Title: CFD-based process modelling of a rotary furnace for aluminium scrap melting

Authors: Bo Zhou, Yongxiang Yang, Markus A. Reuter, Udo M.J. Boin

Addresses: ABB Lummus Heat Transfer BV, Oostduinlaan 75, 2596 JJ, Den Haag, The Netherlands. ' Department of Material Science and Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 2, 2628 CD, Delft, The Netherlands. ' Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia; Ausmelt Ltd., Dandenong 3175, Victoria, Australia. ' Feldstrasse 8a, 61440 Oberursel, Germany

Abstract: A Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)-based process model of a rotary furnace for aluminium scrap melting was developed and integrated with user-developed sub-models. The model consists of a gas region with turbulent flow and combustion, radiative heat transfer in the upper part of the furnace, a solid region of the furnace lining, and a solid-liquid region of salt and metal in the lower part of the furnace. Scrap melting and scrap burn-off in the solid-liquid region were simulated by the user-developed sub-models. A discritised population balance model for aluminium scrap was established to represent the distributed nature of the scrap feed. Industrial data measurements were carried out to support and validate the model. Based on the developed process model, the influence of the distributed scrap properties, burn-off rate, the pre-treatment of the feed, and the natural gas firing strategy on scrap melting time and natural gas consumption was studied.

Keywords: computational fluid dynamics; CFD; process modelling; aluminium scrap melting; population balance model; PBM; rotary furnace; turbulent flow; combustion; radiative heat transfer; burn-off rate; feed pre-treatment; natural gas consumption.

DOI: 10.1504/PCFD.2007.013012

Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics, An International Journal, 2007 Vol.7 No.2/3/4, pp.195 - 208

Published online: 03 Apr 2007 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article