Waste heat recovery in glass or iron factories is essential for enhancing the efficiency of the melting process. The technology focuses on capturing and reusing excess heat generated during this process. Traditionally, a uniform temperature model is used to evaluate energy transfer in recovery systems due to its simplicity. However, this model tends to overestimate system performance when the bed’s ball sizes are large or the cyclic absorption and desorption durations are short. This study introduces an approach to address this limitation by using a modified radius instead of the original radius in the uniform model. The modified radius is determined by analyzing energy storage during the working process through both uniform and non-uniform models. Simulation results indicate that the modified radius more accurately predicts temperature variations and thermal energy storage capacity. Additionally, a linear relationship between the modified and original radii for both brick and ceramic materials is observed. This finding can be applied to predict energy storage performance in glass or blast furnace waste heat recovery systems when ball sizes are large or different ball sizes are mixed.