Fuel 90 (2011) 728738

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Fuel
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Three-dimensional modelling of in-furnace coal/coke combustion in a blast furnace

Y.S. Shen a, B.Y. Guo a, A.B. Yu a,, P.R. Austin b, P. Zulli b
a b

Lab for Simulation and Modelling of Particulate Systems, School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia BlueScope Steel Research, P.O. Box 202, Port Kembla, NSW 2505, Australia

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
A three-dimensional mathematical model of the combustion of pulverized coal and coke is developed. The model is applied to the region of lance-blowpipe-tuyere-raceway-coke bed to simulate in-furnace phenomena of pulverized coal injection in an ironmaking blast furnace. The model integrates not only pulverized coal combustion model in the blowpipe-tuyere-raceway-coke bed but also coke combustion model in the coke bed. The model is validated against the measurements under different conditions. The comprehensive in-furnace phenomena are investigated in the raceway and coke bed, in terms of ow, temperature, gas composition, and coal burning characteristics. The underlying mechanisms for the in-furnace phenomena are also analysed. The simulation results indicate that it is important to include recirculation region in the raceway and the coke bed reactions for better understanding in-furnace phenomena. The model provides a cost-effective tool for understanding and optimizing the in-furnace ow-thermo-chemical characteristics of the PCI operation in full-scale blast furnaces. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 18 January 2010 Received in revised form 19 August 2010 Accepted 23 August 2010 Available online 12 October 2010 Keywords: Pulverized coal injection Mathematical modelling Blast furnace lower zone In-furnace

1. Introduction Blast furnace (BF) is the most widely used technology to produce iron, where coke is the dominant fuel in the process. One of the most signicant recent improvements in BF operation is pulverized coal injection (PCI), where pulverized coal works as an auxiliary fuel to partly replace relatively expensive coke. In this process, pulverized coal is injected via tuyere and then combusts in the raceway cavity and the surrounding coke bed (Fig. 1). The PCI rate has increased due to economic, operational and environmental benets. This has resulted in reduced coke consumption and thus production costs; enhanced furnace stability; greater exibility in BF operation; and reduced overall emissions from steel plants [1,2]. In a modern BF, over 200 kg of coal per tonne of hot metal (kg/t-HM) can be injected; and over 300 kg/t-HM is under test [3]. However, as the PCI rate increases to a higher level, the coal combustibility will be reduced to a certain degree. As a result, this could have an adverse effect on the in-furnace operation. Because more unburnt char particles are swept into the coke bed, the permeability of the surrounding coke bed could deteriorate resulting in the improper distribution of gas ow and composition (Fig. 1) [4]. Higher coal burnout and proper gas species distribution is necessary for furnace stability and cost reduction [5,6]. Therefore, it is important to understand the in-furnace aerodynamic and physicochemical behaviours for the whole region of lanceblowpipe-tuyere-raceway-surrounding coke bed (LBTRC) in the
Corresponding author. Fax: +61 2 93855956.
E-mail address: a.yu@unsw.edu.au (A.B. Yu). 0016-2361/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2010.08.030

lower part of a BF, especially in terms of coal burnout and gas species distributions. In a real BF, actual measurements of such in-furnace phenomena, especially the LBTRC region, are extremely difcult due to the severe practical environment (high temperature, high pressure etc.). The laboratory experimental studies via replicating the in-furnace phenomena related to PCI process are laborious and very expensive. As a result, only a few such attempts have been reported in the literature [69] and they are mainly on gas compositions along tuyere axis in actual BFs [7,8] or pilot-scale experiments [6,9]. As an alternative, a mathematical approach provides an efcient method in investigating the in-furnace phenomena of PCI operation [5,10,11]. A brief summary of early PCI models (one- and two-dimensions) can be found elsewhere [1]. These models employed numerous assumptions and some important operational features were not included, especially relating to the spatial representation of the process. Three-dimensional (3D) modelling is more reliable for practical problems. In this connection, some 3D numerical studies of coal combustion were reported [2,12,13], without including the coke bed region. To date, few 3D integrated models of coal/coke combustion of PCI operation were found in the literature [1416]. Gu et al. [15] described a 3D EulerianEulerian model of pulverized coal combustion for the tuyere-racewaycoke bed region. But coke reactions were not considered. Moreover, only one coal size group was considered. In practice, the coal size range is large, typically 5300 lm. The EulerianEulerian approach needs multiple phases and then multiple sets of governing equations for the multiple size groups, leading to expensive computation. Nogami et al. [16] reported a 3D transient-state

