Submitted by CESAR AUGUSTO AREZO E SILVA JUNIOR null (cesar.arezo@hotmail.com) on 2017-01-10T11:03:30Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Cesar_Arezo.pdf: 2040140 bytes, checksum: 22ed1c12204c5338583f606a5353e418 (MD5) / Rejected by LUIZA DE MENEZES ROMANETTO (luizamenezes@reitoria.unesp.br), reason: Solicitamos que realize uma nova submissão seguindo a orientação abaixo: O arquivo submetido está sem a ficha catalográfica. A versão submetida por você é considerada a versão final da dissertação/tese, portanto não poderá ocorrer qualquer alteração em seu conteúdo após a aprovação. Corrija esta informação e realize uma nova submissão com o arquivo correto. Agradecemos a compreensão. on 2017-01-13T12:08:52Z (GMT) / Submitted by CESAR AUGUSTO AREZO E SILVA JUNIOR null (cesar.arezo@hotmail.com) on 2017-01-16T17:14:48Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Cesar_Arezo.pdf: 2053752 bytes, checksum: ac3a36225bdb9c284f25c5d8699786ae (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by LUIZA DE MENEZES ROMANETTO (luizamenezes@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2017-01-17T15:32:25Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 silvajunior_caa_me_guara.pdf: 2053752 bytes, checksum: ac3a36225bdb9c284f25c5d8699786ae (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-01-17T15:32:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 silvajunior_caa_me_guara.pdf: 2053752 bytes, checksum: ac3a36225bdb9c284f25c5d8699786ae (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-12-16 / As usinas siderúrgicas caracterizam-se, sob o ponto de vista energético, pela grande intensidade de energia empregada em processos de redução do minério de ferro, fusão das matérias-primas e refino do aço líquido obtido. Quanto aos processos utilizados para a produção de aço, destacam-se o emprego de duas rotas tecnológicas: usinas integradas e semi-integradas (mini-mills). As usinas integradas possibilitam a redução do minério de ferro até ferro-gusa e, a partir deste, a obtenção do aço. As mini-mills caracterizam-se pelo emprego de sucatas metálicas, ferro-gusa ou ferro esponja como matérias-primas e pela obtenção, como produtos, de diferentes tipos de aço. Na operação de refino do aço líquido produzido comumente é necessário o emprego de desgaseificadores a vácuo para remoção de contaminantes e, consequentemente, atendimento às especificações do produto acabado. Com isso, as mini-mills demandam potência elétrica para os processos de fusão do aço e vapor superaquecido para obtenção de vácuo nos ejetores do processo de desgaseificação. Para atendimento a legislações ambientais, sistemas de despoeiramento devem ser aplicados às aciarias, disponibilizando grandes vazões de gases quentes provenientes do forno elétrico. A operação do sistema de despoeiramento indica expressivo potencial para recuperação de calor em processos siderúrgicos. Na presente dissertação propõe-se a coleta e análise de dados de operação do sistema de despoeiramento de um forno elétrico a arco de uma mini-mill brasileira, visando concepção e análise técnica-econômica de uma central de cogeração associada à recuperação de calor destes gases do sistema de despoeiramento / The steel industry can be characterized by its high demand of energy in the process of reduction and production of pig iron and steel. For the production of steel the following routes can be highlighted: integrated plants and mini-mills. Integrated plants are used for production steel from iron ore, allowing the reduction of iron ore until pig iron, and pig iron to steel. Mini-mills are used for production of steel through metallic scraps and pig iron. In a mini-mill, the transformation of metallic scraps and pig iron to steel is reached in melting shop areas. The melting shop areas adopt vacuum degassers as a commonly equipment to remove contaminants of liquid steel and consequently reach requirements of finished products. As a consequence, in a melting shop, electricity is applied in electric arc furnaces and overheated steam is applied in vacuum degassers. According to environmental restrictions these melting shops are integrated with dust collectors. The dust collected in electric arc furnaces has great amount of energy and can express a high potential to heat recovering systems. The present dissertation has purpose in collect and analyzes data from an electric arc furnace with a dust collector in a Brazilian mini-mill for developing a thermal-economic analysis of a cogeneration plant integrated in this mini-mill.

