Applied Thermal Engineering 30 (2010) 826832

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Numerical simulation of the ow streams behavior in a self-regenerative

crucible furnace
Francisco Cadavid *, Bernardo Herrera, Andrs Amell
Science and Technology of Gases and Rational Use of Energy Group, Faculty of Engineering, University of Antioquia, Calle 67 No. 53-108 Bloque 20-435, Medelln, Colombia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper presents a three dimensional numerical simulation with experimental validation of a gas-red
Received 13 August 2009 self-regenerative crucible furnace. Turbulence, radiation and chemical reactions are simulated using the
Accepted 13 December 2009 software Gambit V2 and Fluent V6.2. Different combustion models are used to assess their effects on the
Available online 16 December 2009
numerical results. Aerodynamics, temperature elds, species proles and emissions are compared with
the experimental data. The results indicate that ke RNG model predicts the formation of two concentric
Keywords: swirls: the rst one elevating up to the top of the furnace and the second one going down and reaching
Numerical simulation
the outlet. In addition, it was found that is important to inject the fuel using certain vertical inclination of
Self-regenerative burner
Crucible furnace
the nozzle in order to obtain a longer and ater ame. Finally, the use of PDF mixture fraction model for
Cyclone combustion chamber combustion causes overprediction of both temperature and CO, while Finite Rate/Eddy Dissipation model
is rougher for temperature and species prediction.
2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Industrial furnaces for heating processes at high temperature
usually have low levels of thermal efciency when heat recovery
systems are not implemented. Therefore, better technological
innovations to save energy are offered [1].
In developing countries like Colombia, small and medium
enterprises with high temperature processes, such as casting and
heat treatment, are characterized for having combustion and heat-
ing equipment with a high degree of technological obsolescence,
low thermal efciency and high pollutant emissions [1]. Therefore,
one of the technologies with the largest application potential in
enterprises with casting and heat treatment processes is a crucible
furnace with a thermal input lower or equal to 120 kW, and
equipped with an auto-regenerative burner. To design this kind
of furnaces a series of ow-dynamic and combustion phenomena
has to be examined to achieve reliability in the nal results, to low-
er the development time and manufacturing costs. On the other
hand, numerical simulation offers a signicant approximation to
the aerodynamical and combustion phenomena occurring inside
the furnace, which can not be observed experimentally [25].
Few works has been done to analyze thermal and chemical
behavior of melting furnaces using numerical simulations, but no
one of them examines the uidynamic, thermal and combustion
performance of a natural gas regenerative crucible furnace. Shibata
et al. have developed a compact self-regenerative gas-red burner
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +57 4 219 55 29; fax: +57 4 219 55 18.
E-mail address: fcadavid@jaibana.udea.edu.co (F. Cadavid).
system for crucible furnaces that can be used for melting non-fer-
rous metal; this crucible furnace uses a graphite or an iron pot. In
this system, the burner has two nozzles for air and gas injection
and it can change alternatively the side of the burner that is work-
ing in combustion mode [6]. They have obtained a at, long ame,
which is tangential to crucible. Also, they have demonstrated that
their burner saves about 35% of the total energy that enter into the
system and the CO and NOx emissions remain lower than 200 ppm.
Nevertheless, they do not report numerical simulations of their
device.
Kirpo et al. and Baake et al. have studied the turbulent metallic
ow in an electric induction crucible furnace using Large Eddy
Simulation (LES); the simulated the motion of the molten metal in-
side the crucible [7,8]. Their results have shown that LES model can
be effectively used for investigation of species transport in the mol-
ten metal using the particle tracing method.
On the other hand, Nieckele et al. have simulated different bur-
ner congurations in an aluminum remelting reverb furnace that
uses staged oxi-combustion, using ke standard model for turbu-
lence and the Finite Rate/Eddy Dissipation model for combustion
[9]. From the results obtained, it can be concluded that the staged
combustion process with a divergent jet presented the best cong-
uration, since the ame length was not too long to damage the
refractory wall.