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Nomenclature A1, A2 Ac Ap As B C0 C1, C2 CD Cp D d d0 Dref e E1, E2 fD H hg Hreac I [i] k k1, k2 k1 i2 k3 kc kc kd _ m ma ma,0 mc Mc Mo2 mrc mrc,0 pre-exponential factors of devolatilization reactions, s1 pre-exponential factors in Gibb (m s1 K1)/Field (kg m2 s1) models particle projected area, m2 constant in Gibb model, 0.0004 coal burnout mass of raw coal, kg turbulent model constants drag coefcient particle heat capacity, J kg1 k1 external diffusion coefcient of oxygen in Gibb model, m2 s1 particle diameter, m particle diameter at the start of devolatilization, m dynamic diffusivity in Field/Gibb model, 1.8 105 kg m1 s1 void fraction of char particles activation energy of devolatilization reactions, K drag force from a particle, N enthalpy, J kg1 heat transfer coefcient reaction heat, J kg1 radiation intensity, W m2 s1 molar fraction of reactant species i turbulent kinetic energy, m2 s2 devolatilization rate constant, s1 rate of external diffusion in Gibb model, s1 rate of surface reaction rate in Gibb model, s1 rate of internal diffusion and surface reaction in Gibb model, s1 char oxidation rate in Gibb model, m s1 oxidation rate of coke reactions in Field model, kg m2 s1 diffusion rate of coke reactions in Field model, kg m2 s1 mass transfer rate from a particle, kg s1 ash mass fraction original ash mass fraction mass of char, kg molecular weight of carbon molecular weight of oxygen molecule rate of change of mass of the raw coal, kg s1 mass of the raw coal at the start of the devolatilization, kg np Nu p P PA q R rp ri Re SU T Tc Tref Ts U u, v, w particle number per unit volume, m3 Nusselt number pressure, Pa local pressure atmospheric pressure heat transfer from a particle, W resistance to ow in porous media (R = 0 for cavity) particle radius, m reaction rate of gas species i, mol m3 s1 Reynolds number source terms due to the interaction between the gas phase and the particle phase/coke bed temperature, K activation energy in Gibb/Field model, K reference temperature, 293 K constant in Gibb model, 6240 K mean (true) velocity of gas, m s1 gas velocity components, m s1 stoichiometric coefcient of species i. reaction rate of species i (per unit volume), kg m3 s1 mass fraction of species i

vi

Wi Yi

Greek letters a volume/internal surface area ratio in Gibb model a1, a2 volatile yield e turbulent dissipation rate, m2 s3 ep particle emissivity k thermal conductivity, W m1 k1 rk, r turbulence model constant rB StefanBoltzmann constant, 5.67 108 W m2 k4 / mechanism factor in Gibb model q density, kg m3 c volume porosity (c = 1 for cavity) l dynamic viscosity, Pa s lt turbulent viscosity, Pa s Ci molecular diffusivity of species i, kg m1 s1 Subscripts c char coke coke g gas p particle

Blast

Cohesive Zone

Active Coke Zone/ Dripping Zone

Zone of PCI Influence

PC lance

Char particles swept into the coke bed

Tuyere Deadman Raceway

Fig. 1. Schematic of pulverized coal injection in the lower part (lance-blowpipetuyere-raceway-coke bed) of a BF [6].

model for a laboratory-scale test rig, where the reactions of both coal and coke were considered. The so-called discrete element

method (DEM) was used for coke movement so that the raceway structure could be predicted directly. This approach is generally difcult to apply to a practical system where the number of particles is huge, and thus the computation will be extremely expensive. Therefore, these models are not suitable for simulating the in-furnace phenomena of PCI operation based on the numerical results. To overcome these deciencies, in this study, a comprehensive 3D integrated model is developed for simulating the coal/coke combustion in the LBTRC region under practical conditions. This model is considered superior to previous models for its three dimensionality and inclusion of coke bed and its reactions. The model is validated against the measurements under different conditions. The comprehensive in-furnace phenomena of the LBTRC region are then simulated and analysed, in terms of ow and combustion characteristics. The underlying mechanisms of the in-furnace phenomena are also examined.

