CFD analysis of fixed matrix with glass refractory particle regenerator

Abstract

The following paper presents work on the Heat Recovery System (HRS) which have been used constructively in modern industries to recover heat from the flue gases. The HRS are analysed and outcomes of various factors such as its permeability, length, D/dp ratio, and porosity of the model are studied. Various CFD simulations are shown for the results of thermal trait of model. It is hence implied that for thermal and flow simulations the modelled geometry in fluent is to be used. The CFD analysis starts with heating cycle by allowing the flue gases to enter the regenerator at the higher temperature (200 ℃) through the inlet of the regenerator bed for a cycle time of 10 mins thus charging the glass particle bed. Once the heating cycle is completed then the cooling cycle starts with the entry of air at ambient temperature at 27 ℃ for the cycle time of 10 mins regenerator entering in the counter flow direction. The simulations deduce that with the aid of Fluent software, various contours of velocity, pressure, turbulent kinetic energy and temperature are studied for regenerators of fixed bed length. The thermal efficiency of heat recovery form the fixed matrix regenerator with glass particles and D/dp ratio of 10 is calculated as 15%. This 15% increase in the thermal efficiency will improve the overall efficiency of the plant where these type of regenerators are used by 5–8% and decrease the total required heat input by 10–15%.