In this work the wall temperature distribution, outlet emissions,
uidynamics and combustion behavior in an auto-regenerative
crucible furnace is studied by comparison between the numerical
results and the experimental data. Numerical simulation has been
achieved using two combustion models in steady state: PDF

1359-4311/$ - see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2009.12.011
 F. Cadavid et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 30 (2010) 826832
Nomenclature
k turbulent kinetic energy, m2/s2
mixture fraction and Finite Rate/Eddy Dissipation. Both of the
models have different considerations about the combustion reac-
tions, this approach allows the identication of the main phenom-
ena governing the combustion progress inside the furnace.
2. Numerical simulation
2.1. System description
The auto-regenerative crucible furnace simulated in this study
uses Natural Gas as fuel and is equipped with a self-regenerative
burner. The composition of the fuel is shown in Table 1. The fur-
nace has a thermal input of 120 kW and a melting capacity of
200 kg/h of aluminum. The crucible furnace is 1.0 m diameter
and 1.2 m high. The crucible furnace is equipped with:
 Two thermal regenerators composed of cordierite honeycomb
arrays, where the air to be preheated and the combustion prod-
ucts pass through alternately.
 Two fuel nozzles located in the middle of the rectangular air
nozzle at both sides of the burner. The preheated combustion
air ow that comes from the regenerator is mixed with the main
fuel ow at the combustion zone to form a diffusion ame. In
this system, the main fuel ow is injected axially and transver-
sally into the air ow (Fig. 1).
 Three air nozzles smaller than the main air nozzle are located
around that one. About 20% of combustion air enters into the
combustion chamber through these nozzles. Two of the three
nozzles are located upside from the main air nozzle (Fig. 1).
These nozzles help to stabilize the ame and to lower the NOx
formation through staging combustion [10].
 A furnace with a crucible inside, where the melting process of
metal occurs as a result of the convection and radiation heat
transfer from the combustion products and the inner furnace
walls to the pot.
During an operation cycle of 30 s, one burner works in combus-
tion mode with a long at ame which rounds up the crucible.
Meanwhile, the burner on the opposite side works in the suction
mode in order to evacuate the hot combustion gases from the fur-
nace. These hot gases heat up the ceramic honeycomb regenerator.
In the following cycle, the burner which was acting in suction
mode works in ame mode. The combustion air enters in this bur-
ner and it is preheated with the heat accumulated in the ceramic
honeycomb during the last cycle. On the other hand, the burner
which worked in combustion mode in the last cycle starts to suck
the hot gases in the new cycle of 30 s. The interchange between
burners is performed during the entire the melting process. So, in
Table 1
Composition of the fuel used in experimental conditions.
Component
Methane
Ethane
Propane
Nitrogen
Carbon dioxide
827
Greek symbol
e turbulence dissipation rate, m2/s3
this batch furnace, there is a transient thermal start-up, during
the start-up the thermal load is heated up to fusion temperature,
after that, the operation continues being pseudo-stable due to
the alternation needed for heat regeneration.
During the simulation the pass of the air through the honey-
comb regenerative was not included. Nevertheless, combustion
air was preheated up to 600 C which is approximately the inlet
temperature measured at the exit of the regenerator. On the other
hand, the simulation considered steady state ow, combustion and
transport for one of the 30 s period of heating, i.e. only one burner
works in combustion mode and the other one in suction mode,
without interchange of the operation mode, Also, the aerodynam-
ical behavior of the combustion process inside the furnace was
simulated. The properties and motion of the molten metal into
the crucible was not taken into account.
The combustion space (combustion chamber) is annular be-
tween the outer wall of the crucible pot and the internal side of
the cast furnace, with a minimum and maximum width of 80
and 190 mm, respectively. A schematic view of how the burner
works during an operation cycle is shown in Fig. 2.
