A CFD Model for the Direct Coupling of the Combustion Process and Glass Melting Flow Simulation in Glass Furnaces

The objectives of reducing and increasing pollutant emissions during the glass production process also apply to the glass industry, meaning that the accurate modeling of a glass furnace is of critical strategic value. In the available literature, several CFD studies have proposed various models with different levels of complexity. Two basic aspects are shared by the existing models, limiting their accuracy and their impact on furnace design: the combustion space is usually solved with reliance on simplified models (e.g., Flamelet and global kinetic mechanisms); and the glass tank is solved separately, using an iterative approach to couple two (or more) simulated domains. This work presents the development of an innovative CFD model to overcome these limitations and to perform accurate simulations of industrial glass furnaces. The reactive flow is solved using a reduced chemical kinetic mechanism and the EDC (eddy dissipation concept) turbulence–chemistry interaction model to properly reproduce the complex combustion development. The glass bath is solved as a laminar flow with the appropriate temperature-dependent glass properties. The two domains are simulated simultaneously and thermally coupled through an interface. This procedure allows for the more accurate calculation of the heat flow and the temperature distributions on the glass bath, accounting for their subsequent influence on the glass convective motions. The simulation of an existing glass furnace, along with selected comparisons with experimental data, are presented to demonstrate the validity of the proposed model. The developed model provides a contribution that allows us to advance the wider understanding of glass furnace dynamics.