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2. Model formulation In the present model, one single computational domain covers the lance, blowpipe, tuyere, raceway and coke bed, so that the effects of operational conditions and coke bed properties on coal combustion could be directly evaluated in real time. The blowpipe-tuyere-raceway region is treated as a cavity. The coke bed is treated as a porous media. The model includes the following physical and chemical processes: (1) turbulent gas-particle ow; (2) coal combustion (devolatilization, volatile combustion, and char reactions); (3) coke combustion and gasication; (4) heat transfers in the considered gas-particle-coke bed. On the other hand, assumptions are made in this model for simplicity: (a) coal and coke particles are spherical; (b) there is no break-up or coalescence of particles; (c) liquid ow in the raceway-coke bed region is not considered; (d) unburnt char particle accumulation at the raceway boundary is not considered; (e) raceway shape is assumed and no coke falling into the raceway; and (f) gas dissociation under high temperature and reactions of secondary species such as Si and S are not considered. The model is described below. 2.1. Governing equations for gas-particle ow in cavity and porous media The model formulation of gas-particle ow and coal combustion has been detailed elsewhere [2,12]. They are outlined below for completeness. The new features relating to coke bed are described in detail. 2.1.1. Gas-particle ow The gas phase is described by a set of 3D, steady-state Reynolds averaged NavierStokes equations closed by the standard ke turbulence model equations, as used before [12,13]. Specically, the variables in the governing equations solved for the gas phase in-

clude mass (m), momentum (u, v, w), turbulence kinetic energy (k), turbulence dissipation rate (e), enthalpy (H) and a number of species (Yi), including O2, CO2, CO, H2, H2O and volatiles, as summarized in Table 1. Coal particles are treated as a dispersed phase and modelled using the Lagrangian method. Particle behaviours are tracked along the discrete particle trajectories without considering interaction between coal particles. Newtons second law of motion is used to calculate their movements. The drag force (fD) and turbulence dispersion are considered. The change of particle temperature is determined by three heat transfer modes: convective heat transfer, latent heat transfer associated with mass transfer, and radiative heat transfer. Full coupling of mass, momentum and energy of particles with the gaseous phase is carried out. 2.1.2. Coke bed The coke bed is treated as an isotropic porous media for computational efciency. This is because based on the experiment observation [14] and previous DEM modelling [16], only a limited number of coke particles are moving, which would not affect the coal combustion much. The general form of the governing equations of gas ow in the porous media is

r qcUU r Ceff crU cSU

The momentum source through the coke bed is formulated using Ergun equation,

rP

150l1 c2

c2 d2 p

1:75q1 c jUjU cdp

In real BFs, the temperature of coke bed is much lower than the raceway due to the effects of various complicated phenomena, such as FeO-Coke reaction (highly endothermic), solid-liquid heat transfer, Si and metalloids reactions, and convection of coke solid ow. At present, these phenomena are difcult to be included in

Table 1 Governing equations for the gas and particle phases. For the gas phase Mass Momentum

r qU

X
np

_ m  2 3  X
np

r qUU r l lt rU rUT r p qk r qUH

     X k l t rH q C p rH np

fD

Energy

Gas species i

r qUY i Ci r qUk l r qU e l
   

lt rY i W i rY i
 

Turbulent kinetic energy

lt rk P k qe rk lt e re C 1 Pk C 2 qe re k
 

Turbulent dissipation rate

For a particle in the particle phase Mass Momentum

dmp _ m dt dUp f D dt 1 2 f D pdp qC D jU Up jU Up 8 mp mp C p dT p q dt X dmp dt Hreac Ap ep pI rB T 4 p

Energy

q pdp kNuT g T p

where

lt C l q ke ; Pk l lt rU rU rUT ; C D max241 0:15Re0:687 =Re; 0:44; i = O2, CO2, CO, VM, H2, H2O.

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the coal combustion model to avoid the complexity. For example, in a previous study [17], the coke bed temperature was simply assumed as 0.8 Tg. In this study, in order to account for these effects, a heat sink is used, allowing for the consideration of more coke bed properties.

sourceT;coke hg Acoke T g T 0 Acoke 61 e kg Nug ;h ; T max0:75T g ; 1773K udcoke g udcoke 0

3 4

The value of hg is estimated to be 128.2 W m2 K1 based on the data from a BF, where kg is equal to 0.117 W m1 K1, / is equal to 0.85 and dcoke is assumed to be 0.03 m. Nu number is calculated based on the Wakao equation [18].

