Fluid Flow Characteristics for Four Lattice Settings in Brick Tunnel Kiln: CFD Simulations

Abstract

The higher the process efficiency, the lower the fuel consumption, and the less impact carbon emissions have on the environment. The flow characteristics around brick settings are an important field of investigation to acquire control over the energy intake and production process. The current work is a numerical CFD investigation to demonstrate fluid flow characterization inside the cooling zone in a brick tunnel kiln for lattice settings (the number of bricks in each layer is identical). Four different lattice settings were examined, and three were validated with published experimental data (settings 1, 2 and 3). In the current study, the BSL κ-ω turbulent model agrees well with the published experimental results. The numerical investigation presents the flow characteristics through four different lattice brick settings (e.g., velocity vectors, velocity contours and streamlines) that could not be measured experimentally. The investigation also looks at the flow zones of the vortex formation upstream, downstream and through the brick column. It was discovered that for settings 1 and 11, the quick air flow in the wall channels is much greater than in the column channels. Setting 3 has a larger vortex formation region, whereas setting 1 has a weaker vortex than the other settings. The cooling of the lattice bricks in Setting 3 is superior to the cooling in the other settings.