RADICT: Real-Time Radiant Tube Lifetime Prediction
Promotion of Industrial Research (IGF) for the period April 1, 2026 – March 31, 2029
Project description
Radiant tubes are furnace components used to heat processes in the high-temperature range. Burners or electric heating elements are installed in the radiant tubes to generate process heat, which is then transferred to the furnace via the tube. Traditionally, the radiant tubes primarily separates the furnace chamber atmosphere from the combustion atmosphere inside the radiant tubes. The heating of radiant tubes with hydrogen is being demonstrated in current R&D projects on an industrial scale. In addition to electric heating of the radiant trubes, this method offers an option for heating the furnace in a CO2-neutral process.
In the case of electric heating, the SHR ensures protection and mechanical stability of the heating element, for example, in the event of a strip break in a steel strip annealing line. The separation of the heating elements from the process atmosphere is another desirable effect. For radiant heating tubes operating at consistently very high temperatures, high-temperature-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials are used, almost regardless of the heating method, such as the wrought alloy 2.4633 (Nicrofer 6025 HT, Alloy 602) or the cast steel alloy 1.4848, which are to be investigated as part of this project.
The resulting temperature field induces a distribution of stress and damage, which in turn is calculated using material models and numerical methods such as the FEM (structural mechanics) or the finite volume method (FVM, CFD).
The resulting temperature field induces a distribution of stress and damage, which in turn can be calculated using material models and numerical methods such as the FEM (structural mechanics) or the finite volume method (FVM, CFD). The following discussion first examines the real-time capabilities of these methods. This is followed by a discussion of the current state of research regarding material behavior under the described thermal cycles, as well as the preliminary work and state of the art in terms of numerical and simulation-based modeling.
Project goals
The overall objective of the project is to develop a digital twin of a radiant heating tube for real-time lifetime prediction under various operating conditions—both electrically heated and hydrogen-heated. The various sub-objectives, some of which are independent of one another, are listed below:
- Expansion of the database on the creep behavior of selected high-temperature materials under H₂ exhaust gas atmospheres and development of a material model
- Development of model reduction approaches for the rapid yet detailed prediction of temperature, structure, and material (abstraction, meta-models, stress histograms, machine learning, data-driven methods)
- Transfer of experimental results from laboratory specimens to real-world components using a hollow specimen geometry with a thermal gradient
- Development and implementation of concepts for establishing a real-time simulation solution on a laboratory scale using thermal modeling and the material model
- Development of a workflow to implement the concept for real components as well as temperature fields that vary in time and space
- Validation of the concept using tests on the existing steel heating tube test bench
Contact
Matthias Sanders, M.Sc.
+49 241 80–26067
Funding
The project (Project No. 01IF24907N) was submitted with the support of the Research Association for Industrial Furnace Engineering (FOGI) via the Research Council for Mechanical Engineering (FKM). It received funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE) through the project management agency German Aerospace Center (DLR) as part of the programme for the promotion of industrial joint research and development (IGF), based on a resolution of the German Bundestag.