Mathematical Modelling of Tunnel Kiln and Furnace in Ceramic Production

I. Introduction

A tunnel kiln is a periodic and continuously operating furnace used for firing
refractories or ceramic wares. The layout of a typical tunnel kiln is shown in Figure 1. It
consists of three zones: a preheating, a firing and a cooling zone. A tunnel kiln is operated in
the following way: the green bodies (wares to be fired) are set on kiln cars (rail-mounted cars,
usually about 40 cars or more in a tunnel kiln) and the cars carrying the green bodies are
pushed into a tunnel kiln at the input end of the kiln in the fixed period of time , tunnel kiln
car time schedule (or push rate). Peak temperature (up to 2000 K) is reached by combustion
in the firing zone, where burners are fired into interspaces between adjacent ware settings.
Exhaust gases, having preheated the green bodies, are drawn off the kiln by exhaust fans at
the input end of the kiln. At the same time, the finished fired products loaded on earlier cars,
having been cooled in the cooling zone, are pushed out of the tunnel kiln at the exit end of
the kiln.
The purpose of this paper is to develop a simple mathematical model that can be
adapted to various classes of furnaces, which can predict the temperatures at various locations
in the furnace that helps in determining the amount of energy absorbed by the kiln and its
contents.

Figure 1. Layout of a typical kiln

(Article in Heat Transfer Engineering April 1994)

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II. Discussion

A. The tunnel kiln

In ceramic production firing process controls many properties of the final ceramic
products such as; fire, water, abrasion and chemical resistance, mechanical strength and
dimensional stability. The parameters which affect the firing process includes the following;
kiln temperature and pressure, contact time, and the surrounding atmosphere. The firing
process is thermally activated and depends upon the temperature level and upon the time of
holding of the solid material at this temperature. The effect of firing time appears in the
structure of ceramic products. Using conventional methods, a short firing time produces
porous and low density products while long firing times produces a coarse-grained product.

The main components of tunnel kiln is shown in Figure 1. The complete kiln is divided
into three zones, according to the thermal treatment to which the load is subjected: preheating,
firing and cooling zone. Besides the movement of the load, the scheme shows the flows of
gases after combustion and the cooling air, as well as a schematic diagram showing the
temperature distribution through the entire kiln

Figure 2: Temperature profile of solid and gas for tunnel kiln

(Meng, (2011), Solid-solid Recuperation to Improve the Energy Efficiency of Tunnel Kilns)

In Figure 2, the temperature profile for gas and solid inside the tunnel kiln is shown.
The figure demonstrates the heat exchange between flue gases and solid in the preheating and
firing zone in which the heat from flue gas preheats the solid; therefore the solid temperature

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increases and the flue gas temperature decreases. On the other hand, in the cooling zone the
cooling air cools the solid coming from firing zone, so that the solid temperature decreases
and cooling air temperature increases. Both heat exchange processes are considered as
countercurrent flow heat exchanger. As a result to this, the solid on kiln cars moves
continuously opposite to direction of all the gas flow.

Figure 3: Tunnel kiln cross section

Kiln cross section showing five blades of wares set on a kiln car, and boundaries and sand
seals to minimize gas leakage.

(Article in Heat Transfer Engineering April 1994)

B. Mathematical Model for Tunnel Kiln

The heat transfer mechanism is complex inside the tunnel kiln, because of the
interaction of kiln car, kiln furniture, product types, and product arrangements in the kiln.
Therefore, it is important to establish a simplified model to understand the principal behaviour
of the kiln process. This model considers the preheating and burning zone in which the solid
materials (product, furniture, and car) are heated up to the required sintering temperature. The
cooling air is sucked away from the kiln and then used in the dryer. It is assumed that the
enthalpy of the cooling covers the energy for the drying process. As a consequence, the energy
of the fossil fuel of the kiln is the required energy for the total process. This is the case for the
most processes of ceramics burning. Therefore, the following is assumed and are valid for
countercurrent heat exchanger.

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 Assumptions:
The process is assumed to be at steady state process.
The temperature of product and of gas is assumed to be constant at any cross section.
As a consequence, the temperature depends only on the length.
The temperature of product and transportation materials are the same.
The heat transfer coefficient is constant.
The heat losses through the walls are neglected.
The material properties (specific heat capacity, density) are assumed as constant.
The material does not store latent energy.
a. Energy balance

Figure 4: Schematic description of tunnel kiln with heating and firing zones
(International Journal of Advances in Engineering & Technology)

The schematic diagram of the tunnel kiln with gas distribution along the firing zone
length is shown in Figure 4. From the shown figure, the combustion of fuel with air has
occurred in an adiabatic combustion chamber. Therefore, the outlet gas temperature of this
combustion process is the adiabatic flame temperature. As illustrated in the figure, the kiln car
carries the product through the kiln in counter direction to gas flow. Therewith, the kiln
process is reduced to a simple counter current heat exchanger.

