PREDICTION OF TEMPERATURE AND FLUE GASES FOR THE INCINERATION PROCESS USING MATHEMATICAL MODELING AND COMPUTER SIMULATION

Abstract

Mathematical modeling and computer simulation for the municipal solid waste incineration process provides important understanding into the incinerator’s performance. The application of mathematical modeling for the incineration process will increase the incinerator operating efficiency. The broad objective of this study was to optimize the design of municipal solid waste incinerators using mathematical modeling and computer simulation. Computation Thermal Predictions (CTP) relations involving different types of incineration parameters such as temperature, density, velocity and species concentration were formulated based on theories of incineration process with various assumptions. The solution of the mathematical model developed was done and accomplished by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Finite element method of numerical analysis was applied to solve the temperatures in the simulated incinerator model as well as species/flue concentration at the end of its chimney. Dimensions used on the simulated model were applied to construct the physical incinerator for analysis. Tests were performed on the physical model incinerator and data used to validate the results obtained from the simulated model. Both simulated and experimental results showed that it is possible to forecast temperature and flue gases by the application of mathematical expressions. The incinerator CTP model was applied to simulate the incineration process and aid to regulate temperature at different locations and species/flue concentration at the end of incinerator chimney. The CTP results were very close to those obtained from experiment. The t-test method conducted revealed that simulated and experimental results did not differ significantly at 0.05 level of significance. Therefore, there is an agreement between the empirical model and experimental data as they show true trend of the incineration process.