Nug 2 1:1Re0:6 Pr1=3 coke

2.2. Chemical reactions of coal and coke

The various reactions considered in this model and their modelling methods are listed in Table 2. The coal reaction model assumes coal consists of volatiles, char and ash, and the coke reaction model assumes a pure carbon. The model has been successfully used in various investigations [2,12,13]. The coal reaction model has been described in our previous work [12]. The devolatilization process is modelled by the so-called

two-competing-reactions model [19]. A pair of rst-order reactions (R1, R2) with different rate parameters (k1, k2) and volatile yields (a1, a2), compete to pyrolyse the raw coal. The Gibb model [20] is used for char oxidation and gasication, where the diffusion rate of reacting gas within the pores of a char particle (k3) is considered as well as the external diffusion rate (k1) and surface reaction rate (k2). Their equations are respectively given in Table 2. The important coke reactions are considered in the porous media region where the consumption of coke is relled continuously to give an unchanged simulation domain. The Field model [21] is used for coke reactions in the coke bed, including coke solution loss and coke combustion. The overall rate at the surface of a coke particle is determined by a combination of chemical reaction and diffusion of reacting gas, as shown in Table 2. This is controlled by the smaller one of the rates kd and kc [i] is the molar fraction of the reacting gas specie i (i = O2 for coke combustion, and CO2 for coke solution loss reaction). In connection with our previous studies [2,12,13], the so called eddy dissipation model (EDM) [22,23] is used to model the gas combustion. Compared to several new gas combustion models such as USM (unied second-order moment) model [24], laminar amelet model [25], and PDF (probability density function) model [26], the EDM model may have limitations in some applications, especially for gas only combustion, due to neglecting chemistry rate [24]. However, it is certainly applicable to the combustion of pulverised coal under blast furnace conditions where the temperature is extremely high ($2800 K) and the fast chemistry assumption is

Table 2 Reactions of coal and coke considered and their rates expressions. Reactions Coal reactions Coal = VM + Char Models Two-competing reactions model Reaction rates Rate constants A1 = 3.7 105 s1 E1 = 18000 K A2 = 1.46 1013 s1 E2 = 30189 K

k1 raw coal

1VM1 + (1 1 )char1 (R1, Low temperature)

2VM2 + (1 2 )char2 (R2, High temperature) k2 dVM a1 k1 a2 k2 C O dt

k A expE=T p

a1 = VM (daf.); a2 = 1.25a2 + 0.92a1 1

VM + O2 = CO2 + H2O Char + O2 = CO + CO2 Eddy dissipation model Gibb model

ri C A

e i min j m i

CA = 4.0 Ac = 14 m s1 K1 Tc = 21580 K

Char + CO2 = 2CO

Gibb model

dmc 3/ M C q1 1 k k2 k3 1 1 mC dt 1 e M O 2 qc 1   2/ 1 Ts ; As exp Tp 2/ k1 D D ; r2 p Dref 

Ac = 20230 m s1 K1 Tc = 39743 K

Tp Tg 2T ref kc ; rp

0:75 ;

Char + H2O = CO + H2

Gibb model

k2 1 e

Ac = 606.9 m s1 K1 Tc = 32406 K
2

k3 kc T p b coth b 1=b a; kc Ac Tp expT c =T p ;  0:5 kc bR DP ea

Coke reactions Coke + O2 = CO

Field model

Coke + CO2 = 2CO

Field model

dmcoke P 1 1 kd kc 1 i4pr2 coke dt PA  0:75 Dref T coke T g PA ; kd rcoke 2T ref P   Tc kc Ac exp T coke

Ac = 3.26 106 kg m2 s1 Tc = 10855 K

Ac = 4.71 109 kg m2 s1 Tc = 29018 K

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Y.S. Shen et al. / Fuel 90 (2011) 728738 Table 3 Boundary conditions and operating conditions. Operating conditions Working volume Productivity Tuyere number Reference pressure Boundary conditions O2 enrichment in blast Blast (22.9% O2) Cooling gas (100% O2) Conveying gas (100% N2) Coal 2749 m 2.4 tHM/m3 day 28 461.0 kPa
3

