The aim of this study is to examine by both experiment and analysis the heat transfer from combustioa flame to steel plate during the line heating process. To simplify the calculation, an impinging jet flow is substituted for a combustion flame, because of the difficulty of analyzing the thermo-flow field both inside and outside the flame. Based on the existing analysis method, the standard k- e twoequation model, both the convective heat transfer and the time histories of steel plate temperatures are numerically calculated. Comparing calculated results with experimental ones, the results are as follows.
When the highest temperature within the flame is used as the temperature at the jet exit, the calculated temperature distribution of the jet near the plate surface is similar to the measured one.
The measured and calculated time histories of temperatures in the steel plate are in close agreement with each other.
The coefficient of heat transfer and heat flux to steel plate during the line-heating process can be obtained numerically from the proposed analysis.
The line heating process with a combustion flame is widely used for shell plate bending in ships. At the present time, such work depends on the know-how of the worker who performs it almost by intuition. Recently, the number of skilled workers has decreased and no replacements are at hand. This is a serious problem in the shipbuilding industry, making automation of the line heating procedure a strong priority. The physical phenomena that we feel need to be understood during the line heating process are the following three;
heat transfer from combustion flame to steel plate,
heat conduction in the steel plate,
thermal elasto-plastic deformation.
Nowadays, the latter two processes can be approximated by calculations.