Two convergence criteria were used to determine the end of
every numerical simulation: the rst one was to obtain an asymp-
totic behavior of continuity, momentum, energy and radiation
residuals. The continuity and momentum residual reached a value
in the order of 10 2 and energy and radiation residual reached a
value in the order of 10 5. The second criterion was to check the
mass and energy balance. In every simulation, the difference in
the mass and energy balance were 3  10 5 kg/s and 0.4 kW,
respectively.
To study the aerodynamic behavior in the auto-regenerative
crucible furnace, the wall temperature prole and outlet emissions
were simulated, analyzed and compared with experimental data.
Experimentally, the wall temperature has been measured using k
type thermocouples located ush to the wall. Species concentra-
tion on a dry basis at the outlet has been determined by means
of a gas analyzer SICK MAIHAK S710, which measures CH4, CO2
and CO by Non-Dispersive Infra Red principle and O2 by the para-
magnetic principle. NO concentration has been measured using the
chemiluminescence principle with a Thermo Environmental
Instruments 42C Analyzer; every sample was collected at 80 C
with a simple tube probe and then it was cooled in a conditioning
unit, which removes dust and water from the sample.
Three tests were conducted to quantify the uncertainty of the
experimental measurements. These uncertainties are measured
with the standard deviation and they are reported as error bars
in Figs. 58.
2.2. Meshing of the control volume
In Fig. 1 the mesh used for the crucible furnace and fuel injector
is shown, as well the location of the boundary conditions is pre-
sented. Mesh near the air and fuel injection was rened with a
% volume smaller grid spacing in order to capture better the mixing between
97.76 the reactives in that zone. In this simulation 407,000 cells were
0.38 used. In a subsequent simulation, a more rened mesh of
0.2 660,000 cells was used to nd out the error associated with grid
1.29
spacing. This last rening was made in the zone near to the burner
0.37
where the mixing and most reactions occur. In both meshes,
828 F. Cadavid et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 30 (2010) 826832

Fig. 1. Mesh and components of the auto-regenerative crucible furnace.

Fig. 2. Schematic view of the self-regenerative burner operation during a work cycle.

equi-angle skewness and aspect ratio were lower than 0.905 and
15, respectively. Although it is well known that a study of grid
dependence in a numerical simulation has established rules such
as three progressively ner meshes, a third mesh was not made be-
cause the complexity of the furnace geometry.
Fig. 3 shows a comparison of velocity proles for both grid spac-
ing (407,000 and 660,000 cells) in three reference lines or posi-
tions: one near of the injection nozzle, other near of the outlet
nozzle and other in the side opposed to the burner (reference lines
2, 3 and 4 in Fig. 4). It is important to note that these results are
obtained before performing a full simulation, i.e. without taking
into account the chemical reactions.
In the zone near to the fuel and air injection nozzles (at a fur-
nace height of 37 mm), the differences between velocities magni-
tudes, on reference line 2, obtained with the two meshes under Fig. 3. Comparison of velocity proles between rened and non-rened mesh of
analysis, was 31%. Even though this difference is not negligible, the crucible furnace along reference lines.
 F. Cadavid et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 30 (2010) 826832
Fig. 4. Path lines of the ow inside the crucible furnace.
Fig. 5. Wall Temperature prole on reference line 1 shown in Fig. 3.
Fig. 6. CO2 y O2 concentration at the outlet.
as it was said before, a third mesh was not made because the com-
plexities of the furnace geometry, mainly in the zone near the fuel
829
Fig. 7. CO concentration at the oulet.
Fig. 8. NO concentration at the oulet.
and air injection nozzles. Besides, it can be observed, in Fig. 3, that
all the curves show the same tendencies.