correct [27]. In fact, EDM has been widely accepted in this area [1,2,1113,16,17]. As a model sensitivity check, we tested the so called two-step (EDM nite chemistry) model, available in ANSYS-CFX, and found that this more complicated model yields almost the same results in terms of gas composition and coal burnout. Therefore, the EDM offers a good compromise between accuracy and computational effort and is considered to be suitable for the present work. The composition of gas species (O2, CO, CO2, H2, H2O and N2) is the consequence of coal and coke reactions at respective reaction rates. The rate constants listed in Table 2 also come from the published literature and are experiment-based. The gas compositions in the LBTRC region are obtained by solving the governing equations of each gas species. 3. Simulation conditions The model geometry is based on a commercial BF in BlueScope Steel. The main dimensions of the model geometry are shown in Fig. 2. Note that the lance, blowpipe and tuyere are in actual dimensions, the raceway is designed in the shape of a balloon, rather than a divergent tube, as used elsewhere [13], and the coke bed is assumed as a packed bed. In the previous studies, the shape of raceway was determined by means of experiments [14], continuum approach [10,28], and DEM coupled with computational uid dynamics (CFD) [16,29,30]. Under the present conditions (Table 3), a constant raceway prole is assumed as shown in Fig. 2, determined based on the CFD-DEM simulations using a model similar to Feng et al. [29] and previous experimental/practical observations [31]. Note that different operational conditions may give different raceway shapes. This aspect will be studied in the future. The co-axial lance is introduced into the blowpipe at an inclination

Proximate analysis (ad.) Moisture, % Volatile matter, % Ash, % Fixed carbon, % 3.2 32.5 9.8 54.5

6000 Nm3/h 300,000 Nm3/h 5000 Nm3/h 1317 Nm3/h 35 t/h (127.3 kg/tHM) 1200 C 327 C 45 C 45 C

Gross specic 30.08 energy, MJ/kg Ultimate analysis (daf.) C, % H, % N, % S, % O (by diff), % 83.5 5.3 1.95 0.6 8.6

angle of 10 degrees with its tip on the centreline. Three gas streams (conveying gas, cooling gas and hot blast) are introduced into the domain. The lance details are shown in Fig. 2(d), where an internal tube diameter for the conveying gas stream is 17 mm and an outer diameter of the lance shell is 35 mm. The mesh structure for blowpipe-tuyere-raceway-coke bed region is rened at the raceway, especially in front of the lance tip. The whole simulation domain is divided into four zones according to porosity, that is, the porosities for raceway (Zone 0), deadman (Zone 1), dripping zone (Zone 2) and cohesive zone (Zone 3) are 1.0, 0.25, 0.5 and 0.4, respectively, based on the actual measurements [8], as shown in Fig. 2(b). A gradient transition zone of porosity is assumed at the

Fig. 2. Geometry of the model: (a), the whole model; (b), porosity distribution; (c), blowpipe and raceway; and (d), lance tip. The detailed dimensions are, (1) for blowpipe, radius: 90 mm, and length: 800 mm; (2) for tuyere, radius: 75/90 mm, and length: 135 mm; (3) for raceway, depth: 1600 mm, height: 1000 mm (925 + 75), and width: 710 mm; and (4) for coke bed, depth: 3700 mm, height: 4500 mm, and width: 1000 mm.

Y.S. Shen et al. / Fuel 90 (2011) 728738

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100

(a)
Velocity, m/s

16 measurements [31] prediction 8

Cumulative volume, % .

80

60

0 1600 1200 800 20

40

20

10

100

1000

Particle size, m
Fig. 3. Particle size distribution of the pulverized coal considered.

O2 concentration, % Temperature, C

10

Gas mole fraction, % .

raceway boundary, where porosity varies from 1.0 (raceway cavity) to 0.4 (surrounding coke bed). The mathematic model outlined can be used to study the performance of different types of coal. In this work, in order to test the applicability of the model, we are focused on one typical coal used in the BlueScope Steel. The operating conditions of the BF and the proximate/ultimate analyses of the coal considered are summarized in Table 3. The size distribution of the coal is obtained from laser diffraction measurement (Fig. 3), covering a size range of 5250 lm. In the current simulation, 49 particle size classes are sampled in the range of 5250 lm and a total of over 6000 representative particles are tracked. 4. Results and discussion 4.1. Model validation The model is validated against the measurements from a laboratory scale experiment in terms of gas velocity, temperature and concentration) [32]; and more importantly in a real BF in terms of gas composition [31], respectively. Fig. 4(a) shows the gas velocity, temperature and concentration. It is clear that the predictions are comparable to the measurements. Fig. 4(b) shows that the predicted gas composition in the region of raceway and coke bed is in good agreement with the measurements in a real BF (Newcastle No. 4 BF in Australia) [31]. The model validity of coal burnout has been conrmed elsewhere [2,12]. Note that the measurements of in-furnace thermal and chemical properties are extremely difcult. On the other hand, coal burnout and gas composition are the most important concerns in BF practice. Their distributions reect the collected effects of gas-particle ow, interphase heat transfer and various reactions of coal combustion. In the following, the ow and associated thermal-chemical behaviours in the LBTRC region will be analysed in detail, aiming to establish a clear picture of in-furnace phenomena about PCI operation in BF ironmaking. 4.2. Flow eld Fig. 5(a) shows the gas velocity vectors in the raceway cavity. It is shown that inside the raceway, the blast stream, together with the inclined low-speed gas ow of conveying stream and cooling stream from the inclined lance, is accelerated through the tuyere. As a result, a high-speed jet of up to 220 m/s forms along the tuyere axis. Subsequently, after reaching the raceway boundary, the gas ow is reduced to 2030 m/s; at the same time, the gas

