Experimental reconstructions of flame temperature distributions in laboratory-scale and large-scale pulverized-coal fired furnaces by inverse radiation analysis

Two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) temperature distributions in laboratory-scale and large-scale pulverized-coal fired furnaces were reconstructed experimentally by means of CCD cameras through the inverse radiation analysis. The reconstruction technique was developed based on the backward Monte Carlo method. The reconstruction matrix equation was solved by the least square QR decomposition (LSQR) method. The numerical reconstructions were utilized for checking the validity of inverse method before each experimental reconstruction. The experimental reconstruction results were compared with those in references. The temperature distributions for both laboratory-scale and large-scale pulverized-coal fired furnaces can be numerically reconstructed well, and the experimentally reconstructed temperature distributions can reasonably reproduce the main features of actual temperature distributions in the pulverized-coal fired furnaces. The reconstruction technique also has a good ability of on-line temperature distributions reconstruction and monitoring, and will be useful for the combustion diagnostics and control of pulverized-coal fired power plant. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.