Computational fluid dynamics modelling and validation of the isothermal airflow in a forced convection oven Original Research Article

This article discusses the application of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to calculate the three-dimensional isothermal airflow in an industrial electrical forced-convection oven. The governing fluid flow equations were expanded with a fan model and a turbulence model. The standard and the renormalisation group (RNG) version of the k–ε turbulence model produced comparable results. The performance of the CFD model was assessed by means of point measurements of the velocity with a directionally calibrated hot-film velocity sensor. From the validation it was found that important aspects of the model are the fan head-capacity relationship, the fan swirl and the oven geometry. The calculation error was on an average 22% of the actual velocity, caused by the limitations in turbulence modelling and numerical grid density.