0 -0.4

-0.2

0.0

0.2

0.4

Distance to axis (m)

(b)

40
O2,calculated CO2,calculated CO,calculated O2,measured CO2,measured CO,measured

30

20

10

0 -0.6

-0.3

0.0

0.3

0.6

0.9

1.2

1.5

Distance from tuyere, m

Fig. 4. Model validation in terms of: (a) gas velocity, temperature and O2 concentration against measurements in laboratory experiments [32]; and (b) gas compositions against measurements in a real BF [31].

ow starts a large-scale recirculation above the main gas ow jet in the raceway. In addition, as shown in Fig. 5(b), the streamlines of the central jet gradually disperse at the end of raceway and toward the side of raceway, i.e., in the direction of Z. That is, inside the raceway, the ow pattern can be divided into two parts: a highspeed jet and a large-scale recirculation. On the other hand, in the coke bed, as shown in Fig. 5(b), gas velocities in the coke bed decrease rapidly to <5 m/s within a very short distance once the gas ow exits the raceway cavity and enters the surrounding coke bed. Subsequently, the behaviours of low-speed gas ow differ in the coke bed: the velocity is extremely low in the deadman; whereas it is relatively high in the dripping zone due to its high porosity. It is shown in Fig. 5(c) that, corresponding to the gas ow, the coal particle trajectories inside the raceway have two different ow patterns: (i) an inclined main coal plume located along the lower part of the raceway, where ne particles are observed at the upper part of the plume initially and then leave the main coal plume before reaching the end of the raceway; and (ii) a large-scale recirculation of the ne particles of up to 70 lm around the raceway centre. Subsequently, the coke bed also shows two ow patterns of coal particles accordingly (Fig. 5(c)): (i) the main coal plume (relatively large particles of around 100 lm) penetrates into the deadman zone; (ii) the recirculating ne particles exit mainly

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Y.S. Shen et al. / Fuel 90 (2011) 728738

Fig. 5. Flow pattern of gas-particle ow: (a), vectors of gas phase in the raceway; (b), streamlines of gas ow; (c), particle trajectories coloured by particle mean size; and (d), particle trajectories coloured by particle travelling time.

from the top of the raceway and then move upward into the dripping zone. This is because, the large particles tend to maintain their initial momentum and the ne particles are easier to be affected by the turbulence and then dispersed more widely. Fig. 5(d) shows the particle trajectories coloured by travelling time. The residence time of coal particles along the main coal plume is around 1050 ms before reaching the end of the raceway, while the recirculating coal particles may be up to 0.9 s in the raceway. On the other hand, compared with the raceway in the coke bed, the travelling time of the particles penetrating the coke bed is quite long, around 1.0 s. The travelling time is even longer in the deadman compared to the dripping zone. 4.3. Temperature and gas species Fig. 6 shows the temperature contours of the raceway and surrounding coke bed. The main coal plume and recirculation region show a great difference in temperature. Along the main coal plume, a high temperature eld of up to 2900 K forms at the downstream of the coal plume and the nearby coke bed. In particular, an annular high-temperature zone, the so-called ame front, is observed at the surface of coal plume in front of tuyere. In the recirculation region, the temperature is decreased to 2000 K. This temperature difference results from the gassolid ow in the raceway and its subsequent heat releases from chemical reactions, as show in the following sessions. Compared with the previous models [12,13], the present model predicts a lower raceway temperature due to the recirculated cold gas ow from the surrounding coke bed. On
Fig. 6. Temperature contours along the symmetry plane.

