Journal of Materials Processing Technology 139 (2003) 567572

Numerical modelling of the rotary furnace in aluminium recycling processes

A.R. Khoei a, , I. Masters b , D.T. Gethin b
b

Department of Civil Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, P.O. Box 11365-9313, Tehran, Iran Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Wales Swansea, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK

Abstract In this paper, a numerical simulation involving uid ow and heat transfer is presented in order to improve the understanding of rotary furnaces. The nite element model is employed to simulate the furnace rotation and analyse the energy ows inside the furnace. A transient dynamic analysis is carried out to predict the evolution and distribution of temperatures in a rotary furnace by modelling and analysing the furnace under different ame positions. The nite element modelling system ELFEN is used to develop models of the furnace. The results clearly indicate the temperature distribution for different angular velocities along with a comparison of temperature variation under different ame positions. 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Finite element; Heat transfer; Rotary furnace; Temperature distribution; Aluminium recycling

1. Introduction The melting of aluminium dross and scrap materials to recover aluminium as metal is a simple, yet effective method of recycling a valuable material with a high inherent energy content. However, it is a complicated process as compared with the melting of solids materials. When dealing with the melting of a solid material, the physical domain can be considered as a continuous media so that the NavierStokes equation and energy equation can be directly applied in the liquid region. The solution method is that of a thermaluid problem, but with special treatment on the moving boundaries. In scrap metals, the solid and voids are randomly distributed. Solving the NavierStokes equation in each individual void between the scraps would be unrealistic. Yet the process is further complicated by the fact that melting is accompanied by mass and energy transport caused by molten scrap dripping down to ll the voids. The present study forms part of a research project concerning Process Optimisation in Aluminium Recycling, undertaken to improve the understanding of rotary furnaces. In Refs. [14] the authors emphasise the importance of obtaining quantitative results from an experiment. This was achieved by means of a Taguchi approach, which facilitates

Corresponding author. Tel.: +98-21-6005818; fax: +98-21-6014828. E-mail address: arkhoei@sharif.edu (A.R. Khoei).

understanding, interpretation and implementation. In those references, a robust design method was developed for reducing cost and improving quality in aluminium recycling. One of the other major challenges in design optimisation of the aluminium recycling process is numerical modelling of rotary furnaces. This study covers recent work on process models involving uid ow and heat transfer, and predicts the evolution and distribution of temperatures in a rotary furnace by modelling and analysing the furnace under different ame positions. In order to improve the design in terms of energy efciency and productivity, a numerical study is necessary to build a mathematical model involving uid ow and heat transfer. A quick review of previous research reveals the variety of physical processes encountered in rotary process vessels. Whereas a large number of these processes are basically thermo-hydrodynamic, it also involves a host of other mechanisms including chemical reactions, mass transfer, phase change, surface reactions, porous media ow, free surface ow, combustion, radiative transfer, uidsolid interaction. The rst model for the prediction of axial transport in a rotary cylinder was proposed by Sullivan et al. [5] in 1927 and then developed to study the isothermal transverse motion of a bed of particulate materials by Friedman and Marshall [6], Perry et al. [7], Mu and Perlmutter [8] and Perron and Bui [9]. A mathematical model was described by Henein et al. [10] to predict the conditions giving rise to the different forms of transverse bed motion in a rotary cylinder:

0924-0136/03/$ see front matter 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0924-0136(03)00538-7

568

A.R. Khoei et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 139 (2003) 567572

Fig. 1. A schematic description of the aluminium recycling process at IMCO Recycling Ltd.

slumping, rolling, slipping, cascading, cataracting, and centrifuging. Wu et al. [11] developed a 2D-mathematical model based on the heat conduction mode in terms of the enthalpy formulation to simulate heat transfer and melting process of scrap metal. A 3D steady-state mathematical model of a rotary calcining kiln was recently presented by Bui et al. [12] employing all the physical phenomena, from gas ow, heat transfer, combustion and volatiles, to the bed motion and thermal effects of the refractories. The purpose of this research is to build a model that simulates the energy ows inside the furnace, using the global properties of each of its three main components, namely the gas, the metal pool and the furnace walls. The model must be dynamic to capture the evolution of temperature and to simulate the rotation of the furnace. In order to predict and improve the evolution and the distribution of temperatures in the rotary furnace, a numerical analysis is undertaken using the ELFEN nite element package [13]. The creation of the models with this software, together with results from different models are presented and discussed.

extracted by the furnace fume gas cleaning system. Once molten, the furnace is stopped and the molten aluminium is then discharged from the furnace and directed either to moulds, where it will solidify, or into preheated crucibles.

