Abstract
The experimental design methodology was applied in the drop tube furnace (DTF) to predict the various combustion properties according to the operating conditions and to assess the coal plant safety. Response surface method (RSM) was introduced as a design of experiment, and the database for RSM was set with the numerical simulation of DTF. The dependent variables such as burnout ratios (BOR) of coal and $CO/CO_2$ ratios were mathematically described as a function of three independent variables (coal particle size, carrier gas flow rate, wall temperature) being modeled by the use of the central composite design (CCD), and evaluated using a second-order polynomial multiple regression model. The prediction of BOR showed a high coefficient of determination (R2) value, thus ensuring a satisfactory adjustment of the second-order polynomial multiple regression model with the simulation data. However, $CO/CO_2$ ratio had a big difference between calculated values and predicted values using conventional RSM, which might be mainly due to the dependent variable increses or decrease very steeply, and hence the second order polynomial cannot follow the rates. To relax the increasing rate of dependent variable, $CO/CO_2$ ratio was taken as common logarithms and worked again with RSM. The application of logarithms in the transformation of dependent variables showed that the accuracy was highly enhanced and predicted the simulation data well.