the other hand in the coke bed, the temperature is decreased to around 1800 K when heating the surrounding coke bed. Fig. 7 shows the distributions of gas species in the raceway cavity. Inside the raceway, the main coal plume and recirculation region show different distributions. Fig. 7(a) shows the contour of VM (fuel gas) in the raceway cavity. After exiting the tuyere, the coal starts to release VM beyond the distance of 0.4 m and forms a VM-rich core at 0.40.9 m. Beyond this region, the VM is nearly consumed completely, especially in the recirculation region. This is because, the VM core is surrounded by the ame-front region

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Fig. 7. Contours of gas species inside the raceway: (a), VM; (b), CO2; (c), CO, and (d), O2.

of high temperature $2800 K, resulting in the rapid generation and build-up of VM. Other gas species (CO2, CO, O2) change signicantly along the coal plume and are then found relatively uniform in the recirculation region (Fig. 7(bd)): Along the coal plume after exiting the tuyere, CO2 is quickly increased to 0.22 (mass fraction) at the location of VM core, i.e., $0.4 m from the lance tip. CO concentration is generally low in the whole raceway, where the main coal plume is even lower than the recirculation region, resulting from the gas recirculation from the surrounding coke bed. Contours of O2 are shown in logarithmic scale for better clarication. A very fast decrease to zero is shown along the coal plume due to the strong VM combustion, whereas a relatively high concentration is shown near the surface of the plume. This explains the existence of the ame-front temperature. To sum up, after the introduction of blast, O2 is evolved into CO2 rapidly in front of tuyere due to the strong VM combustion, whereas in the upper part of the raceway (i.e. recirculation region), the conversion of O2 to CO2 is slow, controlled by slow char reactions. Note that, the concentration of CO in the raceway can be predicted using this model. This cannot be achieved using the previous models [12,13], especially in the recirculation region. The previous models did not consider coke bed and its reactions, and therefore cannot or greatly under-predict the CO concentration in the recirculation region of raceway cavity, e.g. $0.01 (mass fraction) in Ref. [12]. This problem is solved in this model after including the recirculation region and the surrounding coke bed. The gas species show more complex patterns in the coke bed (Fig. 8). CO2 is completely converted to CO in the coke bed due to the strong coke reactions outside the raceway cavity. Their distributions vary in the two directions: X and Y. Along the X direction: CO2 is gradually converted to CO after the gas ow exits the top of raceway. O2 content is quite low in the coke bed, even lower

in the deadman region (shown in Fig. 8(c) in logarithmic scale). Along the Y direction, more qualitative comparisons are made along the tuyere axis as a function of distance from the lance tip (Fig. 8(d)). The conversion rate of CO2 to CO along Y direction is much faster compared to X direction. The variation of gas species along the tuyere axis can be divided into three stages (Fig. 8(d)): In Stage 1, three gas species keep almost constant, where coal particles are heated up before 0.4 m. In Stage 2, O2 is converted to CO2 quickly, raising CO2 up to 0.2 in mass fraction which is mainly due to the strong VM combustion. In Stage 3, i.e., beyond the end of raceway, CO2 is converted to CO by coke reactions in the fuel (coke)-rich region. Beyond the end of raceway, there is little O2 left. 4.4. Coal combustion characteristics The burnout is dened according to the ash balance,

Burnout

 ma;0 =1 ma;0 ma

It represents the total weight loss of the coal due to devolatilization and char reactions. Fig. 9(a) shows the particle trajectories coloured by burnout in the raceway cavity. The recirculation region shows a higher burnout than the main coal plume, $85% vs. $60%, resulting from the different residence time (Fig. 5(d)) and oxygen distribution (Fig. 7(c)). Specically, in the following sections, the detailed combustion characteristics are investigated along the tuyere axis and over the raceway surface, respectively. Fig. 9(b) shows the evolutions of coal combustion characteristics along the tuyere axis. The burnout evolution can be divided into three parts: Part I, covering 00.4 m, where burnout does not rise; Part II, covering 0.41.0 m, where burnout increases rapidly;

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Fig. 8. Distributions of gas species (a), CO2; (b), CO, (c), O2 along the symmetry plane, and (d), along the tuyere axis.

