Enhancing the heat transfer in a heat treatment furnace through improving the combustion process in the radiation tubes

This paper presents computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation of the heat transfer process in a heat treatment chamber as a part of oil quenching heat treatment for metal components. The objective of the study is to improve the combustion process in the radiation tubes to achieve better energy efficiency in the heating processes. The heat treatment chamber uses four single-end radiation tubes that are powered by natural gas combustion. This study carried out the experimental measurement of the temperature distributions along the walls of the radiation tubes and the temperature distribution inside the heat treatment chamber. The results of the temperature measurements are used to provide the boundary condition for the CFD simulations of the combustion process in the radiation tubes. The results of the CFD simulations of the combustion process have provide data on the heat transfer rates into the heat treatments chambers, which have been used to set the boundary conditions for the CFD simulations of the heat transfer process inside the heat treatment chamber. The study carries out an analysis of the methods of improving the combustion process by using better mixing, higher air temperature through heat recovery and multi-stage combustion technologies. The improvements provide higher heat transfer rates into the chamber and lead to shorter heating time to achieve the objective of energy efficiency.