Gas flow and heat transfer phenomena in twoindustrial-scale waste-heat boilers of the Outokumpucopper flash smelting process were analyzed with acommercial computational fluid-dynamics (CFD) packagePhoenics. Various operating conditions were simulatedfor the first boiler and particularly for the secondboiler. The gas flow pattern was compared qualitativelywith the physical laboratory models, and the generalflow pattern was consistent with the laboratoryvisualization. The heat transfer simulation wasvalidated with temperature measurements for bothboilers is of three-dimensional and recirculatingnature. The numerical tracer experiments indicate thatsome dead volume is present in both boilers, and theboiler modification reduced the dead volume from 38% to15% under basic operating conditions. Radiative heattransfer accounts for 65-90% of the total heattransported in the radiation sections of both boilersunder different operating conditions. The modifiedboiler is very efficient for cooling the off-gases atalmost doubled volume flow rate. The CFD modeling provedto be a useful tool for numerical experiments andanalysis of boiler performance for process optimization.
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