Study of Heat Transfer and the Hydrodynamic Performance of Gas–Solid Heat Transfer in a Vertical Sinter Cooling Bed Using the CFD-Taguchi-Grey Relational Analysis Method

Abstract

The vertical sinter cooling bed (VSCB) is a high-efficiency energy-saving and environmentally friendly waste heat recovery equipment. In this study, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) convection model was established to reveal the typical factors on the thermodynamic performance in VSCB. Indeed, a multiple performance optimal algorithm based on the Taguchi-grey relational analysis (GRA) method was first applied to investigate the effects of geometric and operational factors, including the diameter of the bed, height of the bed, air mass flow rate, air inlet temperature, and sinter mass flow rate, on improving the heat transfer (Ex) and hydrodynamic performance (Pdrop) and obtain the optimum combination of each factor in VSCB. The results found that the diameter of the bed was the most influential factor contributing the multiple types of performance with a contribution rate of 70.51%, followed by the air mass flow rate (15.84%), while the height of the bed (0.27%) exerted a limited effect on the performance of multiple processes. The optimal combination of factors (A1B5C5D5E1) was compared with the initially selected parameters by performing a confirmation test. The performances of heat transfer and hydrodynamics were improved by the Taguchi with the GRA method.

Keywords

• vertical bed
• computational fluid dynamic
• grey relational analysis
• Taguchi method