Modeling of Slagging in Industrial Furnace: A Comprehensive Review

Slagging is a significant phenomenon related to ash handling and discharge in coal based power generation industries. The slag generally forms at high temperature on radiative refractory lined wall of the boiler. The progression of slagging arises over an extensive range of flue gas and surface temperatures and is dependent both on the characteristics of the ash and on the related design and operation conditions of the combustor. Proper understanding of the fundamentals of slagging is an important step for improvement of furnace design and ash related issues. Literatures review indicates insufficient progress in experimental as well as numerical context. Modeling may provide detailed investigations overcoming the limitation in experiment. This paper presents a short overview of the existing models and tools developed for the prediction of slagging behavior of the fuel ash in combustion applications. This article provides an extensive review of the fundamental aspects and emerging trends in numerical modeling of slag formation in industrial furnace. The attempts in modeling published so far are reviewed, grouped and summarized which will guide the researchers to further investigations.