Ceramics-Silikáty 54 (3) 212-218 (2010)

GLASS MELTING AND ITS INNOVATION POTENTIALS: THE IMPACT OF THE INPUT AND OUTPUT GEOMETRIES ON THE UTILIZATION OF THE MELTING SPACE

M. Polák , L. Němec

This work deals with the relation between the input and output geometries of the model melting channel and its space utilization. Space-utilization value was acquired by using the values of the dead spaces for sand dissolution and bubble removal as calculated from the mathematical modeling of both processes. The defined temperature gradients (taken from previous works) were applied and their influence on the melt flow and space utilization was studied. The previously applied simple channel with a full-size frontal entrance and exit was chosen as the reference geometry. All of the cases investigated in this work were conducted under the same conditions with a mean temperature of 1450°C. The isothermal case was selected as the reference case, and the pure transversal gradient and combination of the transversal with the small longitudinal temperature gradients were applied. The results have shown that space utilization is influenced by the input and output geometries of the channel, but the main tendencies resulting from the reference channel with a full-size frontal input and output have been preserved. The aim of this work is to evaluate the best input and output geometries of the melting space for future investigations and practical application.

Keywords: Space utilization, Sand dissolution, Bubble removal, Space geometry