Open Access

ARTICLE

Simulation of Temperature Field in Oil-Based Drill Cuttings Pyrolysis Furnace for Shale Gas

Pu Liu, Guangwei Bai^*, Wei Li, Chuanhua Ge

School of Mechanical Engineering, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering, Yibin, 644000, China

* Corresponding Author: Guangwei Bai. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Heat Transfer Analysis and Optimization in Energy Systems)

Frontiers in Heat and Mass Transfer 2025, 23(6), 1847-1864. https://doi.org/10.32604/fhmt.2025.070378

Received 15 July 2025; Accepted 19 September 2025; Issue published 31 December 2025

Abstract

To address the issue of uneven temperature distribution in shale gas oil-based drill cuttings pyrolysis furnaces, a numerical model was developed using Fluent software. The effects of nitrogen flow rate, heating tube spacing, and furnace dimensions on the internal temperature field were thoroughly analyzed from a mechanistic perspective. The results indicated that non-uniform radiation from the heating tubes and flow disturbances induced by the nitrogen stream were the primary causes of localized heat concentration. Under no-load conditions, the maximum deviation between simulated and on-site measured temperatures was 1.5%, validating the model’s accuracy. Furthermore, this study investigated the trade-offs between temperature uniformity, energy consumption, and construction costs. The findings provide a crucial design basis and a reliable simulation platform for developing and optimizing pyrolysis equipment.

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Keywords

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