New methodology for CFD three-dimensional simulation of a walking beam type reheating furnace in steady state

This study presents a new modelling methodology for three-dimensional simulation of a reheating furnace of steel billets with natural gas burners. The movement of the billets inside the furnace is a periodically transient phenomenon. A modification in the energy transport equation is introduced through source terms in the billet region to convert the transient movements of the billets into a steady-state simulation, which significantly reduces the computational time without any loss of information. The combustion simulation inside the burners is performed using a global combustion mechanism that takes into account the combustion of the main gaseous species present in natural gas following a kinetic and turbulent control of the reaction through the Eddy Dissipation Concept (EDC). The results are contrasted and validated with the data obtained in a real facility though the SCADA of the plant. Some parameters, such as the surface temperatures of billets at the outlet and the distribution of power supplied by the fuel inside the furnace are reasonably close to the real case data obtained in temperature fields of both billets and the gas phase as well as the energy balance, leading to the conclusion that the proposed methodology is adequate for the purpose of simulating this system. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.