Prediction of the flow, reaction and heat transfer in an oxy‐fuel glass furnace

Abstract

A three‐dimensional computer simulation of a combustion chamber used in the glass production industry is presented. A numerical solution technique is used to solve the governing time‐averaged partial differential equation and the physical modelling for turbulence, combustion and thermal radiation. A two‐equation turbulence model is employed along with a combustion model based on a fast kinetics statistical approach. A radiation model is used along with the Hottel mixed grey gas model. To solve the governing differential equations an implicit technique of finite‐difference kind is applied. The economy of the computations is very considerably enhanced by the separate calculation of the burner and bulk glass combustion chamber regions, in a manner which takes account of the differing physical nature of their flows. The burner outlet region is calculated with an axisymmetric model. Such two‐dimensional calculations allowed a good resolution of the burner outlet, and provide the inlet conditions for the three‐dimensional calculations of the glass furnace. The prediction procedure is applied to an industrial glass furnace, which operates with oxy‐fuel conditions. Measurements of mean gas temperature and concentrations were performed at different locations in the furnace. The calculated flame length, temperature field and concentrations are with satisfactory agreement with the measured ones.