Radiation heat transfer within an optical fiber draw tower furnace

Study of the thermal transport and material flow processes associated with the drawing of optical fiber in a graphite draw furnace requires modeling of the heat transfer from the furnace wall. Previous work has shown that accurate knowledge of the furnace heater element axial temperature distribution is essential for proper modeling of the radiative transfer process. The present work is aimed at providing this information, as well as generating a set of data for the study of radiation exchange in the furnace cavity. The experimental procedure involved measuring the centerline temperature distribution in graphite and fused silica rods inserted into an optical fiber draw tower furnace. The temperature measurements were then used along with a model for radiative-convective heat transfer in the furnace in order to obtain the furnace temperature profile. This is an inverse problem since the centerline temperature in the rod is known whereas the furnace thermal conditions are not. The results obtained showed that the furnace temperature distribution was independent of rod material and size. The shape of the computed temperature distributions suggest that they can be well represented by a Gaussian function.