Thermal flow analysis for design and development of advanced vitrification melter

The numerical analysis of thermal flow of molten glass in a melter, which is carried out to support design and development of advanced melter, is introduced. Control of noble metal, which is involved in waste composition, is important for operation of joule-heated ceramic melter. If molten glass has high noble metal content, it has high viscosity and joule-heating efficiency is decreased by low electrical resistance and possibility of deterioration of operational performance is increased. Case study was carried out by thermal flow analysis to determine the suitable structure of melter and operational condition as the change of temperature distribution of molten glass is under the condition of suitable control. In the computational fluid dynamics model, enthalpy, velocity, pressure, electric potential and concentration of noble metal particles are coupled each other. Non-steady state simulation was performed to simulate temperature response by operational sequence. Stable batch-cycle operation as mentioned above is maintained with developed furnace shape and operating conditions. The adaptability of analysis model of behavior of noble metal particles in molten glass will be confirmed by mock-up test data of advanced melter. The analysis model aims to be applied to evaluate the operating mode such as recovery operation in case of transient state. (author)