O ferro-esponja ou DRI (Direct Reduced Iron) é obtido pelo processo de redução direta onde o minério de ferro é transformado em ferro metálico através de reações químicas envolvendo o estado sólido (minério) e o gasoso (gases redutores). Neste processo o minério de ferro não passa pelo estado líquido como ocorre com o ferro-gusa. Isto confere ao ferro-esponja algumas desvantagens que prejudicam o seu desempenho nas aciarias. Pode-se citar a redução no rendimento metálico e o maior consumo de energia elétrica como principais impactos de sua utilização intensiva. O ferro-esponja apresenta menor quantidade de ferro total (maior quantidade de impurezas) do que o ferro-gusa e também apresenta óxidos de ferro remanescentes em sua estrutura (menor metalização). Para torná-lo mais competitivo, inúmeras melhorias no processo têm sido promovidas para aumento da metalização. No entanto, o limite superior alcançado na prática tem ficado ao redor de 95%. Visando contribuir para melhorar a qualidade do ferro-esponja este trabalho apresenta uma proposta inovadora a partir da técnica de auto-redução. O objetivo é aumentar o grau de metalização do ferro-esponja através de seu aquecimento. Para isso, foram realizadas análises termogravimetrias e aquecimentos em forno mufla; análises químicas por via úmida, difração de raios-x, espectroscopia mössbauer e análise de microssonda de raios-x. As análises estruturais foram realizadas utilizando microscópio eletrônico de varredura para confirmar a efetividade da técnica apresentada. Nesta dissertação pode-se comprovar que, através da técnica de auto-redução, o ferro-esponja alcança metalizações acima de 98% em detrimento da queda do teor de carbono total. Um aumento de 4% na metalização traz um ganho estimado de 5 a 10% no consumo de energia elétrica nos fornos de fusão e um acréscimo proporcional na produção horária das aciarias. / The direct reduced iron is obtained by direct reduction process, where iron ore is transformed in metallic iron via chemical reactions involving solid (ore) and gaseous (reductant gases) states. In this process the iron ore does not pass by liquid state like pig iron. This become to direct reduced iron some disadvantages, which decrease its performance in the steelmaking process. It can be mentioned the reduction of metallic yield and the higher consumption of electric energy as the main impacts of its intensive use. The direct reduced iron presents lower amount of total iron (higher amount of impurities) than pig iron and presents iron oxides remained in its structure (lower metallization). To become more competitive, several improvements in the reduction process have been carried out to increase its metallization. However, the highest level of metallization, which has been reached, is 95%. To improve the direct reduced iron quality, the present work evaluates, in an innovative way, using the technique of self reduction. The objective is increase of metallization of the direct reduced iron through its heating. Thermal, chemical and structural characterization was carried out to check the effectiveness of the investigated technique. The research confirms that the direct reduced iron can reach a metallization higher than 98% with a decrease of total carbon amount using the technique presented in this work. An improvement of 4% in the metallization brings savings of 5 to 10% in the electric energy consumption of the electric arc furnaces and a proportional increase of the production in the steelmaking plants.

This thesis deals with study of durability of low voltage switching devices components. It describes components of circuit breaker and low voltage contactor and contains function models of these devices in various states. Based on model analysis, components that can get worn, damaged or destroyed were selected. Further practical experiments on two samples of circuit breakers from different manufacturers were executed to verify their technical parameters and parts durability. Failure of some components can cause switching device to malfunction.

Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) is used as an alternative feedstock in electric arc furnaces, making up 50% or more of the total iron charge. DRI produced with coal based reductants (for example in rotary kilns) make up roughly 25% of DRI produced in the world. It was found that SL/RN DRI samples from a kiln cooler had high nitrogen contents (50-250ppm, depending on particle size), higher than DRI from gas-based reduction. The higher nitrogen content of SL/RN DRI would increase the levels of nitrogen of liquid steel produced in the EAFs. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the SL/RN DRI contains virtually no carbon (which would aid in preventing nitrogen pickup). The proposed mechanism of nitrogen pick-up by the SL/RN DRI is one where nitrogen present within the atmosphere of the rotary cooler (where hot DRI, discharged at 1000°C from the rotary kiln, is cooled to approximately 100 °C in ca. two hours) penetrates the solids bed and nitrides DRI particles. Possible rate-determining steps for nitriding in the cooler have been evaluated. Nitriding of DRI particles is predicted to be rapid: the most plausible location for rapid nitrogen pickup is the first 5 meters of the rotary cooler, where the high temperature, nitrogen-rich gas atmosphere and rapid solids bed mixing are conducive to nitriding; solid-state and pore diffusion of nitrogen into DRI particles are predicted to be rapid too. The most plausible rate determining step for nitriding of DRI particles is that of nitrogen dissociation on the DRI surface, which can be further retarded by the presence of sulphur. A strong correlation was found between the amount of “melt-in” carbon in the liquid steel and the final tap nitrogen content, with 0.3% C resulting in nitrogen levels as low as 50 ppm (80 ppm or less is desired on the plant in question) at tap, even with DRI material that is high in nitrogen and contains virtually no carbon. Proposals to increase the melt-in carbon are included. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering / unrestricted

Sandvik produces about 230 000 tonnes of steel annually by melting in an electric arc furnace, where more than 90% of this steel is casted via continuous casting. When the strands are cast, these strands will be cuts to specific lengths with 2 cm thick cuts by using gas and iron powder. This generates approximately 750 tonnes of steel chips (cutting residues) each year, with a composition from the entire annual production of steel that falls as a residual. The purpose of the work was to review a possible reuse of the cutting residues as a raw material in the electric arc furnace. The problem with the cutting residue is the large reactive surface area, which could cause the material to burn in the electric arc furnace during operation. Since there are a high gas flow in the electric arc furnace during operation, the cutting residue that has a small particle size can also disappear from the furnace with the gas flow to the particle filters. By briquetting the cutting residue, these problems could be minimized and a reuse of the cutting slag as raw material could thus be possible. Therefore the cutting residue was transported to a company that sieved, dried and briquetted the cutting residue.  37 tonnes of cutting residue briquettes have been reused into 18 charges under normal operations with 2 tonnes of cutting residue briquettes in each charge (one charge with only 1 tonne of cutting slag). In order to measure how efficient, the reuse of the cutting residue was, a reference was needed. The reference was based on how the yield of steel for the elements, molybdenum, nickel, copper, cobalt and chromium in the electric arc furnace behaves in daily operation. This yield was used as a basis for calculating the yield when reusing the cutting residue. The results showed that nickel and molybdenum had a consistently good yield. The results for the cobalt and copper was not as clear, but the yields were generally good. In the case of chromium the results are naturally varied, as chromium reacts with the slag during the process. However, the predominant conclusion of the work was that it is possible to reuse the cutting residue as a raw material in the electric arc furnace with an acceptable yield by briquetting it. Analysis of the slag was also done to see any deviations from daily operations. The results showed that the slag was not affected when the cutting residue was reused as raw material in the electric arc furnace. / Varje år producerar Sandvik ungefär 230 000 ton stål genom nedsmältning av stålskrot i ljusbågsugnen där mer än 90 % av stålet gjuts via stränggjutning. När strängarna gjuts kapas de till specifika längder med ett 2 cm tjockt snitt med hjälp av syrgas och järnpulver. Detta resulterar i en restprodukt (skärslagg) om ca 750 ton per år, med sammansättningen från den årliga produktionen av stål. Syftet med arbetet var att se över en möjlig återanvändning av skärslaggen som råvara i ljusbågsugnen. Problematiken med skärslaggen är den stora reaktiva ytan vilket kan medföra att materialet börjar brinna i ljusbågsugnen under drift. Skärslaggen har en liten partikelstorlek och kan således följa med till gas- och partikelfilter då det är ett högt gasflöde i ljusbågsugnen under drift. Genom att brikettera skärslaggen kan dessa problem minimeras och en återföring av skärslaggen som råvara kan således vara möjlig. Skärslaggen transporterades till ett företag som siktade, torkade och briketterade skärslaggen. 37 ton skärslaggsbriketter har återförts i 18 försökscharger under normal drift med 2 ton skärslaggsbriketter i varje charge (en charge med enbart 1 ton skärslagg). För att mäta hur effektivt återföringen av skärslaggen var behövdes en referensnivå. Referensnivån baserades på hur utbytet till stål för elementen, molybden, nickel, koppar, kobolt och krom i ljusbågsugnen förhåller sig vid daglig drift. Detta utbyte användes som bas för att beräkna utbytet vid återföringen av skärslaggen. Av resultaten framgår det att nickel och molybden visade genomgående goda utbyten. Utfallet för elementen kobolt och koppar var inte lika tydliga men utbytena var till övervägande del goda. Beträffande krom var resultaten av naturliga skäl varierande, då krom reagerar med slaggen under processens gång. Den övervägande slutsatsen av arbetet var emellertid att det går att återföra skärslagg som råvara i ljusbågsugnen med godtagbara utbyten genom att brikettera den. Analysering av ljusbågsugnsslaggen gjordes också för att se eventuella avvikelser ifrån den dagliga driften. Resultaten visade att slaggen inte påverkas när skärslaggen återförs som råvara i ljusbågsugnen.