In the bottom of the reference line 2, there are several transi-
tions between high and low velocities as the reference line goes
through the fuel and air streams. This transition between maxi-
mum and minimum values of velocity is due to difference in the
momentum of the jets in the injection, i.e. the fuel jet has an axial
component of velocity which is larger than the air velocity. In the
rest of the reference line 2 the velocity is approximately constant
and it has almost the same value for both grid spacing. Only in
the top of the furnace, a signicant difference in the tendency of
the velocity was found. The rened mesh shows that the velocity
falls down almost 73% in magnitude, and then it rises up and nal-
ly become zero in the wall. In the no-rened mesh, there is no
change in the tendency of the velocity and this only becomes zero
in the wall. However, those differences are not important because
in this zone there is not a signicant progress of the reactions.
In the reference lines 3 and 4, the velocity proles are very sim-
ilar for both grid spacing and no-signicant differences have been
found out. The grid spacing of 407,000 cells was chosen to develop
the numerical simulations because it consumes lower computation
time and it has the same tendency of velocity proles.
The CPU time required for each computation is about 120 h
using a Core 2 Quad, 2.4 GHz processor, 4 GB RAM memory using
a personal computer.
2.3. Boundary conditions
Table 2 presents the boundary conditions used to perform the
numerical simulations and the experiments. In Table 2, the crucible
830 F. Cadavid et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 30 (2010) 826832
Table 2
Boundary and initial conditions.
Boundary condition type Parameter Value
Air inlet Mass ow 0.0486 kg/s
Preheating temperature 600 C
NG injection Mass ow 0.0018 kg/s
Temperature 30 C
Exhaust gases Pressure 15 mbar
Crucible wall Temperature 750 C
Furnace external wall External convective heat 10 W/m2 K
transfer coefcient
External temperature 30 C
Equivalence ratio 0.63
wall temperature has been assumed constant. This is because in
steady state, temperature of the melting metal has a constant va-
lue, so it is reasonable to suppose that crucible wall has a constant
temperature. The external convective heat transfer coefcient was
xed in 10 W/m2 K, which is representative for the heat exchange
between outer furnace wall and a quiet surrounding.
2.4. Numerical models
The combustion simulation process initiates by solving mass
conservation, species, momentum, energy, ideal gas and chemical
kinetic reaction equations. A second order upwind scheme is em-
ployed for the convection terms and a second order central-differ-
ence scheme for the diffusion terms of transport equations [11]. It
is important to establish that the focus of this paper is not to pres-
ent a detailed description of the models used for numerical simu-
lation, therefore detailed equations are not shown. Nevertheless, if
the reader wants to know more about the numerical models used
in this work, we recommend FLUENT Users Guide [11] and the
book by Thierry Poinsot and Denis Veynante [12] for more details.
Numerical simulation was performed using the commercial
software, FLUENT V6.2, which uses the nite volume method to
solve the integral form of the transport equations. For the solution
of the equations, a segregated method was used, which consist in
solving the equations in a sequential mode for each iteration. The
process starts with the actualization of the nodal values of interest,
then solves the momentum equations and veries the mass conti-
nuity. If it is not veried, the pressure correction equation is solved
by using the SIMPLE method until mass continuity equation is sat-
ised [11]. Subsequently, energy, species and turbulence equations
are solved. Finally, it is decided if the process can be nished or a
new iteration has to be started by checking the convergence
criterion.
Two models has been employed to couple turbulence and kinet-
ics: A two steps and six species (CH4, O2, CO2, CO, H2O y N2) reac-
tion mechanism proposed by Westbrook and Dryer [13] was used
to simulate the methane oxidation process with the Finite Rate/
Eddy Dissipation (FR/ED) model, which is a modication of the
model proposed by Magnussen and Hjertager to take into account
chemical kinetic and turbulent mixing in the reaction [14]. The
other model used was the PDF, which utilizes the mixture fraction
to calculate the species composition and temperature supposing
equilibrium mixing [11].
To solve the component of the viscous stresses in the momen-
tum equation, it was necessary to apply the ke RNG, which is use-
ful to simulate swirl ows [11]. The Reynold Average Navier-Stokes
(RANS) model was preferred over the LES model because RANS
model is more used in numerical simulation in combustion devices
of industrial scale, like the furnace studied in this work. Also, RANS
is faster than LES to do calculations and needs a less dense mesh-
ing, so computational cost of the numerical simulations is lower.
