Pulverized coal injection (PCI) technology is widely practised in blast furnace ironmaking due to economic, operational and environmental benefits. High burnout of pulverized coal in the tuyere and raceway is required for high PCI rate operation. A comprehensive review reveals that although there have been a variety of PCI models, there is still an evident need for a more realistic model for PCI operation in blast furnace. Aiming to build a comprehensive PCI model of a full-scale blast furnace, this thesis presents a series of three-dimensional mathematical models, in terms of model development, validation and application, in a sequence from a pilot-scale to a full-scale, from a simple to complicated geometry, from a coal only system to a coupled coal/coke system. Firstly a three-dimensional model of pulverized coal combustion is developed and applied to a pilot-scale PCI test rig. This model is validated against the measurements from two pilot-scale test rigs in terms of gas species composition and coal burnout. The gas-solid flow and coal combustion are simulated and analysed. The results indicate that the model is able to describe the evolutions of coal particles and provide detailed gas species distributions. It is also sensitive to various parameters and hence robust in examining various blast furnace operations. This model is then extended to examine the combustion of coal blends. The coal blend model is also validated against the experimental results for a range of coal blends conditions. The overall performance of a coal blend and the individual behaviours of its component coals are analysed. More importantly, the synergistic effect of coal blending on overall burnout is examined and the underlying mechanisms are explored. It is indicated that such synergistic effect can be optimized by adjusting the blending fraction, so as to compensate for the decreased burnout under high coal rate operation. The model provides an effective tool for the optimum design of coal blends. As a scale-up phase, the coal combustion model is applied to the blowpipe-tuyereraceway region of a full-scale blast furnace, where the raceway is simplified as a tube with a slight expansion. The in-furnace phenomena are simulated and analysed, focusing on the main coal plume. The effect of cooling gas conditions on combustion behaviours is investigated. Among the three types of cooling gas (methane, air, and oxygen), oxygen gives the highest coal burnout. Finally, a three-dimensional integrated mathematical model of pulverized coaVcoke combustion is developed. The model is applied to the blowpipe-tuyere-raceway-coke bed region of a full-scale blast furnace, which features a complicated raceway geometry and coke bed properties. The model is validated against the measurements in terms of coal burnout from a test rig and gas composition from a blast furnace, respectively. The model gives a comprehensive full-scale picture of the flow and thermo-chemical characteristics of PCI process. The typical operational parameters are then examined in terms of coal burnout and gas composition. It is indicated that the final burnout along the tuyere axis is insensitive to some operational parameters. The average burnout over the raceway surface can better represent the amount of unburnt coal particles entering the surrounding coke bed and it is also found to be more sensitive to the changes of most parameters. In addition, the underlying mechanisms of coal combustion are obtained. The coal burnout strongly depends on both oxygen availability and residence time. The existence of recirculation region gives a more realistic coal particle residence time and burnout. Compared with the fore-mentioned two models, this model is considered as a more comprehensive model of PCI operation for understanding the infurnace behaviours and provides more reliable information for the design of operational parameters.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri, School of Mines and Metallurgy, 1922. / The entire thesis text is included in file. Typescript. Title from title screen of thesis/dissertation PDF file (viewed April 8, 2010)

Thesis (M. Eng.)(Metallurgical)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Summaries in Afrikaans and English. Includes bibliographical references.

M.Ing. / In this study it is shown that numerical analysis, and more specifically computational fluid dynamics can be used to investigate, compare, predict and design lining/cooling system combinations for blast furnaces’ in order to ensure longer campaign life and better performance. Three currently available cooling systems namely, copper staves are investigated. These combined with four different refractory materials, namely high alumina, silicon carbide, semi-graphite and graphite, stated in order of increasing thermal conductivity.

