Transient natural convection and conduction heat transfers on hot box of a coke drum in Pre-heating stage

Abstract

In an oil refinery unit, coke drum is subjected cyclic thermal stress and mechanical loads due to cyclic heating and cooling loads. Thus, the useful life of a coke drum is much shorter than other equipment. One of the most severe locations due to thermal stress is shell to skirt junction. Here, a hot box is proposed. In this study effectiveness of a hot box will be analyzed numerically. The addition of hot box (triangular cavity) was expected to generate natural convection, which will enhance heat transfer. As for the result show that heat flux conduction and natural convection have the same trend. The peak of conduction heat flux is 122 W/m2 and for natural convection is 12 W/m2. In the heating stage of coke drum cycle it found that the natural convection only provide approximately 10 % of heat transfer compare to conduction heat transfer. In this study it was proved that in the heating stage, the addition of triangular enclosure is less effective to enhance the heat transfer than previously thought.