Radiation is simulated with the Discrete Ordinates (OD) method,
which solves the Radiative Transfer Equation (RTE) for a nite num-
ber of discrete solid angles, each associated with a vector direction
xed in the global Cartesian system. During the simulation four
vector directions were used [15]. The absorptivity of the gaseous
medium was simulated with the Weighted Sum of Gas Grey Model
(WGSSM), which considers water and carbon dioxide in the
combustion products as grey gases in the radiation spectrum.
NO calculation has been made during the post-processing stage
of the simulation, using the Zeldovitch thermal NO formation
mechanism [16], and the Prompt NO formation proposed by Feni-
more [17]. Here, only the production of NO is taken into account
because the NOx emitted to the atmosphere from combusting fuels
consists mostly of NO, with much lower concentrations of NO2 and
N2O [18]. Zeldovich NO is evaluated by applying the quasi-steady
state approximation for N species to the extended Zeldovich mech-
anisms with the rate constants used by Blauwens et al. [19], Flower
et al. [20] and Monat et al. [21]. The O concentration required is gi-
ven by Westenbergs expression [22]. Prompt NO is predicted using
the models given by De Soete [23].
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Aerodynamic behavior
Fig. 4 shows the uid motion inside the combustion chamber
using path lines colored by temperature. The air velocity in the
main and the auxiliary inlets is 14 and 18 m/s, respectively. The
Reynolds numbers for this ows are 16,237 and 9776, which indi-
cates conditions of turbulent ow. Accordingly, the election of a
turbulence model is adequate to simulate the aerodynamical
behavior. On the other hand, the assumption of steady state in
the numerical simulation is according with the conditions in which
the melting process is achieved. The unsteady state of the process
exists mainly in the initial heating of the crucible and the internal
wall of the furnace. During the process of metal melting, a pseudo-
steady state exists since the heat transfer rate to the load is
constant.
In Fig. 4, it can be observed that the uid particles are divided
into two streams, probably due to radial and tangential injection
from the fuel nozzle: a rst stream arises to the top of the furnace
and reacts while ascending. The largest temperature is in the bot-
tom and it decreases as the ue gas heat up the crucible. The other
stream does not ascend, and it only reacts at the lowest region of
the furnace. The latest is evidenced for a high temperature zone
(around 1800 C) between inlet and outlet around the crucible at
the bottom of the furnace. This is not a good performance because
two reasons: high temperature could deteriorate the material of
the nozzles that inject air and gas in the burner side where ue
gas evacuation is taking place; also, high temperature ue gases
cause an important decrease in furnace efciency. Fortunately,
there is auto-regenerative heat recuperation to preheat air com-
bustion in experimental conditions, which improves considerably
furnace efciency to values around 70%.
It is important to notice that the ke RNG model predicts the
uid motion as expected, i.e. when air is injected tangentially into
a large cylindrical chamber produces a swirl, which is known as a
cyclone combustion chamber [24]. The conguration of this fur-
nace generates two swirls, the rst one rising up until the top of
the furnace and the second one going down reaching the outlet.
In Fig. 4 it can be seen that the hottest uid particles rise up near
the external wall of the combustion chamber, while the coldest
ones go down near the crucible external wall. This orderly behavior
was unexpected and we are still trying to explain it. Unfortunately,
there is not experimental evidence of this phenomenon since none
optical instrument was available to study the reaction zone and the
uidynamic proles.
 F. Cadavid et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 30 (2010) 826832
One of the most important characteristics was to obtain a long,
at and high ame in order to cover a large crucible surface for
enhancing the heat transfer to the load. The best ame shape ob-
tained in this study was using air nozzles with vertical inclination.
In turn, radial injection of the fuel helps to make a wider ame in
vertical direction, while axial injection favors a larger ame that
surrounds the crucible.
