Physical Properties of Basalt and Numerical Simulation of the Melting Process in Basalt Particle Beds

The physical properties of basalt, such as density, viscosity, permeability, and heat conductivity, were studied experimentally. By introducing the measured parameters into the governing equations of the finite differential method (FDM), the melting processes of basalt, in relation to the thermal boundary conditions and particle sizes, were simulated for the purpose of designing a melting furnace for basalt. The governing equations were discretized in a tri- diagonal matrix form and were solved using the tridiagonal matrix algorithm (TDMA) and the alternative direction implicit (ADI) solver. The temperature distribution, position of the two-dimensional phase-change boundary, and melt- ing time were calculated during the numerical simulation. These provide the basis for determining the heating procedure, for controlling the furnace tem- perature, and for predicting basalt melting states. In the experiment, an electri- cal furnace was designed based on the computations. It is demonstrated that the simulation results are reasonably consistent with the observed data.