Combustion performance of an aluminum melting furnace operating with liquid fuel

• Autor(a) principal: Nieckele,Angela Ourivio
• Data de Publicação: 2010
• Outros Autores: Naccache,Mônica Feijó, Gomes,Marcos Sebastião de P
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1678-58782010000400005
• topic: combustion; industrial furnaces; liquid fuel

The characteristics associated with the delivery of the fuel to be used as the energy source in any industrial combustion equipment are of extreme importance, as for example, in improving the performance of the combustion process and in the preservation of the equipment. A clean and efficient combustion may be achieved by carefully selecting the fuel and oxidant, as well as the operational conditions of the delivery system for both. In the present work, numerical simulations were carried out using the commercial code FLUENT for analyzing some of the relevant operational conditions inside an aluminum reverb furnace employing liquid fuel and air as the oxidant. Different fuel droplets sizes as well as inlet droplet stream configurations were examined. These characteristics, associated with the burner geometry and the fuel dispersion and delivery system may affect the flame shape, and consequently the temperature and the heat flux distribution within the furnace. Among the results obtained in the simulations, it was shown the possible damages to the equipment, which may occur as a result of the combustion process, if the flame is too long or too intense and concentrated.