Energy saving in electric heater of carbon fiber stabilization oven

Carbon fiber is an advanced material with high tensile strength and modulus, ideally suited for light weight applications. Carbon fiber properties are directly dependent on all aspects of production, especially the process step of thermal stabilization. Stabilization is considered to be one of the most critical process steps. Moreover, the stabilization process is the most energy consuming, time consuming and costly step. As oxidation is an exothermic process, constant airflow to uniformly remove heat from all tows across the towband is indispensable. Our approach is to develop an intelligent computational system that can construct an optimal Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) solution. In this study, an electrical heater has been designed by CFD modeling and intelligently controlled. The model results show that the uniform airflow and minimum turbulence kinetic energy can be achieved by combining intelligent system technology with CFD analysis strategy.