Coal Combustion - Partial Validation of a Complex Problem

This paper summarises efforts made over a number of years to apply CFD to coal combustion in the Combustion Test Facility (CTF) currently owned and operated by RWE npower. It formed a key part of a strategy to develop a CFD capability in this area. The first two applications (to a drop tube furnace and to the CTF fitted with one type of burner) were successful. However, a subsequent application (the CTF with a completely different burner) had only limited success. The precise reasons for this limited success apply solely to this particular application. However, the work raised two questions that are relevant to any industrial application of a commercial CFD code. Therefore the aim of this paper is to provide an overview of this work and to use the experience gained to discuss two questions...