PAPER 21 – PREDICTION OF FURNACE HEAT TRANSFER WITH A THREE-DIMENSIONAL MATHEMATICAL MODEL

A general procedure for the computation of three-dimensional flows with recirculation, combustion and heat transfer has been recently developed by Patankar and Spalding [2,6]. The present paper describes an exercise wherein computations based on this procedure are made for the case of the experimental rectangular furnace of the International Flame Research Foundation, Holland. At IFRF, the furnace trials were carried out to provide data with a calorimetric hearth for testing mathematical models of furnaces (M-3A trials). Computations and comparison with experiment are made for the case of a tunnel burner operating on natural gas, firing parallel to the hearth as well as inclined to the hearth, at 25°. It is found that quite realistic predictions of flow and velocity patterns, temperature patterns and near-flux distributions are obtained with a single set of sub-models which describe turbulent exchange of momentum, mass and heat, and radiative exchange. While discrepancies with measurement exist, the comparison with experiment is encouraging. CALCUL DU TRANSFERT THERMIQUE DANS UN FOUR AVEC UN MODELE MATHEMATIQUE TRIDIMENSIONNEL