Radiant heat-flux uniformity
Firebox CFD identifies hot spots on radiant coils before tubes go into service. Essential for CDU, VDU, and hydrotreater heaters where local flux peaks drive coking and short run length.
Engineering · CFD & FEA
We rebuild the firebox in simulation before steel is cut.
CFD resolves heat flux, flame behaviour, draft, and vibration. FEA resolves structural integrity, wind and seismic response, and thermal expansion across a 30-year lifecycle. Both are done in-house in Noida by our own engineers — never subcontracted.
Why In-House Matters
The same engineers who rate the heater solve the CFD and FEA.
When CFD and FEA are subcontracted, the boundary conditions, assumptions, and post-processing live outside the engineering team. Discoveries in simulation can't flow back into the thermal model or the mechanical package without another round of emails and assumptions.
At Esteem, CFD mesh and FEA model sit next to the WinHeat® rating and the mechanical drawings on the same network, owned by the same engineers. The feedback loop is days, not weeks — and every assumption is traceable to the person who made it.
Computational Fluid Dynamics
What CFD does for a fired heater
CFD turns the firebox from a black box into a measurable, steerable system. We use it to flatten radiant flux, shape the flame envelope, predict emissions, and catch vibration risks before they reach the field.
Burner-flame interaction
Flame envelope, recirculation zones, and tube impingement risk modelled for each burner layout. Multi-burner interaction and low-NOx flame behaviour resolved at firebox scale.
Combustion analysis
Species concentration, heat release profile, and emissions prediction under real fuel compositions — including dual-fuel and waste-gas firing scenarios.
Flow patterns and mixing
Firebox and convection-section flow fields. Maldistribution, short-circuiting, and stagnation zones identified before they become a field problem.
Draft profile
Pressure gradient from radiant arch through convection and into the stack. Informs damper sizing, air preheat design, and induced-draft fan selection.
Vibration and flow-induced resonance
Vortex shedding around tubes, stack dynamic response, and acoustic resonance risk — caught in simulation before commissioning surprises.
Finite Element Analysis
What FEA does for a fired heater
FEA answers the question procurement teams ask last and operators ask first: will this heater still be structurally sound 30 years from commissioning? We model static, dynamic, thermal, and seismic loading together — not in silos.
Structural integrity over 30-year lifecycle
Static, dynamic, and fatigue analysis for casings, stacks, support structures, and pressure parts across design life — not just first-year performance.
Wind, seismic, and dynamic loads
Region-specific wind loading, seismic response spectrum analysis, and transient dynamic events. Especially critical for tall stacks and modular heater frames destined for high-seismic sites.
Tube support and guide stresses
Thermal expansion loads on tube supports, intermediate guides, and cast alloy hardware. Validates the mechanical package against API 560 allowables.
Thermal expansion and differential growth
Transient and steady-state thermal stress in radiant coils, convection banks, and transfer lines. Expansion paths, restraint stresses, and cyclic fatigue considered together.
Nozzle and connection loads
Local stress at pressure-boundary nozzles, transfer line tie-ins, and equipment interfaces. WRC-107/537 methodology combined with full FEA where geometry warrants it.
Refractory anchor and lining stress
Anchor loads, lining differential expansion, and dry-out stress distribution — feeding back into refractory selection and anchor pattern design.
Applied in the field
Where our CFD and FEA work lands
Simulation only matters if it shapes a real design decision. These are representative cases where CFD and FEA changed what we built.
Refinery Fired Heaters
CDU / VDU Radiant Uniformity
Firebox CFD run on crude and vacuum heater geometries to flatten the radiant flux profile across the coil, reducing peak tube metal temperature and extending run length between decoke outages.
Chemplast Sanmar · EDC Revamp
EDC Cracking Furnace Coil Design
CFD + FEA used together to redesign the coil for a +20% throughput debottleneck. Flow-regime mapping confirmed two-phase behaviour inside the cracking coil; FEA validated the coil-support envelope under the new duty.
Proprietary Process Technology
Ketene Cracker Tube-Skin Optimization
Tube metal temperature in ketene service sits at the edge of creep allowables. CFD on the radiant section combined with WinHeat® tube-by-tube rating keeps skin temperatures inside the API RP 530 creep-rupture envelope while maximising conversion.
The Toolchain
Tools we run in-house
CFD in OpenFoam and Baram. FEA in Autodesk structural analysis and STAAD Pro. Thermal boundary conditions supplied by WinHeat®, our proprietary simulation engine — so every simulation starts from a physics baseline we own.
OpenFoam
Open-source CFD used for firebox combustion, radiation, and multi-phase flow studies. Meshing, case setup, solving, and post-processing run in-house.
Baram
Pre- and post-processing environment for heater-specific CFD cases. Speeds iteration on burner and firebox geometry studies.
Autodesk Structural Analysis
FEA across structural steel, casings, and modular frames — integrated with the Revit Structure / Advance Steel model.
STAAD Pro
Structural analysis for stacks, support structures, platforms, and pipe racks. Wind, seismic, dynamic, and load-combination workflows.
MecaStack
Stack-specific vortex-shedding, ovalling, and dynamic analysis.
WinHeat® (thermal boundary)
Our proprietary thermal engine supplies boundary conditions, flux profiles, and hydraulic data that feed the CFD and FEA models — keeping thermal, flow, and mechanical analysis consistent.
Part of the EPC offering
CFD and FEA are how we engineer, not what we sell.
We don't market CFD or FEA as a standalone consulting service. They are how we engineer every fired heater, every revamp, and every ketene cracker we deliver. Bundled, not unbundled.
If you have a heater performance problem — uneven flux, short run length, emissions exceedance, vibration, or a structural concern on an aging unit — bring it to us as an engineering problem. We'll bring CFD, FEA, WinHeat®, and 30 years of fired heater depth to the answer.
Discuss your heater performance challenge.
Share the symptom — hot tubes, short run length, draft issues, vibration, structural concern — and we'll propose the right simulation scope as part of an engineering workstream or revamp.