Concerning pressure drops between inlet and outlet is in the or-
der of 22 mbar. This pressure drop is low and easily satised by a
commercial blower of 7 HP, which supplies air for combustion and
for the ejection system.
3.2. Thermal and chemical behavior
Heat transfer in the furnace has been characterized with
numerical simulation. According to the numerical data, there is a
radiation exchange between the furnace wall and the crucible wall.
The radiation ux to crucible wall is around 58.2 kW/m2. Also, the
convective heat transfer to furnace wall is around 2.1 kW/m2. Com-
paring these values taken from the simulation, it is clear that radi-
ation is the dominant heat transfer mechanism toward the load in
the crucible.
On the other hand, numerical simulation results show a consid-
erable difference in the thermal and chemical behavior between
the two combustion models used. In Fig. 5, the inner wall furnace
temperature prole along the reference line 1 can be seen (see
Fig. 4), while Table 3 shows numerical and experimental species
concentration at the outlet. The wall temperature prole has been
taken in the opposite side of the burner, where the combustion
reactions were expected to be almost complete. Variability of every
furnace wall temperature was approximately 68 C around the
average temperature shown in Fig. 5. This variability is due to tem-
poral change in the ue gases temperature between the start and
the end of every operation cycle. Nevertheless, this variability rep-
resents only 6% of the average temperature on the furnace wall.
The uncertainty associated with the measurements that were car-
ried out with thermocouples was around 5 C, i.e., 0.4% of the aver-
age temperature on the furnace wall.
Fig. 5 shows that temperature prediction with model FR/ED is
closer to the experimental results than the data obtained with
the PDF model. Nevertheless, FR/ED underestimates the tempera-
ture in every point, which can be due to the tendency of FR/ED
to minimize both the turbulence and the kinetic rate. Also, as the
default constants of the FR/ED mode were used, they may not be
not be suitable for the reactions when the reactants are diluted
with combustion products. On the other hand, the PDF model over-
predicts the temperature more than 500 C. However, despite of
the differences between ame and ue gases temperature around
500 C, both numerical and experimental wall temperature proles
are very uniform, with temperature gradient smaller than 150 C.
This is a good characteristic because it contributes to an uniform
heating and casting of the load inside the crucible.
Fig. 6 shows that CO2 prediction of FR/ED model is more
approximate to experimental value than the PDF prediction, and
both of predicted values are in standard deviation interval of the
experimental data. Respect to O2, the prediction with both models
Table 3
Numerical and experimental emissions at the furnace outlet.
Species FR/ED Experimental
CO2 (% dry) 7.84% 7.47 0.87%
O2 (% dry) 6.84% 7.68 1.48%
CO (ppm dry) 261 212 167
NO (ppm dry, 3% O2) 457 95
CH4 (% dry) 0.27% 0.00 0.00%
831
was accordingly with the experimental data. Nonetheless, Figs. 7
and 8 show a very important difference of CO and NO prediction
between the two combustion models.
Considering that FR/ED model takes into account a reacting ow
governed by the largest reaction rate between Arrhenius and tur-
bulent mixing, the better prediction of this model implies that
reactions inside the furnace occur in a ow where, in spite of the
high turbulence, the chemical kinetic is low. This can be explained
because the high dilution of the reactant mixture with ue gases,
which slow down the Arrhenius rate due to the addition of inert
gases like N2, CO2 and H2O. The dilution is a consequence of the
swirl ow around the crucible, which favors high recirculation ra-
tios. On the other hand, dilution diminishes local temperature
peaks and decrease thermal NOx formation by Zeldovitch mecha-
nism [16]. This process is similar to exhaust gas recirculation
(EGR).
The temperature and CO overprediction of the PDF model is
probably due to the lack of this model to take into account the con-
tribution of chemical kinetic to the reaction. This model assumes
that turbulent mixing is the controlling stage of the reactions
and calculates the equilibrium composition and temperature of
the mixture fraction. Due to inert dilution, the reacting ow is
far from the equilibrium, so reacting ow temperature is lower
than the equilibrium one. Respect to CO overprediction, it seems
like PDF model consider a rich reactive mixture, mainly in the low-
est zone of the furnace. If only turbulent mixing reaction rate is
considered, the concentration of CO is high everywhere mixture
fraction correspond to a rich fuel mixture. This does not occur with
the FR/ED model since it also considers the Arrhenius reaction rate.
