Optimum design and layout of the cooling apparatus for long compaignship blast furnace

Generally, the cooler life can determine the blast furnace life. The slag-metal skull frozen on the cooler can separate the cooler from the hot gas flow in blast furnace. The key problem is how to freeze liquid slag-metal on the cooler, and the main measure is to decrease the hot surface temperature of the cooler. The computational technology of heat transfer was practically used for long campaign blast furnace design. The optimum design of the cast iron stave, copper stave, plate-stave combined system and flangestave was given by the computing results. According to the results, the optimum arrangement of different coolers (cast iron or copper stave, flange stave and plate-stave combined system) on different height of blast furnace wall can be found through all these temperature fields.     

Designing for Long Campaign Life Blast Furnace (1)──The Mathematical Model of Temperature Field for Blast Furnace Lining and Cooling Apparatus and New Concept of Long Campaignship Blast Furnace Cooler Design

The physical and mathematical model of temperature field for blast furnace stave coolers was established. The computation results show that the heat resistance of 2-6 mm water scale within the cooling pipe is about 7%-20% of the total heat resistance of cooling stave body, as for drilling duct type, the heat resistance of 2-6 mm water scale is about 88%-98% of the total heat resistance. Using drilling duct or full cast pipe can eliminate gas clearance and coating layer between pipes and cast iron body and reduce the heat resistance of the cooler sharply and improve the coefficient of heat transfer to a great extent. The water velocity within coolers can be kept at the level of 0.5-1.5 m/s, the higher water velocity can not decrease the hot surface temperature, but can increase energy consumption for cooling water.     

3-D temperature distribution of a full size BF copper stave with oblate channel

An experiment of a new type full size copper stave for a real blast furnace was carried out in a special-designed experimental system. The 3-D temperature distribution inside the stave including isotherm was obtained based on the experiment data. And the effects of the temperature of cooling water and the velocity of the water as well as the temperature of the furnace on the 3-D ternperature distribution were obtained. The experimental and calculation results show that the highest temperature of the hot surface is lower than 90℃ which is very good for the solidified slag formation on the hot surface and protecting the stave.     

Quantificational indexes for design and evaluation of copper staves for blast furnaces

The quantificational and normative design is the precondition of improving the design of copper staves for blast furnaces. Based on a 3-dimensional temperature field calculation model, from the view point of heat transfer and long campaigns note with the core of forming accretion, the forming-accretion-ability (FAA) and the rib hot surface maximum temperature difference (△T_max) as quantificational indexes to direct and evaluate the design of copper staves for blast furnaces were presented. The application of the two indexes in design essentially embodies the new long campaigns in the stage of design. With the application of the two indexes, good results can be obtained. Firstly, it was suggested that the rib height of a copper stave can be reduced to 15 mm, which is a new method and theory for the reduction of copper staves. Secondly, the influence of insert on FAA and △T_max, is decided by the volume of insert. According to this, the principle of design for the hot surface geometry of copper staves was put forward that the ratio of the rib hot surface to the copper stave hot surface (abbreviated as the ratio of rib to stave) must be maintained in the range of 45% to 55%; for the present copper stave with a 35-40 mm thick rib, the ratio of rib to stave in the range of 50% to 55% can optimize the design of copper staves; for the copper stave with a smaller rib thickness, for example 15 ram, the ratio of rib to stave in the range of 45% to 50% can optimize the design of copper staves. It can be summarized that the thicker the rib thickness, the larger is the ratio of rib to stave.     

Analysis of temperature, stress, and displacement distributions of staves for a blast furnace

The temperature of gas flow inside a blast furnace (BF) changes significantly when the blast furnace is under unstable operations, and the temperature and stress distributions of cooling staves (CS) for BF work the same pattern. The effect of gas temperature on the temperature, stress, and displacement distributions of the cooling stave were analyzed as the gas temperature inside the blast furnace rose from 1000 to 1600℃ in 900 s. The results show that both the temperature and temperature gradient of the hot side of CS increase when the gas flow temperature inside BF rises. The temperature gradient of the hot side of CS is greater than that of the other area of CS and it can reach 65℃/mm. In the vertical direction of the hot side of CS, closer to the central part of CS, the stress intensity is greater than that of the other area of the hot side of CS, which causes cracks on the hot side of CS in the vertical direction. As the gas temperature increases, the stress intensity rate near the fixed pin increases and finally reaches 45 MPa/s. Fatigues near the fixed pin and bolts are caused by great stress intensity rate and the area around the pin can be damaged easily. The edge of CS bends toward the cold side and the central part of CS shifts toward the hot surface.     