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Energy balance is basis of all kiln processes. The enthalpies in heat balances are always referred
to the reference temperature (0C). In energy balance analysis, the energy inserted by fuel is
equal to the heat gain by solid, heat removed from gas, and heat loss through walls. By applying
the energy balance, the following equation is obtained

s c S ( Ts , f Ts ,in ) M g c pg ( Tg ,out Ta ) Q w M F hu (1)

Where s represents solid mass flow rate,
cS specific heat of solid,

Ts ,in and Ts , f represent inlet and outlet solid temperature respectively,

Q w heat loss through kiln walls

M F fuel mass flow rate,

M g gas mass flow rate,
c pg gas specific heat at constant pressure,

Ta the inlet gas temperature (ambient air temperature), and

Tg ,out outlet gas temperature

In the following, the heat loss through walls is neglected ( Q w = 0). Regarding the energy

balance equation, the solid material ( M g ) represents the two masses for product ( M pro ) and

transportation ( M T ) as

M S M pro M T

The ratio between the product materials to the transportation material is defined
as

5

M T cT
XT
M pro c pro

Where cT specific heat capacity of transportation ( cT cS ),

c pro
specific heat capacity of products.

Therefore, the following equation is obtained

c
M S M pro 1 X T pro (2)
cS

The outlet gas mass flow rate from the combustion process is the summation of the fuel mass

flow rate, M F , and the air mass flow rate M a

Mg MFMa (3)
The mass flow rate of air can be expressed in terms of air demand (L), excess air number ()
and fuel mass flow rate as

M a L M F (4)

Then the gas mass flow rate can be specified directly as a function of fuel mass flow rate, air
demand, and excess air number

M g M F ( 1 L ) (5)

The energy equation Eq. 1 requires the mean specific heat capacity. Therefore, the following
equation is used to calculate the mean specific heat capacity with gas properties referred to
reference temperature, To = 273 K

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 1 ( T / To ) c 1
n 1
c pg ( T )
(6)
c po ( To ) n c 1 ( T / To ) 1

For this specified case the specific heat of air with ( c po ( To ) = 1.0) and index ( nc = 0.1) are

used. Moreover, equation 7 is used to simplify the energy consumption equation

c pg ( 1 L ) c pgo L (7)

Then, the specific energy consumption equation referred to the solid flow is introduced

M F hu
ES
(8)
MS

Solving Eq. 1 to Eq. 8 results in the following form for the specific energy consumption

c S ( Ts , f Ts ,in )
ES (9)
c pg ( 1 L )( Tg ,out Ta )
1
hu

In industry the specific energy consumption is referred to the product flow as in the following
equation

M F hu
E pro
(10)
M pro

Where E pro , is the specific energy consumption per kg of product.

By joining Eq. 2, Eq. 10 together with Eq. 8 the specific energy consumption per kg of
products can be presented as

c pro
E pro E S 1 X T
(11)
cS

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 The specific energy consumption E cannot be calculated because Tg ,out is not known. The

outlet temperature depends on area and heat transfer coefficient. The energy consumption
related to the product is therefore always higher than the energy consumption related to the
solid.

b. Temperature Profile
The temperature profile of the solid and the gas for this heat exchanger can be calculated using

an energy for the differential kiln length dz. The gas enthalpy flow change d H g and solid
enthalpy flow change is expressed as
s
d H g d Q conv , d H d Q

Also the gas enthalpy flow change d H g , can be expressed by the following equation:

d H g M c pg dTg
III. Summary

The transfer of heat inside the tunnel kiln includes all heat transfer mechanisms:
conduction, convection and radiation. Because of the interaction among the kiln car, kiln
furniture, product types, and product arrangements in the kiln heat transfer become complex.
Therefore, some assumptions are made to establish a simplified model to understand the
principal behaviour of the kiln process.

The mathematical model for analysing heat transfer of the process in the tunnel kiln
that is developed in this work and the details about it had been discussed in this paper briefly.
The model can be used for the calculation of energy consumption of the kiln, which includes
the energy balances and temperature changes on the kiln. The model introduced, describes the
effect of gas distribution along the firing zone on both energy consumption and temperature
profiles. It also the way to obtain the equations for solids and gas in the preheating and firing
zones. In addition, the model describes

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IV. References

Booming Yu. (1994). Dynamic Modeling of a Tunnel Kiln. Heat Transfer Engineering, 39-53.

Gokhale, S., Dhar, P. L., Ravi, M. R., & Kaushik, S. C. (n.d.). Simulation of ceramic furnaces
using one-dimensional model of heat transfer Part Model development and
validationI:. Center for Energy Studies.

Nicolau, V., & Dadam, A. P. (2009). Numerical and Experimental Thermal. J. of the Braz. Soc.
of Mech. Sci. & Eng., 297-304.

Refaey, H. A. (2013). Mathematical Mo del to Analyze the Heat Transfer in.

Refaey, H. A., Specht, E., & Salem, M. R. (2015, June). Influence Of Fuel Distribution and
Heat Transfer. International Journal of Advances in Engineering & Technology.