During the past two decades many efforts have been made to increase the control of blast furnace conditions to ensure a homogeneous product. The dissections on blast furnaces by various iron and steel companies in Japan in the early 70s provided valuable information on the high temperature properties of charging material. Standard tests (ISO) to determine ore, sinter and pellet qualities only provide information of up to 1100°C . By using the REAS apparatus - a high temperature reduction vessel that simulates the blast furnace process from stockline to melting - the high temperature properties of burden materials have been investigated. The REAS process not only provides an insight into the reactions occurring during the softening and melting process but a range of indices with which to judge the blast furnace performance. Since 1993 new developments started and a test method for Iscor blast furnaces was specifically developed. Although certain indices have been established, uncertainties around the melting mechanisms still existed. These uncertainties include: • Why does the maximum pressure over the sample bed vary extensively between different samples? • Why does a temperature decrease occur only in certain samples and what determines the extent of the temperature decrease? • Which low melting phase forms that causes the initial rise in pressure drop over the sample bed? Four tests were performed on a mixture of Sishen and Thabazimbi ore to determine the phase changes in the test sample. During the reduction of the iron ore, five distinct phases are present. Above 1200°C two liquid phases, an alkali rich phase and a liquid phase with a fayalite composition is present. The rest of the iron reports at different stages in various forms of metallic iron and wustite. Small amounts of a high melting oxide phase, hercynite, also occurs. Softening of the sample is said to occur when the ΔP over the sample bed increases by more than 200 mm H2O. For the specific tests evaluated, this occurred at 1200°C. At this temperature, the liquid with a fayalite composition as well as the alkali rich liquid are present. The formation of the low melting fayalite phase with a high viscosity appears to cause the sudden rise in ΔP. A temperature arrest occurs at the same time supporting the suggestion that liquid formation is responsible for the pressure increase. The results indicate that the mechanisms responsible for the observed pressure drop (decreased gas permeability) and dripping may well be different from those given in the literature. The literature mechanisms emphasise the importance of the amount of FeO available to act as flux for the silica which is present as gangue; hence a greater degree of (indirect) reduction below the melting point of fayalite gives poorer fluxing of silica since less FeO is available. However, the charge materials considered in this study appear to be of substantially higher grade than those used in the previous work. For this reason, there does not appear to be any shortage of FeO to act as flux. This abundance of FeO, and the observation that the peak in pressure drop is not associated with any great change in the amount of liquid, together imply that the literature mechanism regarding changes in the amount and composition of the liquid (i.e. becoming more Si02-rich and viscous as the FeO is reduced) cannot explain the pressure fluctuations observed here. Rather, the increase in pressure appears to be a joint effect of liquid being present (giving the first increase in pressure) and compaction of the sample. Loss of voidage in the sample by this substantial amount of compaction appears the likely cause of the pressure increase. The subsequent decrease in the pressure drop is probably associated with lower viscosity as the sample temperature increases. The importance of compaction means that the amount of indirect reduction does playa role in the development of the pressure drop, but not for the reasons cited in the literature. Pure iron is more malleable than the oxides, and reduction gives a porous iron structure which is more easily compacted. F or both these reasons, the metallic product of indirect reduction favours compaction (and hence the pressure increase). The sharp increase in reduction rate close to the peak pressure presumably results from better contact between the remaining iron oxide (in the fayalite-based liquid, and wustite) with the coke reductant, so favouring direct reduction; this increased reduction (endothermic because of the Boudouard reaction) results in one of the noticeable temperature arrests on the sample temperature curve. The correspondence between the temperature arrests and the changes within the sample do imply that these arrests can be used to gain some information on the reduction mechanisms. However, the reliability of the temperature arrests as indicators of the state of the sample and the reaction conditions within the sample must be tested by further work. / Dissertation (MSc (Metallurgy))--University of Pretoria, 1998. / Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering / unrestricted

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2009. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 248-256.

Seven iron ore pellets, two sinters, and one lump ore were studied in CO-CO₂-H₂-N₂ atmospheres from 350°C to 750°C, simulating the upper stack of the ironmaking blast furnace. Experiments were performed in a flowing gas reactor on single specimens of each type of substrate. Two different measurements were made: (1) the carbon deposition and concurrent iron oxide reduction rate at 550°C in 30%CO, 10%CO₂, 2%H₂, and 58%N₂; and (2) the amount of carbon deposited during a programmed increase in temperature and change in CO-CO₂ ratio simulating the descent of an ore specimen in the blast furnace stack. The rates of the concurrent reaction were determined from mass balances based on gas chromatographic analyses of the CO, CO₂H₂, and N₂ in both the inlet and outlet gases and the continuously recorded mass of the specimen. The materials were examined as to chemical composition, internal structure, porosity, and surface area. Elemental analyses of single iron oxide grains were made by electron microprobe. Slag materials and composition, and crystallinity were determined by microprobe and X-ray diffraction. The results of the experiments show that carbon deposition occurs only in the presence of metallic iron which is produced from the concurrent reduction of Fe₃O₄. The degree of reduction is controlled largely by the structure of the substrate, but the carbon deposition is controlled only by the chemical composition of the substrate--specifically, silicon in the iron and the CaO to MgO ratio. In the blast furnace simulation, the carbon deposition increases for pellets fluxed with dolomite to a maximum with lime-fluxed pellets. The effects of H₂ and CO₂ on the reactions were investigated in the isothermal experiments using an Empire pellet. The CO₂ controlled only the reduction, and this by diffusion of the CO₂. The hydrogen in very small amounts enhanced the deposition of carbon, probably by eliminating the presence of the inactive iron carbides. Under blast furnace conditions, the changes in the operation when the chemistry of the ore feed is changed to fluxed pellets will be due more to the shifts in the available heat within the stack from carbon deposition than to the low temperature reduction of the ores, which does not change with the addition of the flux materials.

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A two-dimensional constant heating rate thermoelastic model has been used to develop design and selection criteria for refractory components of linings of high-temperature furnaces and process vessels. The criteria are in the form of resistance to fracture initiation and resistance to damage parameters which account for the influence of thermal and mechanical properties, geometry, and temperature range, while distinguishing between the heating and cooling cases. The resistance to fracture initiation parameter ɸs is the maximum rate at which a shape can be heated or cooled through a specified temperature range without causing fracture. The damage resistance parameter Rd is expressed as the ratio of surface energy per unit area to the elastic strain energy available for crack propagation. Both parameters can be quickly estimated for arbitrary conditions with the aid of tabulated solutions for the maximum principal tensile stress and total strain energy Thermoelastic analyses were used to interpret published results of a variety of thermal shock experiments. Thermal conditions associated with water quenching, radiative furnace heating, gas burners, and controlled heating were simulated using appropriate analytical solutions. Finite element analysis was used to compute maximum principal tensile stresses and elastic strain energy. A simple procedure was developed to invert the stress solution and thereby determine the instant of fracture. Good agreement between thermoelastic predictions and published experimental results with regard to strength retained versus thermal shock relationships, location of fracture, and safe heating rates provided justification for a thermoelastic approach to the thermal shock. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Mining Engineering, Keevil Institute of / Graduate