Optimization for the structure of BF hearth bottom and the arrangement of thermal couples

The hearth of ＂heat transfer method＂ and the ceramic cup synthetic hearth bottom of ＂heart isolation method＂ are two most popular designs for blast furnace （BF）. Although there are successful real examples, some disadvantages, for instance large heat loss and high cost, still exist for these designs. According to the theory of heat transfer, based on the calculation of temperature distribution of the hearth bottom, it is elucidated that all brick layers at the hearth bottom may not be considered as the only reason why different structures exhibited different temperature distributions although total heat resistance is the same, and then based on the effect of hot metal and cold water on different temperature distribution ranges, the concepts of ＂heat resistance＂ and ＂cooling enhancement＂ are put forth. Based on this, the disadvantages and the factors affecting temperature distribution, of the two types of hearth bottoms were illustrated. On the basis of these analyses, a novel structure for BF hearth bottom designing that can easily form ＂self-protecting＂ slag layer stably, called ＂the method of gradient brick layout that has an optimum combination of cooling enhancement and heat resistance＂ was proposed; it can not only prolong the hearth bottom longevity but also reduce the cost and heat loss.     

Experimental study on heat transfer characteristics of blast furnace copper staves

Much attention has been paid to copper staves because they have excellent performance and longevity. The hot test of copper staveswas carried out using all-scale stave experiment system and accordingto the results, the temperature distribution and heat characteristicswere studied. The result shows that copper stave possesses outstanding heat transfer ability, a well-distributed temperature field and low temperature on the hot side. In addition, a model was established to calculate the cooling water channels' inner face temperature. The calculation results indicates that the highest temperature of the inner wall of the channels is 42℃, and at the same time, the cold side of the stave temperature is 42-43℃. That is to say, the temperature in the stave is quite uniform.     

Optimization for the structure of BF hearth bottom and the arrangement of thermal couples

The hearth of “heat transfer method” and the ceramic cup synthetic hearth bottom of “heart isolation method” are two most popular designs for blast furnace (BF). Although there are successful real examples, some disadvantages, for instance large heat loss and high cost, still exist for these designs. According to the theory of heat transfer, based on the calculation of temperature distribution of the hearth bottom, it is elucidated that all brick layers at the hearth bottom may not be considered as the only reason why different structures exhibited different temperature distributions although total heat resistance is the same, and then based on the effect of hot metal and cold water on different temperature distribution ranges, the concepts of “heat resistance” and “cooling enhancement” are put forth. Based on this, the disadvantages and the factors affecting temperature distribution, of the two types of hearth bottoms were illustrated. On the basis of these analyses, a novel structure for BF hearth bottom designing that can easily form “self-protecting” slag layer stably, called “the method of gradient brick layout that has an optimum combination of cooling enhancement and heat resistance”was proposed; it can not only prolong the hearth bottom longevity but also reduce the cost and heat loss. Also, the optimum arrangement of thermal couples in hearth bottom was suggested based on the previous studies on erosion prediction carried out by the author.     

Zonal method solution of radiative heat transfer in a one-dimensional long roller-hearth furnace in CSP

A radiative heat transfer mathematical model for a one-dimensional long furnace was set up in a through-type roller-hearth furnace (TTRHF) in compact strip production (CSP). To accurately predict the heat exchange in the furnace, modeling of the complex gas energy-balance equation in volume zones was considered, and the heat transfer model of heating slabs and wall lines was coupled with the radiative heat transfer model to identify the surface zonal temperature. With numerical simulation, the temperature fields of gas, slabs, and wall lines in the furnace under one typical working condition were carefully accounted and analyzed. The fundamental theory for analyzing the thermal process in TI'RI-IF was provided.     

Numerical calculation of flow and heat transfer process in the new-type external combustion swirl-flowing hot stove

It is clarified that the important method to improve the blast temperature of the small and the middle blast furnaces whose production is about two-thirds of total sum of China from 1000℃ to 1250-1300℃ is to preheat both their combustion-supporting air and coal gas. The air temperature of blast furnaces can be reached to 1250-1300℃ by burning single blast furnace coal gas if high speed burner is applied to blast furnaces and new-type external combustion swirl-flowing hot stove is used to preheat their combustion-supporting air. The computational results of the flow and heat transfer processions in the bot stove prove that the surface of the bed of the thernal storage balls there have not eccentric flow and the flow field and temperature field distribution is even. The computational results of the blast temperature distribution are similar to those determination experiment data. The numerical results also provide references for developing and designing the new-type external combustion swirl-flowing hot stoves.     