Similarly, NO prediction with FR/ED model was better than PDF
(Fig. 8), although the predicted value was almost ve times larger
than the experimental one. The overprediction of PDF model in this
case, is due mainly to the higher temperature and its consequent
NO formation by the thermal mechanism. Here is important to
emphasize the low NO concentration in experimental conditions,
which is lower than 100 ppm. This supports the hypothesis of
the establishment of an EGR behavior in the furnace, which is char-
acterized precisely for low NO emissions.
4. Conclusions
From the numerical simulation and comparison with experi-
mental data of a gas-red self-regenerative crucible furnace using
two different combustion models it can be concluded:
 The ke RNG model predicts the uid motion as expected. The
conguration of this furnace generates two swirls. The rst
one, composed of the hottest gases, which rises up near the
external wall of the combustion chamber, while the second
one, composed of the coldest gases, goes down near the crucible
external wall.
 According to the numerical simulation, radiation is the main
heat transfer mechanism toward the load in the crucible, and
it exceeds too much the convection. Numerical calculations
show that radiative heat ux is larger than convective one.
 The swirl ow originates high recirculation of ue gases into the
reaction zone (EGR). This causes a decreasing of the chemical
kinetic, and Arrhenius rate becomes signicant in the reaction
control. The temperature and species prediction with FR/ED
PDF model were more approximate to the experimental data. This
6.62% better prediction is probably due to the capacity of the FR/ED
7.64% model to take into account the Arrhenius and turbulent mixing
10 636 rates to control reaction progress. PDF model overpredicts the
2016
temperature and CO emissions because it only considers turbu-
0.00%
lent mixing as the govern stage of the reaction.
832 F. Cadavid et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 30 (2010) 826832
 Wall temperature proles are very uniform, with small gradi-
ents, in spite of the differences between ame and ue gases
temperature. This is a good characteristic because it contributes
to a more uniform heating and casting of the load inside the cru-
cible. On the other hand, low CO and NO emissions is a signi-
cant contribution in environmental terms.
 The area of air nozzles determines the inlet velocity of the reac-
tive mixture into the combustion cavity. Therefore, ame stabil-
ity is in direct relation to area of air injection, as well as the ue
gas recirculation into the reaction zone to get lower NOx emis-
sions. On the other hand, the effective volume to achieve com-
bustion reactions must have a size enough to avoid ame
extinction. In this sense, numerical simulation can be used to
improve ame stability and pollutant emissions since it is possi-
ble to vary geometrical parameter in the burner nozzles and
dimensions of the furnace to establish their inuence on the glo-
bal performance.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the nancial support of
Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje SENA, Empresas Pblicas
de Medellin EPM, Universidad de Antioquia, Estrategia para
la Sostenibilidad de Grupos A1 y A, ao 2009/2010 to the project
Desarrollo, evaluacin y demostracin de un horno de crisol auto-
regenerativo para procesos de alta temperatura en PYMES and
Hugo Burbano, Jhon Pareja and Andrs Colorado for edition and
translation support.
References
[1] A. Amell, F. Cadavid, H. Copete, Estrategias para la Penetracin del Gas Natural
en PYMES con Procesos a Alta Temperatura, Universidad de Antioquia, The
Final Report, Prepared for The Empresas Pblicas de Medelln, 2006.
[2] E.N. Linga, E. Metcalfe, S. Nadarajan, M.K. Patel, A numerical simulation of the
NBS cup furnace toxicity test, Fire Safety Journal 19 (1992) 279.
