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Numerical Investigation of the Inner Profiles of Ironmaking Blast Furnaces: Effect of Throat-to-Belly Diameter Ratio

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Abstract

The inner profile of iron making blast furnace (BF) is of significant importance to reactor performance. However, its determination lacks any sound theoretical and empirical base. This paper presents a numerical study of the multiphase flow and thermochemical behaviors inside BFs with different inner profiles by a multi-fluid process model. The validity of the model is first confirmed by various applications. It is then used to study the effect of throat-to-belly diameter ratio (R D) with respect to productivity, burden distribution pattern, and softening-melting temperature of ferrous materials. The results show that when R D increases, the fuel rate increases at relatively low productivities; however, it initially decreases to a minimum and then increases at relatively high productivities. This performance against R D to some degree varies with either burden distribution pattern or softening-melting temperature of ferrous materials. Optimum R D can be identified with relatively small coke rate and minimum fluctuations of global performance and in-furnace states. The analysis of the in-furnace states reveals that the flow and thermochemical behaviors above the cohesive zone are drastically deteriorated with increasing productivity for BFs with relatively small R D , leading to different variation trends of fuel rate.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Australian Research Council (ARC) and Central Iron & Steel Research Institute (CISRI) for the financial support of this work, and the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) and Intersect Australia for the use of their high-performance computational facilities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Simulation and Modelling of Particulate Systems, Department of Chemical Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Melbourne, VIC, 3800, Australia

    Zhaoyang Li (Ph.D. Candidate), Shibo Kuang (Research Fellow) & Aibing Yu (Professor)

  2. State Key Laboratory for Advanced Iron and Steel Processes and Products, Central Iron and Steel Research Institute, Beijing, 100081, China

    Dingliu Yan (Professor) & Yuanhong Qi (Professor)

Authors
  1. Zhaoyang Li
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  2. Shibo Kuang
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  3. Dingliu Yan
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  5. Aibing Yu
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Correspondence to Shibo Kuang.

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Manuscript submitted June 15, 2016.

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Li, Z., Kuang, S., Yan, D. et al. Numerical Investigation of the Inner Profiles of Ironmaking Blast Furnaces: Effect of Throat-to-Belly Diameter Ratio. Metall Mater Trans B 48, 602–618 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11663-016-0831-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11663-016-0831-6

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