Combined simulation of combustion and gas flow in a grate-type incinerator

Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) analysis of the thermal flow in the combustion chamber of a solid waste incinerator provides crucial insight into the incinerator's performance. However, the interrelation of the gas flow with the burning waste has not been adequately treated in many CFD models. A strategy for a combined simulation of the waste combustion and the gas flow in the furnace is introduced here. When coupled with CFD, a model of the waste combustion in the bed provides the inlet conditions for the gas flow field and receives the radiative heat flux onto the bed from the furnace wall and gaseous species. An unsteady one-dimensional bed model was used for the test simulation, in which the moving bed was treated as a packed bed of homogeneous fuel particles. The simulation results show the physical processes of the waste combustion and its interaction with the gas flow for various operational parameters.