Thermohydraulic performance optimization of cooling system of an electric arc furnace operated with nanofluid: A CFD study

• Published in: Journal of cleaner production 2021-08, Vol.310, p.127451, Article 127451
• Main Authors: Ahmadi, Ali Akbar, Bahiraei, Mehdi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Computational fluid dynamics; Cooling panel; Desirability function methodology; Electric arc furnace; Optimization
• ISSN: 0959-6526; 1879-1786
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.127451

This article optimizes the thermohydraulic performance of a cooling system of an electric arc furnace working with the alumina–water nanofluid under turbulent flow regime. The impacts of Reynolds number (Re), mass flow rate, and nanoparticle concentration on the temperature distribution through the panel and pumping power are assessed. The cooling performance of the panel improves with the elevation of the concentration and Re, and it is found that this increment is more intense at smaller Re values. Thereby, at ϕ = 0%, the internal wall temperature of slag decreases around 10.0% with the increment of the Re from 25,000 to 100,000 but it decreases only about 2.5% with the increment of the Re from 100,000 to 200,000. The pumping power heightens when either concentration or Re increases. The concentration has greater influence on the pumping power at larger Re values. The desirability function methodology is utilized to determine the optimum value of the Reynolds number, while the assumed objective function is employed to minimize the temperature together with pumping power. The optimum values for the temperature of the cooling panel wall and pumping power are about 533 K and 206 W, respectively, at the optimal Reynolds number of 123,485. The composite desirability with the value of 0.92 verifies that the optimization process is done with favorable results.