DESIGN ANALYSIS, CONTROL AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A LOCALLY FABRICATED CUPOLA FURNACE

Abstract

This study centered on design, control and performance evaluation of a locally onstructed cupola furnace for foundry application. The rationale behind the construction of the cupola is to make available a functional cupola furnace that can produce cast iron at a cheaper rate. The emphasis on the details of design, operation, control and performance data will facilitate the rate at which the furnace can be constructed by engineers and the technology can be improved upon. The 2D CAD design was presented in this work with dimension details (exploded and assembly view). The performance evaluation of the constructed furnace was conducted and the efficiency was determined as 55%. The stoichiometric air/fuel ratio was determined to be 11.52 kg of air per kg on fuel. Specific energy consumption was calculated to be 0.15 coke/kg of scrap. Theoretical amount of air/fuel and the stoichiometric air/fuel value are approximately close. This is an indices of good design analysis and real value evaluation data. The efficiency of the cupola could be improved on recommendation of increased air blast pressure, identification of potential for heat exchanger networking and process integration