Numerical investigations of the binder burnout process during the MLCC manufacturing

•Develop a complete multiphase flow model that considers fluid, thermal, and species transport for the burnout process of the full-scale kiln.•The complete sets of governing equations have been carried out within a single flow channel whose inlet flow boundary condition is from the full-scale kiln computation.•The temperature gradient near the MLCC region is very small, which allows the temperature of the MLCC to be approximated at the tray surface.•Analytical models that only require thermal fields without consideration of MLCC have comparable results to those computed by CFD models.•We considers the interactions between the MLCC body and the fluid flow within the kiln, enabling us to investigate the thermal time delay. The multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) is an essential component in modern electronic products, and its manufacturing process can take a couple of hours to several days. To understand the details during the binder burnout (BBO) process and to develop optimal design setups using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), this study has developed a complete multiphase flow model that accounts for fluid, thermal, and species transport related to the burnout gas and the MLCC region. This complete set of governing equations has been implemented within a single flow channel, where the inlet flow boundary condition is acquired from full-scale kiln computations. The temperature gradient near the MLCC region is very small, which allows the temperature of the MLCC to be approximated by the temperature at the tray surface. Consequently, the thermal field, without considering the MLCC, can be computed at a lower computational cost, which can then be used as input for additional analytical models to determine the binder removal ratio, the concentration of BBO gas, and the pressure buildup within the MLCC body. This framework has been validated and can be applied to full-scale kiln simulations, providing valuable insights for related industries to establish practical design principles.