[3] B. He, L. Zhu, J. Wang, S. Liu, B. Liu, Y. Cui, L. Wang, G. Wei, Computational uid
dynamics based retrots to reheater panel overheating of No. 3 boiler of
Dagang Power Plant, Comput. Fluids 36 (2007) 435.
[4] A. Abbassi, K. Khoshmanesh, Numerical simulation and experimental analysis
of an industrial glass melting furnace, Appl. Therm. Eng. 28 (2008) 450.
[5] M. Amelio, P. Morrone, Numerical evaluation of the energetic performances of
structured and random packed beds in regenerative thermal oxidizers, Appl.
Therm. Eng. 27 (2007) 762.
[6] H. Shibata, Y. Shimizu, S. Yamagami, Development of a self-regenerative
burner for non-ferrous metal melting pot furnaces, vol. 23, World Gas
Conference, Amsterdam, 2006.
[7] M. Kirpo, A. Jakovics, E. Baake, B. Nacke, LES modelling of recirculated ows in
crucible furnaces. in: Proceeding of the International Symposium on
Turbulence, Heat and Mass Transfer, Dubrovnik, Croatia, September 2529,
2006.
[8] E. Baake, A. Umbrashko, B. Nacke, A. Jakovics, Simulation of turbulent metal
ows, GAMM Mitteilungen 30 (1) (2007) 133.
[9] A. Nieckele, M. Naccache, M. Gomes, Numerical modeling of an industrial
aluminum melting furnace, Trans. ASME 126 (2004) 72.
[10] J.A. Wnning, J.G. Wnning, Flameless oxidation to reduce thermal NO
formation, Progr. Energy Combust. Sci. 23 (1997) 87.
[11] FLUENT 6.2. Users guide. Fluent Inc., 2006.
[12] T. Poinsot, D. Veynante, Theoretical and Numerical Combustion, second ed.,
R.T. Edwards Inc., Philadelphia, PA, 2005.
[13] C.K. Westbrook, F.L. Dryer, Chemical kinetic modeling of hydrocarbon
combustion, Progr. Energy Combust. Sci. 10 (1984) 1.
[14] B.F. Magnussen, B.H. Hjertager, On mathematical modeling of turbulent
combustion with special emphasis on soot formation and combustion, Proc.
Combust. Inst. 16 (1976) 719.
[15] E.H. Chui, G.D. Raithby, Computation of radiant heat transfer on a non-
orthogonal mesh using the nite-volume method, Numer. Heat Trans. 23 (B)
(1993) 269.
[16] J.A. Miller, C. Bowman, Mechanism and modeling of nitrogen chemistry in
combustion, Progr. Energy Combust. Sci. 15 (4) (1989) 287.
[17] C.P. Fenimore, Formation of nitric oxide in premixed hydrocarbon ames, Proc.
Combust. Inst. 13 (1971) 373.
[18] R. Kurose, H. Makino, A. Suzuki, Numerical analysis of pulverized coal
combustion characteristics using advanced low NOx Burner, Fuel 83 (2004)
693.
[19] J. Blauwens, B. Smets, J. Peeters, Mechanism of prompt no formation in
hydrocarbon ames, Proc. Combust. Inst. 16 (1977) 1055.
[20] W.L. Flower, R.K. Hanson, C.H. Kruger, Kinetics of the reaction of nitric oxide
with hydrogen, Proc. Combust. Inst. 15 (1975) 823.
[21] J.P. Monat, R.K. Hanson, C.H. Kruger, Shock tube determination of the rate
coefcient for the reaction N2 + O ? NO + N, Proc. Combust. Inst. 17 (1979)
543.
[22] A.A. Westenberg, Kinetic of NO and CO in lean premixed hydrocarbon-air
ames, Combust. Sci. Technol. 4 (1971) 59.
[23] G.G. De Soete, Overall reaction rates of NO and N2 formation from fuel
nitrogen, Proc. Combust. Inst. 15 (1975) 1093.
[24] N. Syred, J.M. Ber, Combustion in swirling ows: a review, Combust. Flame 23
(1974) 143.