3. Finite element modelling of furnace In the nite element analysis of heat transfer in the furnace, it is instructive to rst mention the equations that governs the heat transfer conditions. These equations provide the basis for the ELFEN nite element package used in this study. Consider a 2D body in heat transfer conditions in which the material obeys Fouriers law of heat conduction. The problem domain is discretised with nite element and using a Galerkin weighted residual method, we obtain [14,15]: C(T)T + KT = F (1)

2. Description of the rotary furnace There are several processes to recycle aluminium but a viable option is to employ a rotary furnace, which is commonly used in large-scale aluminium recycling. Once the can has been collected from a collection point, it is crushed, and taken to a recycling plant. The aluminium is then loaded into a furnace. The furnace is heated until the paint and coatings boil off of the aluminium, and the waste gases are captured by an extraction system. At the same time the furnace melts the aluminium completely, and mixes it to a homogenous quality. A schematic view of a usual layout is shown in Fig. 1. The melting process is based on a rotary furnace, which consists of a cylindrical steel drum and a chamber. The furnace is heated by a burner, which generates high temperatures inside the refractory lined drum. At the commencement of heat, ux along with a pre-weighted amount of feed material is charged into the furnace. On completion of charging, the burner is ignited and the furnace is rotated. The furnace fume will be collected in the charging chamber, where it will be

where C is the heat capacity matrix which depends upon temperature, K the conductivity matrix and F the load vector, dened as C(T) =
e e cNe Nj dx dy, i

F=
e

he

Nie hc T d

qe

Nie q d

(2)

and K = KD + KH (3)

where KD is the diffusion part and KH the convection to ambient part. They are dened as KD =
e

Ni Ni Ni Ni k + k x x y y Ni hc Nj d

dx dy, (4)

KH =
e

he

where h is the interfacial heat transfer coefcient and Ni and Nj are standard nite element shape functions.

A.R. Khoei et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 139 (2003) 567572

569

4. Modelling of the furnace using ELFEN ELFEN is a nite element modelling system developed by Rockeld Software Limited [13] that can be used for transient thermal modelling to study temperature distribution and evolution. Analysis of the rotary furnace using ELFEN has been organised in three main steps to create a model: (1) creation of the mesh and application of the boundary conditions; (2) optimisation of the mesh and load to optimise the CPU time; (3) determination of the parameters, such as ux, thermal conductivity, etc. Consequently, at the end of this work, the model can be used to predict the change in temperature distribution over time within the furnace. Static and transient dynamic analyses have been carried out to simulate the furnace. A transient dynamic analysis is employed to model the furnace rotation under different angular velocities. In order to apply the heat generated at the ame position and heat transferred between the melted material and the internal surface of the furnace, the segments are modelled by different ux pulses applied successively to each segment to simulate the changes in thermal loading during rotation. Within ELFEN, the geometry is dened in terms of points, line types, surfaces, volumes and objects. The loading, boundary conditions and material data are assigned to geometric entities, and the nite element mesh sub-division is also based on the geometry. As it can be seen in Fig. 2, the furnace comprises refractory brick and plate shell materials. Their thermal characteristics are assumed to be constant with variation of temperature and the material data is obtained from the refractory manufacturer. ELFEN allows the boundary conditions applied to a problem to be dened under several separate load cases, or groups, with a different loading function applied to each group. For the proposed transient thermal analysis, a time

dependent ux loading is applied to model the angular rotation of furnace and constraints are used to x the temperature of part of the body. The loads are applied successively in time including time dependent effects.

