defines an axial direction, a radial direction perpendicular to the axial direction, and a circumferential direction extending around the axial direction. The gas burner assembly includes a plurality of flame ports which are arranged in an annular array and which define a flame ring of the gas burner assembly. Each flame port of the plurality of flame ports is collectively defined by and between an outer ring and an inner ring. The outer ring and the inner ring are concentrically aligned and concentrically mated so as to define the plurality of flame ports which extend radially between the inner ring and the outer ring.

These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following description and appended claims. The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

