A Three-Dimensional Numerical Model of a Waste Incinerator

Abstract

A three-dimensional simulation model of the secondary combustion chamber of a waste incineration plant is presented. The model is based on a set of partial differential equations governing the transport of mass, momentum and energy, together with additional equations modelling the turbulence, heat generation by reaction and radiative heat-transfer phenomena. Because it was not possible to resolve the burner region by a grid being fine enough to describe all details and to get a grid-independent solution, profile measurements were made in a pilot-scale combustion chamber using an isotypical liquid injection burner. These results were used in order to find the parameters of the whole simulation. In order to verify the simulation model some results are compared with measurements of temperature and residence-time distribution at a real incineration plant, and two models are given for the description of the burnout behaviour. Finally the non-isothermal model is discussed and a comparison is made between the isothermal model and the non-isothermal model.