5. Numerical simulation results In order to predict the distribution of temperatures in a rotary furnace, a static and transient dynamic analysis has been carried out using ELFEN programme. A 2D and 3D models were generated to evaluate the effects of different ame positions on the furnace body. The material properties and thermal characteristics chosen in the analysis are as follows: density = 2500 kg/m, thermal conductivity k = 1.6 W/m C, and specic heat capacity Csp = 1100 J/kg C. A xed temperature of 2000 C at the ame position and 700 C at the contact area between the molten material and furnace was applied. The convection boundary with ambient temperature of 25 C on the external surface of the furnace and 400 C on the internal surface of the furnace were also dened. 5.1. A 2D model of the furnace The rst model is a 2D rotary furnace, shown in Fig. 3. The loading is broken into 20 segments to simulate rotation. The nite element mesh and the location of the boundary conditions are given in this gure. The ame position is located at the top of the furnace, several different positions were considered, with one of the possibilities shown here. As can be seen later, the nal result is not really dependent on the ame position and this factor can easily be ignored. As a rst step, a static analysis has been employed to predict the temperature distribution in the furnace wall, as illustrated in Fig. 4. The results are as expected in this case. A transient dynamic analysis has been carried out to simulate the furnace rotation at different angular velocities. In order to apply the heat generated at the ame position and the heat transfer between the melted material and the internal surface of the furnace, the rotation is modelled by different ux pulses applied successively to each segment to simulate the changes in thermal loading over time. When a pulse sequence is complete for a segment, another identical sequence is applied in the following time steps so another cycle can begin again. Therefore, 20 loads are created for the 20 segments with two pulses at every cycle, as shown in Fig. 3. Note that the rotation of the cylinder is recreated by the rotation of the loadings around the model, rather than the movement of loads and elements. In the rst case considered, a rotational speed of 3 rpm was used. Consequently, the rotation lasts for 20 s and the pulse width is 2 s for ame position and 6 s for the contact area between the melted material and furnace is considered. The analysis was run for 4000 cycles and the distribution of temperature is obtained at the end of 80 000 s. The temperature

Fig. 2. Geometry of the rotary furnace.

570

A.R. Khoei et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 139 (2003) 567572

Fig. 3. Finite element modelling and boundary conditions of a rotary furnace.

distribution in this furnace is presented in Fig. 5(a) at t = 20 000 s. Due to the large timescale and the short increment in rotation required, the analysis requires a very large number of increments and the CPU time is very long, consequently, it is preferable to reduce the geometry. Since the time required for heat to ow through the thickness of the furnace body is much more than the period of each revolution, the real ux loading, dened by a cyclic impulse, can be approximated to a time-averaged uniform heat ux. In this case, because of the symmetric plane in the thickness, if the convection is assumed to be the same on the internal and external surfaces of the furnace, it is appropriate to simplify the model by considering only a segment of the furnace. In Fig. 5(b), the temperature distribution on a segment of the furnace is plotted using an equivalent load factor. These results can be compared with the temperature contours given

Fig. 4. Temperature distribution for a static analysis.

Fig. 5. Temperature distribution for the transient dynamic analysis at t = 20 000 s: (a) 2D furnace; (b) a section of the 2D model.

A.R. Khoei et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 139 (2003) 567572

571

in Fig. 5(a) for the complete furnace under the same uniform heat ux. These results show that the implementation of a segment of furnace can be used effectively in the analysis reducing the computing demands and CPU time. However, the determination of this equivalent load is important, especially as the complexity of the model increases and will be discussed in a later work. 5.2. A comparison for different ame positions In order to illustrate a comparison of temperature distribution under different ame positions, a transient dynamic

Fig. 6. Variation of temperature with time for different nodes: (a) rotation 3 rpm, ame position 2 SEG, initial temperature 25 C; (b) rotation 3 rpm, ame position 4 SEG, initial temperature 400 C; (c) rotation 5 rpm, ame position 2 SEG, initial temperature 25 C; (d) rotation 5 rpm, ame position 4 SEG, initial temperature 400 C.

Fig. 7. Temperature distribution for a transient dynamic analysis at t = 20 000 s: (a) nite element model; (b) 3D furnace; (c) a section of the 3D model.

