Measured vorticity distributions in a model of tangentially fired furnace

Abstract

Simultaneous three-component six-sensor hot-wire probe measurements were made in a model of tangentially fired furnace (TFF) to measure the flow properties of an isothermal flow field. The quantities measured including the spatially resolved isothermal air velocity components and their two higher order moment statistical properties, i.e., the skewness and flatness factors, and the vorticity components and their skewness and flatness factors. Detailed experimental data provided an improved understanding of the behavior of the turbulent transport in the burner zone and in the upper and central regions of the TFF. The measured velocity and vorticity fields showed the swirl characteristics of the fluid flow in the TFF interior as expected and that the flow has attached to the walls in the burner zone and central region which is not desired in an operating TFF. The solid walls in these domains, including the pendants located in the upper region, act as vortex generators. Oscillation of the velocity components, and of the other quantities measured in the experiment, may be derived from the fragmentation of the vortexes and the coherent structures existing in the furnace interior. This work helps clarity the fouling and slagging mechanisms and the flow attachment in the burner zone and central region, the flow deviation and residual swirling downstream the pendants in the upper furnace, by giving insight into the vorticity and the coherent structures in the TFF.