Effects of Shell Aspect Ratio and Combustion Chamber Location on Thermal–Hydraulic Performance of Hot-Water Steel Boilers Under Steady-State Operation

Abstract

In the present research, a simplified two-dimensional hot-water steel boiler was studied numerically by means of the finite volume approach. Effects of various non-dimensional combustion chamber locations and shell aspect ratios were investigated for different Richardson numbers under steady-state operation. The obtained results were validated against the available data and found in good agreement. It is illustrated that both chamber location and shell aspect ratio have considerable effects on overall heat transfer and pressure drop within a hot-water steel boiler. In addition, considering the goodness factor as the thermal–hydraulic performance of boiler, it was concluded that by moving the chamber location toward the upper side of the boiler and by increasing the shell aspect ratio, the boiler performance reduces dramatically under all Richardson numbers. Therefore, the chamber location of S = −0.5 and shell aspect ratio of AR = 1.0 are realized as the best parameters providing the maximum thermal–hydraulic performance for a steel boiler. It is hoped that the reported results provide interesting information among the hot-water steel boiler designers.