Simulation of ancient wind-driven iron smelting furnaces of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Metal processing industry in Sri Lanka began around 3000BC. Ancient chronicles like Mahavansaya, Thupavansa and Pujavaliya proved the Sri Lanka’s history of metal industry. Archaeometallurgical surveys of Sri Lanka have revealed a non-conventional wind-driven iron smelting furnace for the first time in the world. Some of them dated back to third century BC. Replications of iron smelting process have shown the ability of those furnaces to operate and produce high carbon Steel. CFD modeling and simulation is a popular tool to further understand the fluid flow patterns within and surrounding a furnace. This paper discusses the initial steps of modeling and simulation of the total process of iron smelting in the west-facing furnaces situated in Samanalawewa area of Sri Lanka. Main focus of the paper is to analyze the cold flow at 2D and 3D steady state conditions by using the open source OpenFOAM CFD software with over 9million cells for 3D simulation in finite volume method. The results have been compared with a validated simulation on the same furnace using the commercial CFD code Fluent.