Description A key element for the UK metals manufacturing sector to reduce its carbon emissions is transitioning from natural gas fired furnaces to hydrogen fired furnaces. This is, however, not as straight forward as it seems. Productivity and overhead costs are two major elements of a metals manufacturing company's ability to make a profit, both of which may be impacted by moving to hydrogen furnaces. In this project you will be tasked with developing computational fluid dynamic models of the Advanced Forming Research Centre's (AFRC's) industrial sized gas furnaces but replaced with hydrogen burners. The models will then be used to understand the effect of the change in fuel supply on productivity (e.g., heat up rates, cycle times, efficiency). Furthermore, the output of the models will be used to develop a cost model to inform industry of the cost implications of transitioning to electric furnaces. You will be working in direct collaboration with AFRC engineers. Note, a number of succesful projects were run last year on the topic and these projects can be built upon.  Key Objectives

1. Develop a CFD model of AFRC's natural gas fired furnace.
2. Develop a CFD model of AFRC's natural gas fired furnace but with hydrogen burners replacing the natural gas burners
3. Produce a productivity comparison between the two furnaces.
4. Develop a cost model of the use of both furnaces.