Incorporating Cold Cap Behavior in a Joule-heated Waste Glass Melter Model
In this paper, an overview of Joule-heated waste glass melters used in the vitrification of high level waste (HLW) is presented, with a focus on the cold cap region. This region, in which feed-to-glass conversion reactions occur, is critical in determining the melting properties of any given glass melter. An existing 1D computer model of the cold cap, implemented in MATLAB, is described in detail. This model is a standalone model that calculates cold cap properties based on boundary conditions at the top and bottom of the cold cap. Efforts to couple this cold cap model with a 3D STAR-CCM+ model of a Joule-heated melter are then described. The coupling is being implemented in ModelCenter, a software integration tool. The ultimate goal of this model is to guide the specification of melter parameters that optimize glass quality and production rate.