Experimental Study And Numerical Simulation Of Temperature Field In A Sinter-HIP Furnace

With the manufacturing expansion of high-performance cemented carbide products, national and international enterprises and research institutes quickly develop cemented carbide sinter-HIP (hot isostatic pressure) furnace. According to the Long-term research, the results showed that the temperature uniformity in a sintering furnace was an important factor that affects the quality of cemented carbide products, and therefore, it is necessary to study the physical mechanism of heat transfer in a furnace and establish a complete theoretical model. Both temperature and flow fields were numerically analyzed, and then temperature uniformity in the furnace can be obtained by the optimizing physical structure and gas flow, these measures can guide process correctly, increase output and quality, and establish the basis for structure optimization.In the present work, the characteristics of thermal process were first described, then gas flow pattern was analyzed, and finally experiments were performed. Low temperature field was measured with thermocouples and high temperature field was measured with magnetic slice. The realationship between magnet force and maximum sintering temperature was established by linear regression method. A 3-D unsteady numerical simulation model was established with differential equations by a comercial Computational Fluid Dynamics software FLUENT. Temperature and flow fields at lower temperature condition and real working condition were calculated. The main factors affecting temperature distribution were analyzed. The results showed that the distribution of temperature field is mainly affected by the gas flow path and the distributions of heating source, sintered products, and graphite boards. In order to realize the uniform distribution of temperature field, the group of heat source should be located near the furnace door, and the eddy in upper space could be prevented by reducing gap there. The temperature uniformity on products' surface can be improved by rationally placing sintered products and graphite boards in the same thermal condition. These measures can improve the temperatureuniformity in a sintering furnace and enhance the quality of products, and will be meaningful in directing and structure optimization of the furnace.