The quality of the glass melt produced in a glass furnace is to a large extent determined by the temperature-time trajectory of the freshly molten glass melt in the melting tank of the glass furnace. The residence time and the temperature of the glass melt need to be sufficient for complete dissolution of raw materials, the release of dissolved gases from the glass melt and the homogenization of the glass melt. To understand, control and optimize glass melt quality and to improve glass furnace design, since the early 1980’s, mathematical simulation models, describing melting and heat transfer in glass furnaces, have been used. These mathematical simulation models show that thickness, length, reactivity and thermal properties of glass forming batches have a large impact on the temperature distribution and glass melt flow patterns in a glass furnace. Therefore, detailed models describing the thermal and chemical behavior of glass forming batches are required in mathematical simulation models. The melting of glass forming batches is a complex process involving different reaction types such as dehydration reactions, crystalline inversions, solid-state reactions between different raw material grains, decomposition reactions, melt forming reactions and dissolution processes. The heating of the three-phase (reacting) glass forming batch is determined by both heat transfer from the combustion space above and the glass melt underneath the glass batch and by heat transport in the interior of the glass batch. Because of the complexity of the melting and heating process of glass batches and due to the lack of sensors and accurate analyzing techniques to measure and monitor the progress of glass batch melting, no quantitative description of the simultaneous heating and reactive melting of glass forming batches is known so far. The objective of this study is to obtain a quantitative description of the heating process of a glass forming batches and the conversion rate of the glass forming batch into the glass melt
