High Uniformity Heating Theory and Practice

Uniform heating is key to high quality and increased production of directly fired ceramics and other temperature sensitive materials. Product temperature uniformity in a combustion process is typically gained by use of wasteful excess air. Increased fuel, power and equipment costs are the penalties for high uniformity. Techniques will be discussed that significantly improve temperature uniformity while minimizing energy waste. One such improvement utilizes a non circular (or slot) exit in conjunction with a high velocity burner to improve both the mixing and entrainment between the flame jet and the surrounding furnace gases. Lab and field testing of the slotted high velocity burner will be presented.