Numerical Investigation on the Effects of Sample Wire Motion in a Tube Furnace

A tube furnace is a heat treatment device in which a specimen is heated in the presence of an inert gas using electric heating coils embedded in a thermally insulating matrix. Heat flux and temperature gradients of sample during heat treatment in a tube furnace depend on the gas and wire velocities. These parameters were used in this paper for a 2-D axisymmetric numerical study to determine an optimized relationship between the temperature and the sample wire motion. The results show that wire velocity considerably affected the wire temperature distribution and increased the gas temperature to some extent. The phenomenon resulted in the shifting of the heating zone on the wire surface and occurrence of an inner convection heat transfer.