DESIGN AND TESTING OF A CUPOLA FURNACE FOR MICHAEL OKPARA UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE, UMUDIKE

Abstract

The need to recycle and productively reuse the abundant scrap metals in the country led to this paper. The task therein focused on a design aimed at the modification and re-fabrication of an existing cupola furnace in-situ at the Engineering Workshop of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike (MOUAU) in Abia State, Nigeria. From the design, 0.00129m³/s volume of air supplied to the cupola furnace with an available volumetric capacity of 0.01378m³ at the rate of 32963.58W/m² produced an estimated melting heat of 89113.5KJ/hr with a melting rate of 123Kg/hr for the complete combustion of the fuel utilizing a mass of charge of material of 123Kg. These parameters as compared for the already existing cupola at the Workshop gave the volume of air supplied as 0.000257m³/s at the rate of 285973.05W/m² with the melting rate capacity of 67952.25KJ/hr and a melting rate of 101.2Kg/hr, respectively. Consequently, the fuel analysis performed showed that the stoichiometric air/fuel ratio obtained was 11.39, while the efficiency of the cupola furnace was calculated as 67% against the 50.02% value of the already existing one in-situ at the Workshop. This represents an increase of about 16.98% in efficiency from the already existing and modified cupola used as standard for the present study. It is thus recommended that this novelty design be used as a foundation for building bigger furnaces and for the sensitisation of students’ awareness in foundry technology and practices.