Numerical simulation of heat transfer process in cement grate cooler based on dynamic mesh technique

Abstract

A grate cooler is key equipment in quenching clinker and recovering heat in cement production. A two-dimensional numerical model based on a 5000 t/d cement plant is proposed to for a study on the gas-solid coupled heat transfer process between the cooling air and clinker in a grate cooler. In this study, we use the Fluent dynamic mesh technique and porous media model through which the transient temperature distribution with the clinker motion process and steady temperature and pressure distribution are obtained. We validate the numerical model with the operating data of the cooling air outlet temperature. Then, we discuss the amount of mid-temperature air outlet and average diameter of clinker particles, which affect the heat effective utilization and cooling air pressure drop in clinker layer. We found that after adding one more mid-temperature air outlet, the average temperature of the air flowing into the heat recovery boiler increases by 29.04°C and the ratio of heat effective utilization increases by 5.3%. This means heat recovery is more effective on adding one more mid-temperature air outlet. Further, the smaller the clinker particles, the more is the pressure drop in clinker layer; thus more power consumption is needed by the cooling fan.