In the steel industry, reheating furnaces are a significant source of carbon emissions. Co-firing natural gas and ammonia in reheating furnaces reduces carbon emissions and mitigates ignition difficulties and the limited flammability range of ammonia. This research develops a three-dimensional model for combustion, fluid dynamics, and heat transfer in a reheating furnace to investigate slab heating and emission with a natural gas/ammonia blended fuel. Numerical results demonstrate that, under constant calorific value conditions, the average temperature of the discharged slab decreases following ammonia blending, with the greatest temperature differential of 110 K achieved at a 10% ammonia blending ratio. Moreover, as the ammonia blending ratio increases from 0 to 40%, the mass fraction of CO first rises and subsequently declines, ultimately decreasing by 18%. Meanwhile, the CO₂ emissions at the outlet decrease by 17.6% to 40.7%. The mass fraction of unburned NH₃ rises to 0.0271, whilst NO_x emissions diminish from 49.47 ppm to 14.23 ppm. These changes are attributed to the low combustion efficiency and burning rate of ammonia, coupled with the reduced furnace temperature during ammonia-blended combustion, which weakens radiative heat transfer. Thus, optimizing the equivalence ratio along with applying hydrogen can improve the thermal efficiency of the reheating furnace. This study provides insight into the operational characteristics of a full-scale walking-beam reheating furnace operating under natural gas-ammonia co-firing conditions, providing theoretical guidance for enhancing the thermal efficiency of furnaces.

Pitch-based foam carbon, a novel lightweight material, boasts excellent mechanical and thermoelectric properties, and tantalum film deposition on its surface can further enhance its performance. However, this deposition process often suffers from non-uniform deposition and suboptimal coating quality. To address these issues, this study systematically optimized the furnace structure by tuning pipe diameter, tilt angle, and porous media height. Numerical simulations of 216 models were conducted to evaluate the effects of these parameters on axial velocity, turbulence intensity (quantified by the vortex criterion Q > 1), and reactant concentration uniformity. The results showed that pipe diameters below 70 mm increased the mean axial velocity by 8-fold compared to larger diameters, whereas tilt angles of 15° and porous media heights of 60–80 mm yielded limited velocity enhancements of only 2%. Pipe diameter was identified as the dominant factor governing flow stability, inducing up to a 300% variation in the volume fraction of Q > 1, with minimal turbulence observed at the maximum diameter. In contrast, adjustments to tilt angle and porous media height had weaker effects, altering the Q > 1 volume fraction by 26% and 5%, respectively. Smaller pipe diameter (70–80 mm) also optimized TaCl₅ concentration uniformity; tilt angles between 0° and 30° showed negligible influence, while porous media height exhibited no definitive trend. Guided by the practical priorities of process evaluation, a multi-objective optimization was performed. The globally optimal structural parameters were determined to be a pipe diameter of 70 mm, a tilt angle of 15°, and a porous media height of 60 mm, which comprehensively balance deposition uniformity, process stability, and deposition efficiency. These findings establish pipe diameter as the pivotal factor for deposition homogeneity and provide a reference scheme for the structural design of industrial tantalum deposition furnaces and lay a foundation for subsequent multi-physics coupling studies and experimental validation.

1. Against the backdrop of global energy transition and the advancement of Dual Carbon Goals, the development of clean and sustainable alternative energy sources has become a core strategy to addre...