Modelling of combustion and heat transfer in glass furnaces

Abstract

A mathematical model for the three-dimensional turbulent flow, combustion and radiative heat transfer for a glass furnace is described. Submodels for turbulence (k - ε), combustion and zone models for radiation are presented. Results for a high-temperature gas-fired glass furnace combustion chamber are given. Temperature, velocity and fuel/air mixing profiles are obtained. Heat-flux distributions to the glass melt are discussed. Also simple radiation models like the well-stirred and plug-flow zone models are used, results are compared with the complete radiation model. With the well-stirred model the effect of increasing gas emissivity could be quantified. Spectral effects in gas radiation are shown to be important. Including this in the well-stirred zone model showed that increasing roof emissivity can improve the energy efficiency of a high-temperature gas-fired glass furnace.