Thermal Instability of Natural Convection in a Glass Melting Furnace

유리 용융로에서 자연대류의 열적 불안정성

The transition from steady laminar to chaotic convection in a glass melting furnace specified by upper surface temperature distribution has been studied by the direct numerical analysis of the two and three-dimensional time dependent Navier-Stokes equations. The thermal instability of convection roll may take place when modified Rayleigh number($Ra_m$) is larger than $9.71{\times}10^4$. It is shown that the basic flows in a glass melting furnace are steady laminar, unsteady periodic, quasi-periodic or chaotic flow. The dimensionless time scale of unsteady period is about the viscous diffusion time, ${\tau}_d=H^2/{\nu}_0$. Through primary and secondary instability analyses the fundamental unsteady feature in a glass melting furnace is well defined as the unsteady periodic or weak chaotic flow.