A container furnace was chosen for evaluation of the character of glass melt flow with respect to melting quality using mathematical modelling. Previous model studies of the melt flow character in simple melting channels helped to understand appropriate distributions of boosting energy in the melting space. The courses of sand particles dissolution and fining were modelled as criteria of quality. The utilization of the melting space, the melting performance, and the specific energy consumption were used for evaluation of the resulting melt flow character. The melting performance increases and specific heat losses decrease with the growing amount of boosting energy located in the batch region, regardless of the detailed arrangements of electrodes. However, the double central longitudinal row of electrodes (in x-direction) provides best results and the melt flow shows features of the helical flow. Generally, the melting characteristics improve when the critical melting performance approaches the curve describing the flow rate as a function of energy delivered in the batch region under balanced energetic state. Using the derived simplified formulas describing the development of the flow rate components as a function of longitudinal and transferal energy distribution, the flow character beneficial to the followed homogenisation phenomena (sand dissolution and fining) can be predicted. The procedure shows the significance of the melt flow character for the melting effectively besides the melting kinetics.
