Combustion Space Modelling of Oxy-Fuel Fired Glass Melter

A three-dimensional heat transfer code based on the zonal method was applied to evaluate the oxygen-fuel firing of a crossfired regenerative glass melter. A furnace end section which includes the bridge wall and a pair of the regenerator ports was modelled in detail for a base air case and several oxy-fuel firing cases. The firing rates of two oxy-fuel burners that matched the heat flux distribution of the base air case were determined. The effects of the height and angle of the oxy-fuel burners on the temperature and heat flux distributions were predicted to evaluate the optimum burner placement of the oxyfuel burners. The main conclusions of the simulation are that; (1) in spite of the small flame diameters, the high momentum low flame temperature oxy-fuel burners can create temperature and heat flux distributions equivalent to those of the base air case with a wide flame and (2) both lower burner elevation and angling of the oxy-fuel burners toward the glass surface tend to increase heat transfer to glass surface and reduce the peak refractory temperatures.