SSAB i Oxelösund ska bygga en ljusbågsugn för konvertering av verksamheten från huvudsakligen malmbaserad produktion till skrotbaserad produktion. I samband med byggandet av ljusbågsugnen kommer en ny 130 kV linje byggas och från denna linje kommer ett nytt 30 kV nät byggas för att mata ljusbågsugnen och två stycken skänkugnar. En av dessa skänkugnar är idag (2019) i drift med 10 kV men ska konverteras till 30 kV medan den andra är en ny elektriskt sett identisk ugn. Anslutningen av dessa tre ugnar till det avskilda 30 kV nätet är till för att begränsa spridning av övertoner och flimmer till övriga laster. Ugnarna ska sedan anslutas till ett gemensamt elektriskt filter, för 30 kV nätet. Ljusbågsugnen och skänkugnarna ska vara i drift första kvartalet 2024, på grund av att det är några år in i framtiden är kortslutningsimpedanser osäkra. För att uppfylla termisk- och korttidsströmsdimensionering för kabeln mellan huvudställverk (OT40) och skänkugnsställverk (SU2) fodras enledarkabel med 300 mm2 aluminiumledare och PEX-isolering. Denna dimensionering förutsätter att förläggning sker i triangelformation, temperaturen är högst 35 °C och kabeln förläggs på sådant sätt att den inte påverkas av andra kablar. Maximal kortslutningsström som kabeln klarar av under den maximala bortkopplingstiden är 32,5 kA. Kortslutnings- och spänningsfallsberäkningar är utförda iprogrammet GNU Octave. Högsta och lägsta kortslutningström i respektive ställverk är beräknad. Överströmsskydden ställs in så att selektiv bortkoppling erhålls, med maximal bortkopplingstid 0,9 sekunder. En blockeringslogik används för att försäkra anläggning enmot oselektiv utlösning. Logiken innebär, enligt SSAB:s praxis, att skyddet närmast felstället ska blockera överordnat skydds kortslutningsströmsteg (>> I). Jordfelsskydd dimensioneras efter en nollpunktsresistor om 10 A. Jordfelsskydden är riktade och friges av nollpunktsspänningsskydd för att säkerställa att okynnesutlösning av jordfelsskydden inte uppstår i samband med omkopplingar eller fel i nätet. Frigivningen fungerar upp till en maximal snedavstämning om cirka 21 A. / SSAB in Oxelösund will build an electric arc furnace to transform business from a mainly ore-based production, with blast furnaces, to a scrap based production. Together with the construction of the electric arc furnace, a new 130 kV overhead line and a 30 kV substation will be built. The 30 kV substation will feed one electric arc furnace and two ladle furnaces. One of these ladle furnaces is currently (2019) being fed with 10 kV, but is going to be converted to 30 kV, while the other one is a new electrically identical furnace. The connection of these three furnaces to the 30 kV grid is done in order to limit the distribution of harmonic distortions and flicker to the other loads. The furnaces on the 30 kV grid will be connected to a common electrical filter. The electric arc furnace and the ladle furnaces will be operational and produce steel in the first quarter of 2024. Since the installation will be performed some years ahead the short circuit impedance is not known. The cable between the main substation (OT40) and the ladle furnace substation (SU2) was being selected according to thermals and short time currents which determined the cable to consist of a single core cable with 300 mm2 aluminium conductor isolated by XLPE-isolation. This is provided that the cable is mountedin a triangle formation along a path with temperatures at maximum 35 C and is placed in such a way that the cable is not influenced thermally by other cables. Short circuit and voltage drop calculations are made in the program GNU Octave. The highest three phase and the lowest two phase short circuit current is calculated in every substation. The overcurrent protection is set to a maximum disconnection time of 0.9 seconds. A blocking logic is being used to further ensure a selectivity in the facility. The logic means, according to SSAB praxis, that the protection closest to the fault blocks the upstream short circuit protection ( I). The earth fault protection is designed around using a neutral grounding resistor of 10 A. The earth fault protection is directional and is being released by the neutral displacement protection to asure no unwanted tripping of the earth fault protection by change-over switching or faults in the grid. The release of the protection works with detuning up to about 21 A.

