Numerical Simulation of Airflow Organization in Vulcanization Tanks for Waste Tires

Currently, in the domestic practice of retreading tires using vulcanization tanks, some tanks exhibit uneven temperature distributions leading to low retreading success rates. To address that, this paper simulated the temperature and velocity fields during the heating process of vulcanization tanks for waste tire retreading. The results indicated that a higher heating power reduces the time required for the vulcanizing agent to reach the vulcanization condition, but it also increases the difference in tire temperature in the tank, with a severely uneven distribution of the temperature field. Subsequently, to improve the uniformity of temperature distribution and enhance the retreading rate of waste tires, this paper proposed two types of orifice plates to adjust the airflow organization. The results show that both the plain orifice plate and the frustum cone orifice plate can enhance the uniformity of the temperature field within the vulcanization tank and reduce the temperature difference between tires. Moreover, at the same heating power, the presence of the orifice plates increases the rate of temperature increase in the tires and the vulcanizing agent compared to the original vulcanization tank, improving the thermal efficiency of the vulcanization tank heater.