Bruno A. Purnode

Dr. Bruno A. Purnode


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

16Years (2011-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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20 July 2026 in Processes
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
AMAshreet Mishra
Ashreet Mishra
ALAlex Lohse
Alex Lohse
Steve D.C. PhamSteve D.C. Pham
Steve D.C. Pham
RARavi Arora
Ravi Arora
BPBruno A. Purnode
Bruno A. Purnode
Joule-heated electric glass melters are highly energy-intensive and operate under stringent throughput, quality, and refractory-protection constraints, yet existing optimization approaches either rely on offline high-fidelity CFD—which is too slow for day-to-day operating decisions—or on purely data-driven energy models that do not enforce physics-based glass-quality constraints. This work presents a simulation-informed supervisory optimization framework that closes this gap by integrating (i) a high-fidelity CFD design of experiments on a cold-top electric glass melter, (ii) interpretable linear reduced-order models (ROMs) for furnace temperatures and glass-process indices (residence time, sand dissolution, mixing, and melting indices), and (iii) a convex linear-program supervisory optimizer that minimizes electrical power subject to throughput, glass-quality, and refractory-protection constraints. Sixteen CFD operating points spanning power inputs of 900–1671 kW, pull rates of 0.12–0.36 kg/s, and cullet fractions of 0–30% are used to fit and cross-validate the ROMs. The novelty of this contribution is the unification of CFD-derived multi-KPI quality constraints with a fast, interpretable supervisory optimizer suitable for advisory deployment on industrial electric melters. For a representative 1350 kW baseline, the optimizer recommends a reduced operating power of 1256 kW (~7% reduction) while satisfying all quality, throughput, and refractory constraints—demonstrating a practical ROM-enabled digital-twin pathway for energy-efficient electric glass melting.