Temperature measurements in a bagasse-fired furnace - experimental and numerical results

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is being developed to model ignition stability in bagasse-fired furnaces. An experimental program to validate the predictions has begun with a set of temperature measurements in the vicinity of the flame front in a bagasse-fired boiler at Pleystowe mill using bare chromel/alumel thermocouples. Two thermocouples with different bead sizes were used to estimate the difference between the gas temperature and the thermocouple readings due to radiation effects. A simple drying model for wet bagasse was incorporated into the latest version of the code FURNACE from the University of Sydney. The numerical solution predicted a longer delay-to-ignition than was suggested by the experimental results.