The landfilling of slag obtained from the high alloyed Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) steel making process, constitutes an environmental treat for society as well as an economical problem for the companies producing it, due to the costs related to waste management practices. Conventional methods of slag recycling are abundantly used among the steelmaking business, but due to their particular physical properties, high- alloyed EAF slags cannot be properly valorized. Moreover, the pickling process that high-alloyed EAF steels undergo to, generates acidic wastewaters, that need to be collected and neutralized, before they can be recirculated into the natural water streams. For such a task, steel mills currently utilize slaked lime (a Ca rich mineral) to raise the pH and to remove any metal particles dissolved into the wastewaters. Slag contains high amount of Ca; therefore, it has already been tested as a slaked lime replacement. In fact, previous studies conducted at the Material Science and Engineering department at KTH Royal Institute of Technology showed, on a laboratory scale, that slag has the potential to replace lime for the neutralization and purification of the acidic wastewaters. This Master’s thesis project aims at upscaling the volumes of wastewaters to be tested, about 70 to 90 folds of the one from previous research, bridging the gap between laboratory tests and the industrial scale. The thesis is divided into three tranches, a first part where a water-salt solution conductivity trials were carried out, to model the behavior or slag dispersion in the acidic wastewaters. After the results obtained from the conductivity trials, neutralization trials with slag and the lime product currently in use by the company, were carried out at the neutralization plant in Outokumpu Stainless, Avesta (Sweden). The neutralization trials were carried out with 70 and 90 liters of acidic wastewaters and in order to perform the trials on site, the slag sample was dried and later sieved to a particle size of less than 350μm. Moreover, data was analyzed and compared to previous studies in order to have a clearer understanding regarding the neutralization efficiency of the slag, especially whether or not the technology would had worked on upscaled volumes. Additionally, the project checked if it was possible to find a generalized relationship between the mass of slag and volume of wastewaters required for the neutralization process. Slag demonstrated to be able to buffer the pH to the target values of 9, while also showing an almost linear trend compared to previous studies. The reaction progress between slag, lime, and the acidic wastewaters was also analyzed. / Deponering av slagg som erhållits från den höglegerade ljusbågsugn (EAF) stålframställningsprocessen utgör en miljömässig behandling för samhället och ettekonomiskt problem för de företag som producerar den på grund av kostnaderna för avfallshantering. Konventionella metoder för återvinning av slagg används i storutsträckning bland stålindustrin, men på grund av deras speciella fysiska egenskaper kan höglegerade EAF-slaggen inte värderas ordentligt. Dessutom produceras sura avloppsvatten av betningsprocessen som höglegerade EAF-stål genomgår som sedan måste samlas in och neutraliseras innan de kan återcirkuleras i det naturliga vattnet. För en sådan uppgift använder stålfabriker för närvarande släckt kalk (ett Ca-rikt mineral) för att höja pH-värdet och för att avlägsna alla metallpartiklar som löses upp i avloppsvattnet. Slaggen innehåller hög mängd Ca och därför har den testats som en ersättning till släckt kalk. Tidigare studier utförda vid avdelningen materialvetenskap och teknik vid Kungliga Tekniska Högskola visade på laboratorieskala att slagg har potential att ersätta kalk för neutralisering och rening av sura avloppsvatten. Detta examensarbete syftar till att skala upp volymerna av avloppsvattnet som ska testas till cirka 70–90 gånger av den från tidigare forskning, och därav fylla ut bryggan mellan laboratorietester och industriell skala. Avhandlingen är uppdelad i tre delar, Första delen innehåller försök på ledningsförmåga i en vatten-saltlösning som genomfördes för att modellera beteende eller slaggspridning i sura avloppsvatten. Efter de resultat som erhållits från konduktivitetsmätningarna genomfördes neutraliseringsförsök med slagg och kalk som för närvarande används av företaget vid neutraliseringsanläggningen i Outokumpu Stainless, Avesta (Sverige). Neutraliseringsförsöken genomfördes med 70 och 90 liter sura avloppsvatten och för att utföra experimenten på plats torkades slagg provet och siktades senare till en partikelstorlek på mindre än 350 μm. Dessutom analyserades data och jämfördes med tidigare studier för att få en tydligare förståelse för slaggens neutraliseringseffektivitet, särskilt huruvida tekniken skulle ha fungerat på större volymer, och även om det också var möjligt att hitta ett generaliserat samband mellan mängden slagg och volym avloppsvatten som krävs för neutraliseringsprocessen. Slagget visade sig kunna buffra pH till målvärdena 9, samtidigt som den visade en nästan linjär trend jämfört med tidigare studier. Reaktionsförloppet mellan slaggkalk och de sura avloppsvattnen analyserades också.

