Computational Analysis of Thermal Process of a Regenerative Aluminum Melting Furnace

To understand melting behavior of a regenerative aluminum melting furnace, a computational fluid dynamics based on process model was developed and integrated with user-developed melting model, oxide loss model, burner reversing and burning capacity model. Simulations of melting process were made to model the flow and thermal phenomena in such a furnace. The rules of thermal process on melting behavior are obtained: Aluminum temperature increases slowly with melting time in solid-liquid zone, but rises faster when leaving solid-liquid phase lines. Furnace temperature first increases with melting time, then stepwise decreases, lastly periodically increases. Oxide weight parabolically increases with melting time. Aluminum temperature parabolically increases with oxide thickness. In early meltingstage, flue gas temperature reduces with liquid fraction, yet in later melting stage increases. Oxygen concentration in flue gas increases with liquid fraction in early melting stage yet remains constant in later melting stage.