Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T03:59:12.587Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Thermal transport due to material and gas flow in a furnace for drawing an optical fiber

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

S. Roy Choudhury  and
Y. Jaluria
S. Roy Choudhury
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903
Y. Jaluria
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903
Get access

Extract

The transport processes involved in the neck-down region for optical fiber drawing are numerically investigated. In this manufacturing process, a moving glass rod is heated in a furnace containing an inert gas environment and drawn into a thin optical fiber. The conjugate problem is solved considering both radiation and convection, with focus on the latter. Two different flow configurations, involving inert gas flow in the same as well as in the opposite direction as the moving preform/fiber, are considered in this study. A coordinate transformation is used to change the complicated computational domains in the gas and the fiber to cylindrical ones. The transport in the fiber is coupled with that in the gas through the boundary conditions. The radiative thermal transport is calculated using an enclosure model developed in an earlier study. The numerical results on convective flow and transport are validated by comparing with results available in the literaturefor simpler configurations. The effects of several important parameters such as fiber draw speed, inert gas velocity, furnace dimensions, and gas properties on the flow and temperature distributions are investigated. For the aiding flow case, in which the inert gases flow in the same direction as the fiber, heat transfer to the fiber increases as the gas velocity increases. For opposing flow, a recirculating region appears in the gas, close to the moving fiber surface, causing reduction in heat transfer as compared to the aiding case. The thickness of this recirculating zone decreases with increasing inert gas velocity. Radiation is found to be the dominant mode of heat transfer in the overall heating of the preform/fiber, with nitrogen as the inert gas. However, near the edges of the furnace, radiation heat transfer is relatively small and convection becomes very important. Also, the convective transfer rate is relatively large near the flow entrance because of the large temperature difference between the gas and the fiber. However, away from the entrance, the gas heats up and the temperature difference relative to the fiber decreases, resulting in a smaller convective heat transfer rate. The relevance of the results to various aspects of the fiber-drawing process is discussed.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , February 1998 , pp. 494 - 503
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1.Optical Fiber Communications, Vol 1: Fiber Fabrication, edited by Li, T. (Academic Press, New York, 1985).Google Scholar
2.Hanafusa, H., Hibino, Y., and Yamamoto, F., J. Appl. Phys. 58, 1356 (1985).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3.Glicksman, L.R., Glass Technol. 9, 131 (1968).Google Scholar
4.Arridge, R.G. C. and Prior, K., Nature 203, 386 (1964).Google Scholar
5.Paek, U.C. and Kurkjian, C. R., J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 58, 330 (1975).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6.Vaskopulos, T., Polymeropoulos, C. E., and Zebib, A., J. Mater. Proc. Manuf. Sci. 1, 261 (1993).Google Scholar
7.Roy Choudhury, S., Jaluria, Y., Vaskopulos, T., and Poly-meropoulos, C. E., J. Heat Trans. 116, 790 (1994).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8.Paek, U.C. and Runk, R.B., J. Appl. Phys. 49, 4417 (1978).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9.Homsy, G.M. and Walker, K., Glass Technol. 20, 20 (1979).Google Scholar
10.Sayles, R. and Caswell, B., Int. J. Heat Mass Trans. 27, 57 (1984).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11.Vasilijev, V.N., Dulnev, G.N., and Naumchic, V.D., Glass Tech-nol. 30, 83 (1989).Google Scholar
12.Myers, M.R., AIChE J. 35, 592 (1989).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13.Lee, S.H.-K. and Jaluria, Y., J. Mater. Proc. Manufac. Sci. 3, 317 (1985).Google Scholar
14.Papamichael, H. and Miaoulis, I.N., Submol. Glass Chem. Phys. 1590, 122 (1991).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15.Lee, S.H-K. and Jaluria, Y., Proc. 10th Int. Heat Transfer Confer-ence, Brighton, U.K. 7, 303 (1994).Google Scholar
16.Gebhart, B., Jaluria, Y., Mahajan, R. L., and Sammakia, B., Buoyancy-Induced Flows and Transport (Taylor and Francis, Washington, DC, 1988).Google Scholar
17.Lee, S.H-K. and Jaluria, Y., Numer. Heat Trans. 28, 19 (1995).Google Scholar
18.Fleming, J.D., Final Report for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commis-sion, Oak Ridge, TN, Project No. B-153 (1964).Google Scholar
19.Roy Choudhury, S. and Jaluria, Y., J. Heat Trans. 116, 724 (1994).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
20.Jaluria, Y. and Torrance, K. E., Computational Heat Transfer (Tay-lor and Francis, Washington, DC, 1986).Google Scholar
21.Roy Choudhury, S., Jaluria, Y., and Lee, S.H-K., Am. Soc. Mech. Eng. Heat Trans. Div. 306, 23 (1995).Google Scholar
22.Minkowycz, W. J., Sparrow, E.M., Schneider, G. E., and Pletcher, R.H., Handbook of Numerical Heat Transfer (John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1988).Google Scholar
23.Alderson, J.V., Caress, J. B., and Sager, R. L., Pilkington Bros. Ltd., Lathom, Lancashire, Lab. Rep. No. L.R. 235 (1968).Google Scholar