572

A.R. Khoei et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 139 (2003) 567572

analysis has been done on a 2D furnace model using two angular velocities of 3 and 5 rpm. In Fig. 6(a)(d), the variation of temperature with time at different nodes are presented for a rotation of 3 and 5 rpm. These results are obtained for different ame widths corresponding to second and fourt segments on the internal surface of furnace using initial temperature of 25 and 400 C (node positions are marked in Fig. 3). These results clearly indicate the temperature distribution for different angular velocities as well as for different ame positions. 5.3. A 3D model of the furnace The second simulation is a 3D nite element modelling of the rotary furnace, as illustrated in Fig. 7(a). As in the 2D model, a transient dynamic analysis has been carried out to simulate the furnace rotation. To apply the heat generated at the ame position and melted material on the internal surface of the furnace, 50 segments are dened to simulate the number of ux loading. In this case, 50 loads are created for the 50 segments with two pulses at every cycle. The analysis is run for 1000 cycles and the distribution of temperature is obtained at the end of 20 000 s for a rotational speed of 3 rpm. The temperature distribution contour is plotted in Fig. 7(b) at t = 20 000 s. In order to reduce the CPU time, the model is simplied by considering a segment of the furnace. In Fig. 7(c), the temperature distribution is plotted using an equivalent load factor. As it has been explained in 2D model, the equivalent load needs to be estimated in an accurate manner, which will not be discussed here.

of the furnace. The creation of the model with this software, together with results from different models, were presented and discussed. Finally, a comparison of temperature distribution under different ame positions was described using a transient dynamic analysis on a 2D furnace model.

References
[1] A.R. Khoei, D.T. Gethin, I. Masters, Design optimisation of aluminium recycling process using Taguchi approach, in: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Intelligent Processing and Manufacturing of Materials (IPMM99), Honolulu, Hawaii, 1999, pp. 513518. [2] I. Masters, A.R. Khoei, D.T. Gethin, The application of Taguchi methods to the aluminium recycling process, in: Proceedings of the Fourth ASM International Conference and Exhibition on the Recycling of Metals, Vienna, Austria, 1999, pp. 115124. [3] A.R. Khoei, I. Masters, D.T. Gethin, Historical data analysis in quality improvement of aluminium recycling process, TMS Conference on the New Technology for the Next Millennium, Pennsylvania, USA, 2000, pp. 10631074. [4] A.R. Khoei, I. Masters, D.T. Gethin, Design optimisation of aluminium recycling processes using Taguchi technique, J. Mater. Proc. Technol. 127 (2002) 96106. [5] J.D. Sullivan, C.G. Maier, O.C. Ralston, Passage of Solid Particles Through Rotary Cylindrical Kilns, US Bureau of Mines, Washington, DC, 1927. [6] E. Friedman, A. Marshall, Studies in rotary drying, Chem. Eng. Prog. 45 (1949) 482. [7] R.H. Perry, C.G. Chilton, S.D. Kirkpatrick, Chemical Engineers Handbook, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1961. [8] J. Mu, D.D. Perlmutter, The mixing of granular solids in a rotary cylinder, AIChE J. 26 (1980) 928934. [9] J. Perron, R.T. Bui, Rotary cylinders: solid transport prediction by dimensional and rheological analysis, Can. J. Chem. Eng. 68 (1990) 6168. [10] H. Henein, J.K. Brimacombe, A.P. Watkinson, The modelling of transverse solids motion in rotary kilns, Metall. Trans. 14B (1983) 207220. [11] Y. Wu, R. Bui, T. Bourgeois, A. Chapdelaine, Modelling the cylindrical scrap aluminium remelter, in: U. Mannweiler (Ed.), Light Metals, The Minerals, Metals and Minerals Society, 1994. [12] R.T. Bui, G. Simard, A. Charette, Y. Kocaefe, J. Perron, Mathematical modelling of the rotary coke calcining kiln, Can. J. Chem. Eng. 73 (1995) 534545. [13] Rockeld Software, ELFEN User Manual, Rockeld Software Ltd., 1997. [14] V.S. Patankar, Numerical Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow, Taylor & Francis, London, 1980. [15] R.W. Lewis, K. Morgan, H.R. Thomas, K.N. Seetharamu, The Finite Element Method in Heat Transfer Analysis, Wiley, New York, 1996.

6. Conclusions This research describes recent achievements on process models involving uid ow and heat transfer, and predicted the evolution and the distribution of temperatures in rotary furnace by modelling and analysing the furnace under different ame positions. A model was built to simulate and analyse the energy ows inside the furnace, using the global properties of each of its three main components, the gas, the metal pool and the furnace walls. In order to improve the design in terms of energy efciency and productivity, a numerical study was introduced to build a mathematical model of rotary furnace. The nite element modelling system ELFEN was employed to develop the 2D and 3D models