NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF COMBUSTION IN A GLASS MELTING FURNACE: INFLUENCE OF SPECTRAL RADIATION MODELS

Thermal radiation serves as the main heat transfer mechanism in the glass melting process and plays a critical role in shaping flame behavior within the combustion chamber. To achieve accurate simulations of glass melting furnaces, precise modeling of radiation is crucial. This research examines the influence of the Rank-Correlated Spectral Line-based Weighted Sum of Gray Gases (RC-SLW) model on flame characteristics and radiative heat transfer in an industrial glass furnace. The combustion process is simulated using a steady partially premixed diffusion flamelet model, the Moss-Brookes mechanism for predicting soot formation and oxidation, and the k-ω SST turbulence model. The RCSLW spectral radiation model is incorporated into ANSYS Fluent through a user-defined function to evaluate the impact of spectral radiation on furnace performance. Two distinct cases are analyzed: in one set, a constant glass surface temperature is assumed, while the other incorporates a one-dimensional model to simulate the behavior of the molten glass layer. This comparative approach enables a more comprehensive assessment of the radiative and convective heat transfer within the furnace. Results show that RC-SLW models outperform WSGG models by capturing the measured temperature profiles but in simulations energy efficiency of the WSGG models are better than RC-SLW. Outlet heat flux increases in the RC-SLW compared to WSGG models. Temperature profiles from the RC-SLW cases better align with probe measurements, particularly near mid-furnace positions, emphasizing the model’s improved accuracy in capturing radiative heat transfer and soot radiation effects.