Numerical study of fluid flow and heat transfer behaviors in a physical model similar in shape to an actual glass melting furnace and its experimental verification

Abstract

In this study, a three dimensional numerical model based on the SOLA-VOF method, which incorporates a Quasi-two Phase method to consider the gas bubbling phenomena, was developed to investigate the fluid flow and heat transfer behaviors in a glass melting furnace. A reduced physical model with heating electrodes and air bubbling devices was also constructed to validate the numerical model. The reduced physical model was made of an acrylic tank similar in shape to an actual glass melting furnace, but reduced to one-tenth in size. The gas flow rate was determined at 6.67 × 10-7 Nm 3/s by the similarity conversions. The electrode temperatures were set between 298 K to 373 K. The flow trajectories of tracer particles and temperature field were measured to validate the accuracy and reliability of the numerical model. The results show that the temperature and trajectories of tracer particles predicted by the numerical model were consistent with experimental observations/ measurements from the physical model. © 2010 The Japan Institute of Metals.