EAF steelmaking process with increasing hot metal charging ratio and improving slagging regime

A new electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking process with increasing hot metal charging ratio and improving slagging regime simultaneously was developed and applied in a 50 t electric arc furnace for more than a year at No. 1 Steelmaking Plant of Shanxi Taigang Stainless Corporation Limited. The essential fact of the new EAF steelmaking process was to charge hot metal in two portions or steps: firstly, 35wt%-40wt% hot metal was pretreated by blowing oxygen in a specially designed reactor for decar burization and improving hot metal temperature and melting premelted slag; secondly, 30wt% hot metal was charged into EAF with high basicity refining slags from ladle furnace (LF)-vacuum degassing furnace (VD) refining process. The results show that the hot metal charging ratio can reach to about 65wt%-70wt% for the new EAF steelrnaking process; meanwhile, the tap-to-tap time of a 50 t EAF can shorten by 5-10 min, the electricity consumption can decrease by 35-50 kW·h/t, the lime consumption can reduce by 10.5 kg/t of molten steel, and the content of harmful heavy metals in molten steel can be easily controlled to less than the upper limits of aimed steel specification or grade compared with the traditional EAF steelmaking process. In addition, the dephosphorization ability shows a slight strengthening, however, a small degree of lessening for desulphurization ability is observed for the new EAF steelmaking process, but the weakness of desulphurization ability cannot become an obstacle to its further application since a stronger desulphurization ability can be achieved during secondary refining of LF coupled with VD after EAF steelmaking process.     

Investigation of Heat Transfer in the Spray Cooling of Continuous Casting

The heat transfer coefficient between spray water droplets and hot surface is measured in the laboratory. The effect of spray water flow rate, water pressure, spray distance of nozzle from the surface of strand, spray water temperature on the heat transfer is made a detail studied. And meanwhile, the effect of the strand surface FeO scale on the heat transfer is also investigated. According to the experimental results, the influence of above factors on the heat transfer coefficient has been discussed and a experience formula between the heat transfer coefficient and spray water flow rate is given out.     

A heat-driven thermoacoustic cryocooler capable of reaching below liquid hydrogen temperature

A "double-gas acoustic amplifier" is introduced to couple a thermoacoustic heat engine and a two-stage pulse tube cooler in this paper. Compared with previous acoustic amplifiers, this new acoustic amplifier maintains the function of amplification for pressure amplitude. In particular, the novel acoustic amplifier with a reservoir makes it possible to install an acoustic transparent but gas blocking elastic membrane between the engine and the cooler. Thus, the engine can use nitrogen as the working gas to work at low frequency; and meanwhile, the cooler can still use helium as the working gas to maintain its high performance. With this new amplifier, the cooling temperature of a two-stage pulse tube cooler driven by an energy-focused thermoacoustic engine reached 18.7 K.     

Numerical simulation of the temperature field of titania-bearing BF slag heated in a microwave oven

Considering the characteristic of selective heating of microwave and the treatment of titania-bearing BF slag, a mathematical model for the heating of a slag specimen is developed. The temperature distribution in the specimen is studied by numerical simulation. The temperature in the center of the cylindrical slag specimen is the highest and the temperature decreases when the radius increases rapidly. In this case, the temperature rising rate decreases with heating time rapidly, and it tends to zero when the heating time is up to 150 s.     

A novel method to improve the performance of heat exchanger——Temperature fields coordination of fluids

The methods to enhance the heat transfer in heat exchanger may be classified into two levels: one is to improve the heat transfer coefficient; the other is to upgrade the whole arrangement of the heat exchangers. For the second level, the performance of heat exchanger can be upgraded by increasing the coordination degree between the temperature fields of cold and hot fluids. When the temperature distributions are similar to each other, the temperature difference field (TDF) is more uniform, which means that the temperature fields are more coordinated with each other. For the cross-flow heat exchanger, rearrangement of the heat exchange surface area should improve the heat transfer effectiveness, which is even equal to that of the counter-flow heat exchanger when the surface area is reassigned optimally. For the multi-stream heat exchanger, the thermal performance is also dependent on the uniformity of the TDF, and the parallel-flow arrangement may achieve higher heat exchange effectiveness than the counter-flow arrangement, which indicates that the performance of heat exchanger depends on the coordination degree of temperature fields instead of the flow arrangement.     

