Thermal investigations of open-flame fired furnaces in copper metallurgy with the application of the least squares adjustment method

The control system of the operation of open-flame fired furnaces ought to warrant a minimization of the consumption of fuel, meeting however, the conditions of the furnace atmosphere and overpressure. In the case of open-flame fired furnaces in copper metallurgy it is most convenient to evaluate the effectiveness of the process of firing, basing on the degree of fuel utilization, which expresses the ratio of heat passed by the combustion gases into the furnace chamber to the consumption of chemical energy of fuels. The paper contains an algorithm of determining the degree of fuel utilization, making use of the least squares adjustment method. The results of adjusting the balances of substances and calculations of the energy characteristics for all the phases of the operations of an anode furnace and Dörschl's furnace in one of the Polish copper mills have been presented.