OPEN-CHANNEL HYDRAULICS OF INDUSTRIAL MELTS.

In the glass-making industry, one discernible trend is directed toward the structuring of casting plants around single, central furnaces which then feed a possibly large number of individual and widely dispersed forming machines. The conveyance of the liquid glass takes place in open-channels of often considerable length. The generally non-uniform motion in these conduits is laminar and, as such, is very much dependent upon the shape of the flow cross-section. This paper develops analytical prediction methods for the computation of gradually varied laminar open-channel flow, and their verification by laboratory experiments. The results of this work, which is restricted to flow in horizontal channels of rectangular cross-section, are expected to be useful not only in the manufacture of glass products, but also in other industrial processes involving molten substances.