Experimental study on sulfur removal from ladle furnace refining slag in hot state by blowing air

In view of the present problem of sulfur enrichment in the metallurgical recycling process of ladle furnace (LF) refining slag, a simple and efficient method of removing sulfur from this slag was proposed. The proposed method is compatible with current steelmaking processes. Sulfur removal from LF refining slag for SPHC steel (manufactured at a certain steel plant in China) by blowing air in the hot state was studied by using hot-state experiments in a laboratory. The FactSage software, a carbon/sulfur analyzer, and scanning electron microscopy in conjunction with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy were used to test and analyze the sulfur removal effect and to investigate factors influencing sulfur removal rate. The results show that sulfur ions in LF refining slag can be oxidized into SO₂ by O₂ at high temperature by blowing air into molten slag; SO₂ production was observed to reach a maximum with a small amount of blown O₂ when the temperature exceeded 1350℃. At 1370℃ and 1400℃, experimental LF refining slag is in the liquid state and exhibits good fluidity; under these conditions, the sulfur removal effect by blowing air is greater than 90wt% after 60 min. High temperature and large air flow rate are beneficial for removing sulfur from LF refining slag; compared with air flow rate, temperature has a greater strongly influences on the sulfur removal.     

Effect of sinter layer porosity distribution on flow and temperature fields in a sinter cooler

When sinters are filled into the sinter cooler from the sintering machine, it is commonly seen that, due to segregation effects, sinters of larger size usually accumulate closer to the inner wall of the sinter cooler, whereas those of smaller size are to the outer wall. This nonuniform distribution of sinters has led to uneven cooling effect throughout the cooler. This causes the sinters leaving the cooler at a large temperature difference. This undesired temperature difference leads to the deformation and even the destruction of the conveyors. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique was used in the present work to investigate the heat and fluid flow phenomena within the sinter cooler corresponding to the different distribution of sinter layer porosity, which was highly dependent on the arrangement and orientation of sinters within the sinter cooler. It is confirmed that a high mass flow rate within the sinter layer causes a low temperature region and vice versa. The flow fields for vertically reducing porosity distribution and random distribution are almost identical indicating the relative insignificance of convective heat transfer mechanism.     

含锰钢液在真空有渣精炼过程中的锰蒸发和脱氮行为研究

Considering the precise composition control on the vacuum refining of high-Mn steel, the behaviors of both Mn evaporation and nitrogen removal from molten Mn steel were investigated via vacuum slag refining in a vacuum induction furnace. It was found that the reaction interfaces of denitrification and Mn evaporation tend to migrate from the surface of slag layer to the surface of molten steel with the gradual exposure of molten steel during the vacuum slag refining process. Significantly, compared with the experimental group without slag addition, the addition of slag into steel can result in a lower Mn evaporation rate constant of 0.0192 cm·min?1 at 370 Pa, while the denitrification rate is almost not affected. Besides, the slag has a stronger inhibitory effect on Mn evaporation than the reduced vacuum pressure. Moreover, the inhibitory effect of the slag layer on Mn evaporation can be weakened with the increase of the initial Mn content in molten steel. The slag layer can work as an inhibitory layer to reduce the Mn evaporation from molten steel, the evaporation reaction of Mn mainly proceeds on the surface of the molten steel. This may be attributed to the Mn mass transfer coefficient for one of reaction at steel/slag interface, mass transfer in molten slag, and evaporation reaction at slag/gas interface is lower than that of evaporation reaction at steel/gas interface. The introduction of slag is proposed for both denitrification and manganese control during the vacuum refining process of Mn steels.     

Modeling and optimization of rotary kiln treating EAF dust

Electric arc furnace (EAF) dust from steel industries is listed by the United Sates EPA as a hazardous waste under the regulations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act due to the presence of lead, cadmium and chlorine. The disposal of the approximately 650000 t of EAF dust per year in the U.S. and Canada is an expensive and unresolved problem for the majority of steel companies. The Waelz process has been considered as the best process for treating the EAF dust. A process model, combined thermodynamic modeling with heat transfer calculations, has been developed to simulate the chemical reactions, mass and heat transfer and heat balance in the kiln. The injection of air into the slag and the temperature profile along the kiln have been modeled. The effect of (CaO+MgO)/SiO₂ on the solidus temperature of slag has also been predicted and discussed. Some optimized results have been presented.     

Modeling and simulation of heat transfer for glass bulb mold

Cooling system design in glass bulb pressing operation can greatly affect the productivity and the quality of the final product. The concept of cyclic-averaged steady temperature field is proposed in modeling. Heat transfer in the mold region is considered to be a cyclic-steady, three-dimensional conduction; heat transfer within the glass melt region is treated as a transient, one-dimensional conduction; heat exchange between the cooling system surface and coolant is treated as a steady heat convection. A hybrid model consisting of a three-dimensional boundary element method for the mold region and a finite-difference method with a variable mesh for the melt region is used for numerical simulation. Compared with the experimental data, the numerical model developed here is computationally efficient and sufficiently accurate.