Case Study: AG Furnace Improvements achieves increased heater capacity and efficiency with ANSYS Fluent simulation

AG Furnace Improvements - Customer Case Study

AG Furnace Improvements needed to increase the crude capacity of a refinery heater while keeping radiant tube metal temperatures below design limits, extend run length, and validate predictions against field tests. They partnered with ANSYS and used ANSYS Workbench and ANSYS Fluent to model the heater’s combustion and flame behavior.

ANSYS simulated flame characteristics and non‑uniform burner air distribution, then recommended a revised burner configuration; the results eliminated flame impingement, reduced maximum tube metal temperatures, cut airflow deviation from ±20% to ±3%, and enabled the heater to be commissioned with higher capacity, improved efficiency and longer run lengths. ANSYS’ CFD modelling directly supported the optimized design and field-proven performance.