Without a doubt, there is a consensus around the international community which suggests that our current way of life is unsustainable for a healthy planet, society and economy. One focal point that should be taken deeply into consideration is the steel industry as, globally, it accounts for 8% of global emissions. Thus, there is a dire need to incorporate drastic measures, if one wishes to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, in accordance with the Paris Agreement of 2015. Electric Arc Furnaces are seeing a rapid implementation in the steel industry. However, at 0.5 tonnes of CO2 emitted per tonne of liquid steel produced, this emissions rating is still significant considering the amount of steel being produced annually. Additionally, these furnaces emit off-gases which must be treated from the dust. This leaves operators with a conundrum as the dust content compromises the use of waste heat recovery boilers for energy recovery, due to constant breakdowns. Therefore, this study aims to analyse the feasibility of using bioenergy and carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) concepts to capitalise on the high off-gas energy and emissions content to remedy the dust issue, whilst producing higher value products. The proposed concept evaluates the effectiveness of using the off-gas as the energy carrier and feed-stock for a biogasificaiton unit. Three different cases based on different EAF off-gas compositions have been investigated. Case 1 suggested that the off-gas composition is very CO2-heavy, whichled to investigating the option of adopting a CO2 biogasification concept to directly use the CO2. Case 1 performed the best in terms of CO2 utilisation efficiency; being 0.293. The system energy utilisation also noted that 49.3% of the inlet streams energy was transferred to the desired product. On a broader picture, this means that around 11% of the total energy coming out of the EAF would be utilised in producing a value-added product in the form of syngas. This contrasts with allowing around 33% of the energy in the EAF either being completely dissipated to the environment or converting it into electricity via waste heat recovery. The following two cases, Case 2 and 3, indicate EAF off-gas composition containing 72% and 40% nitrogen respectively. For Cases 2 and 3, a steam biogasification process was integrated which did not yield positive results for CO2 utilisation, since is a more promising gasifying agent. In addition, significant energy from EAF off-gas is used in raising the temperature of steam to the design temperature of the gasifier. However, although the CO2 was not directly used in this part of the process, it allows for other opportunities of process integration, for example the reverse water-gas shift step.

<p>The electric arc furnace (EAF) is a critical steelmaking facility that melts the scrap by the heat produced from electrodes and burners. The migration to EAF steelmaking has accelerated in the steel industry over the past decade owing to the consistent growth of the scrap market and the goal of "green" steel production. The EAF production already hit a new high in 2018, contributing to 67% of total short tons of U.S. crude steel produced. The EAF steelmaking process involves dynamic complex multi-physics, in which electric arc plasma and coherent jets coexist resulting in an environment with local high temperature and velocity. Different heat transfer mechanisms are closely coupled and the phase change caused by melting and re-solidification is accompanied by in-bath chemical reactions and freeboard post-combustion, which further creates a complicated gas-liquid-solid three-phase system in the furnace. Therefore, not all conditions and phenomena within the EAF are well-understood. The traditional experimental approach to study the EAF is expensive, dangerous, and labor-intense. Most of the time, direct measurements and observations are impossible due to the high temperature within the furnace. To this fact, the numerical model has aroused great interest worldwide, which can help to gain fundamental insights and improve product quality and production efficiency, greatly benefiting the steel industry. However, due to the complexity of the entire EAF steelmaking process, the relevant computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling and investigations of the whole process have not been reported so far. </p> <p><br></p> <p>The present study was undertaken with the aim of developing the modeling methodologies and the corresponding comprehensive EAF CFD models to simulate the entire EAF steelmaking process. Two state-of-the-art comprehensive EAF CFD models have been established and validated for both the lab-scale direct current (DC) EAF and the industry-scale alternating current (AC) EAF, which were utilized to understand the physical principles, improve the furnace design, optimize the process, and perform the trouble-shootings.