A transient state simulation of a moving granular-bed type heat exchanger, in which heat is transferred from the hot gas through granular materials and heat pipes to the cold gas, has been performed. A numerical simulation model was developed by dividing each part of the heat exchanger, and the changes in temperature of each part were calculated using the Euler method.
The changes in temperature of some parts of the heat exchanger under conditions which demonstrated periodic changes in the inlet temperature or flow rate of heating gas were compared with the data obtained from the experiment, which was conducted under the same conditions. The calculation results coincided with the results of the experiment.
The main feature of the moving granular-bed type heat exchanger is its capacity to recover waste heat stably. This was clarified from the simulation calculation of the pilot plant with the heating gas condition equivalent to that of the converter outlet gas.