The purpose of this thesis for Sapa Heat Transfer is to examine a furnace in which aluminium is pre-heated before hot rolling. The project is modeled in a computer environment in which the air flow in the furnace and the heat transfer to the aluminium solids are included. The computer environment and its governing equations, as well as boundary conditions and generalizations, are presented and explained.

The simulations are based on two models. The first model has an asymmetric solid placement, which is how it looks in today's ovens. It is validated against collected data. The second model has a symmetric solid placement, in which improvements are introduced and evaluated.

The results indicate that a symmetric positioning of metal solids in the oven is preferable in order to achieve a good airflow distribution. The use of plates has been proven useful for steering the air to critial areas and to get an even distribution of the airflow. Lastly the simulations indicate that an increased airflow can compensate the less optimal flow distribution that arises with asymmetric solid placements.