</p> <p><br></p> <p>For the lab-scale DC EAF, a direct-coupling methodology was developed for its comprehensive EAF CFD model which includes the solid steel melting model based on the enthalpy-porosity method and the electric arc model (for lab-scale DC arc) based on the Magneto Hydrodynamics (MHD) theory, so that the dynamic simulation of the steel ingot melting by DC arc in the lab-scale furnace can be achieved, which considered the continuous phase changing of solid steel, the ingot surface deformation, and the phase-to-phase interaction. Both stationary DC arc and the arc-solid steel interface heat transfer and force interaction were validated respectively against the experimental data in published literature. For the given lab-scale furnace, the DC arc behavioral characteristics with varying arc lengths generated by the moving electrode were analyzed, and the effects of both the initial arc length and the dynamic electrode movement on the steel ingot melting efficiency were revealed.</p> <p><br></p> <p>For the industry-scale AC EAF, an innovative integration methodology was proposed for its comprehensive EAF CFD model, which relies on the stage-by-stage approach to simulate the entire steelmaking process. Six simulators were developed for simulating sub-processes in the industry-scale AC EAF, and five models were developed for the above four simulators, including the scrap melting model, the electric arc model (for industry-scale AC arc), the coherent jet model, the oxidation model, and the slag foaming model, which can be partially integrated according to the mass, energy, and momentum balance. Specifically, the dual-cell approach and the stack approach were proposed for the scrap melting model to treat the scrap pile as the porous medium and simulate the scrap melting together with its dynamic collapse process. The statistical sampling method, the CFD-compatible Monte Carlo method, and the electrode regulation algorithm were proposed for the electric arc model to estimate the total AC arc power delivery, the arc radiative heat dissipation, and the instantaneous electrode movement. The energetic approach was proposed to determine the penetration of the top-blown jet in the molten bath based on the results from the coherent jet model. The source term approach was proposed in the oxidation model to simulate the in-bath decarburization process, where the oxidation of carbon, iron, and manganese as well as the effect of those exothermic reactions on bath temperature rising was considered. Moreover, corresponding experiments were performed in the industry-scale EAF to validate the proposed simulators. The quantitative investigations and analyses were conducted afterward to explore and understand the coherent jet performance, the AC arc heat dissipation, the burner preheating characteristics, the scrap melting behavior, the in-bath decarburization efficiency, and the freeboard post-combustion status.</p> <p><br></p>

<p>The electric arc furnace (EAF) is a highly energy intensive process used to convert scrap metal into molten steel. The aim of this research is to develop a dynamic model of an industrial EAF process, and investigate its application for optimal EAF operation. This work has three main contributions; the first contribution is developing a model largely based on MacRosty and Swartz (2005) to meet the operation of a new industrial partner (ArcelorMittal Contrecoeur Ouest, Quebec, Canada). The second contribution is carrying out sensitivity analyses to investigate the effect of the scrap components on the EAF process. Finally, the third contribution includes the development of a constrained multi-rate extended Kalman filter (EKF) to infer the states of the system from the measurements provided by the plant.</p> <p>A multi-zone model is developed and discussed in detail. Heat and mass transfer relationships are considered. Chemical equilibrium is assumed in two of the zones and calculated through the minimization of the Gibbs free energy. The most sensitive parameters are identified and estimated using plant measurements. The model is then validated against plant data and has shown a reasonable level of accuracy.</p> <p>Local differential sensitivity analysis is performed to investigate the effect of scrap components on the EAF operation. Iron was found to have the greatest effect amongst the components present. Then, the optimal operation of the furnace is determined through economic optimization. In this case, the trade-off between electrical and chemical energy is determined in order to maximize the profit. Different scenarios are considered that include price variation in electricity, methane and oxygen.</p> <p>A constrained multi-rate EKF is implemented in order to estimate the states of the system using plant measurements. The EKF showed high performance in tracking the true states of the process, even in the presence of a parametric plant-model mismatch.</p> / Master of Applied Science (MASc)