Christian Futschik

Queen's University

Mechanical Engineering, M.A.S.c•  January 2017 - November 2019

Implemented a new devolatilization and heating rate model within the open-source CFD program OpenFOAM to increase coal particle combustion modelling accuracy at high temperatures, increasing the accuracy achieved when modelling solid fuel combustion in a cement kiln. + A bash script was used to automate the modification and data collection of multiple case simulations. + Due to simulation size and complexity, full kiln geometry simulations were run using an HPC cluster provided by the HPCVL. + Early communication with Lafarge during the project planning stage was essential to produce an accurate model with the correct geometry and operational specifications. + As OpenFOAM is written in C++, a proficient level of understanding had to be quickly self-taught to implement model changes and troubleshoot bugs within code. + An optimization algorithm was created within MATLAB to optimize parameters of the implemented model using experimental data.