Title: Simulation of foundry environment for improving occupational exposure to heat stress conditions

Authors: G. Madhan Mohan, P.S.S. Prasad, B. Karthikeyan, M. Vidhya, E. Karthikeyan

Addresses: Department of Production Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore 641004, Tamil Nadu, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore 641004, Tamil Nadu, India. ' Department of Production Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore 641004, Tamil Nadu, India. ' Department of Production Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore 641004, Tamil Nadu, India. ' Department of Production Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore 641004, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract: A worker in a foundry, especially near the furnace, is affected by several heat-related adverse health outcomes arising from non-ionising radiation emitted by molten metal. Such workers are likely to be affected by heat cramps, exhaustion, stroke, etc. Hence, the design of a proper furnace environment is an important issue to avoid these health hazards. In this study, the furnace environment is modelled using GAMBIT software and analysed by FLUENT software version 6.0 to simulate and improve the conditions. The findings indicate that temperature distribution around the furnace is found to be in the range of 324–350 K, which can cause heat stresses in the workers. Appropriate suggestions are then proposed and discussed to provide thermal comforts for the worker.

Keywords: foundry environment; furnace; health hazards; HSI; heat stress index; simulation; occupational exposure; occupational health; non-ionising radiation; molten metal; modelling; temperature distribution.

DOI: 10.1504/IJENVH.2008.020658

International Journal of Environment and Health, 2008 Vol.2 No.2, pp.171 - 183

Published online: 08 Oct 2008 *

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