Industrial Furnace Technology

Heat trans­fer during the hea­ting and coo­ling of mate­ri­als is a cru­cial fac­tor in the over­all ener­gy effi­ci­en­cy of indus­tri­al plants. Our rese­arch group focu­ses in par­ti­cu­lar on forced con­vec­tion and inves­ti­ga­tes how its inter­ac­tion can be used to opti­mi­se ther­mal performance.

• Air coo­ling of strip mate­ri­als indu­ced by impinging jets
• Heat trans­fer in moving metal strips
• Anne­al­ing pro­ces­ses under various atmospheres
• Drop-sur­face inter­ac­tion during water cooling
• Deter­mi­na­ti­on of heat trans­fer coef­fi­ci­ents with a reso­lu­ti­on of 1 mm²
• Flow visua­li­sa­ti­on using the laser light sec­tio­ning tech­ni­que (PIV)

A par­ti­cu­lar­ly effec­ti­ve and sus­tainable way of moder­ni­s­ing indus­tri­al fur­naces and heat tre­at­ment plants is through the use of elec­tric heat sources. Our rese­arch group is working on the deve­lo­p­ment of inno­va­ti­ve hea­ting tech­no­lo­gies to replace con­ven­tio­nal hea­ting methods.

• Cha­rac­te­ri­sa­ti­on of metal­lic and cera­mic hea­ting elements
• Opti­mi­sa­ti­on of flow pat­terns in hea­ting coils
• Inves­ti­ga­ti­on of radia­ti­ve heat trans­fer with fur­nace components
• Opti­mi­sa­ti­on of hot gas generators

As a result of the ener­gy tran­si­ti­on, pro­ces­ses are incre­asing­ly being (par­ti­al­ly) elec­tri­fied, which is dri­ving up demand for elec­tri­ci­ty. The expan­si­on of rene­wa­ble ener­gy sources is lea­ding to vola­ti­le grid uti­li­sa­ti­on and fluc­tua­ting elec­tri­ci­ty pri­ces – a risk to secu­ri­ty of sup­p­ly. Pro­duc­tion pro­ces­ses must the­r­e­fo­re beco­me more fle­xi­ble in order to adapt to the­se fluc­tua­tions. Our working group deve­lo­ps prac­ti­cal, com­pe­ti­ti­ve con­cepts to ensu­re that Ger­man indus­try main­ta­ins its lea­ding position.

• Pro­cess chain model­ling of indi­vi­du­al pro­cess steps
• Fle­xi­ble ener­gy sup­p­ly for low-fre­quen­cy and direct cur­rent operation
• Inte­gra­ti­on of ener­gy sto­rage technologies