and Part III, covering the distance beyond 1.0 m, where burnout keeps increasing very slowly. Comparing evolution of burnout with the particle temperature and VM content, it is found that in Part I, coal particles are heated, with almost no burnout rise and no VM content drop. The particle temperature increases slowly from 300 to 800 K in this part after heating. In Part II, burnout increases very rapidly up to $55%, and VM content starts to drop from 0.4 m at a very fast rate to nearly zero. The particle temperature in Part II is connected with Part I via a dent transition at about 0.4 m, resulting from the strong devolatilization (a strong endothermic reaction). Then the particle temperature increases rapidly to $2400 K. In Part III, the burnout plateaus at around 57%. The particle temperature keeps increasing to 2600 K. The results indicate that Part I corresponds to the preheating stage of raw coal particles, the burnout is mainly controlled by devolatilization in Part II, and then followed by slow char oxidation in Part III. Moreover, compared to part III (slow char reactions control), Part II (fast devolatilization controls) plays a dominant role in determining nal burnout along the tuyere axis. In addition, it is noted that the current model predicts a lower nal burnout along the tuyere axis by $5% (absolute) compared with the previous models. In the previous studies [12,13] raceway was assumed as a tube without considering recirculation region. In this study, when using the present model, the recirculation region is included and as a result, the ne particles of higher burnout leave the main coal plume at the downstream, leading to a lower

burnout prediction along the tuyere axis. It is true that the recirculation region does exist in real BFs [1,31], therefore the present model could truly simulate the in-furnace phenomena related to PCI operation. On the other hand, this comparison also indicates that it is important to include recirculation region in the future numerical studies of PCI operation for better understanding of infurnace phenomena. The three combustion characteristics are further analysed for particles of different sizes (Fig. 10). Six particle size groups are investigated. The burnout evolution curve for each size group can also be divided into three parts, Part I (constant), Part II (increase rapidly), Part III (plateau), similar to the overall performance of these characteristics. However, the coal combustion performance varies greatly for different size groups. Specically, in Part I, the coal particles less than 20 lm burn earlier at a distance of around 0.4 m, while the large coal particles of over 200 lm only start to burn beyond the distance of 0.7 m. In Part II, where devolatilization controls, the burnout of the ne particles increases faster than the large ones. After the transitions, in Part III, where slow char reactions are prevalent, although the increasing rates for all the size groups are slowed down, the ne particles still increase faster compared with the large ones. These are found to be consistent with the evolutions of VM for each size group (Fig. 10(b)), where at 0.4 m, particles below 30 lm have nearly completed devolatilization at the faster rates, whereas those above 200 lm have hardly started beyond

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737

(a)

(a)
Burnout, % .

80

60

40

20

1-10 10-20 20-30 30-50 50-80 80-120 120-200

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2

Burnout, %

80 60

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30 20 VM, %

2500 2000 1500 1000 500

Particle temperature, K

(b)

100

40

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Distance from lance tip, m

(b)

40

40 20 10

30

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1-10 10-20 20-30 30-50 50-80 80-120 120-200

0 0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2

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Distance from lance tip, m

10

(c)
0 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2

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(c)
Particle temperature,K

2800 2300 1800 1300 800 300

Fig. 9. Combustion characteristics of coal: (a), along particle trajectories in the raceway; (b), along the tuyere axis in the raceway; and (c), along particle trajectories in the coke bed.

1-10 10-20 20-30 30-50 50-80 80-120 120-200

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2

0.8 m. With respect to particle temperature (Fig. 10(c)), ne particles increase their temperature faster and always have a higher particle temperature. To sum up, the ne particle group releases VM earlier and always gives a higher particle temperature and a higher burnout. It is worth noting that the burnout at one nal point of the tuyere axis near the end of the raceway has been widely used in various experimental and numerical studies to represent the coal combustion efciency. This method is not representative. In this study, the average burnout over the raceway surface is predicable. The average burnout of the coal particles exiting the entire raceway surface is considered signicant in providing more reliable information on the amount of unburnt char entering the coke bed. This information is not predicted by the previous models which do not consider the raceway. However, due to the inclusion of more complex settings such as recirculation region of raceway and surrounding coke bed, this information can be predicted using the present model. Specically, under the conditions in the current study, the burnout at the raceway end (at 1.3 m from lance tip) along tuyere axis is 57%; the

Distance from lance tip, m

Fig. 10. Combustion characteristics along the tuyere axis inside the raceway for difference size group: (a), burnout; (b), VM; and (c), particle temperature.

burnout over the raceway bottom is about 82%; the burnout over the entire raceway surface is about 92%. Moreover, Fig. 9(c) shows the coal burnout distribution along the particle trajectories in the coke bed. It is shown in the simulation that the burnouts vary greatly in different zones of the coke bed, nearly 100% in the dripping zone, and around 75% in the deadman zone. This results from the local differences in oxidants (O2 + CO2 + H2O) and particle specic surface area. The dripping zone shows relatively higher oxidant concentration (Fig. 8(a,c)) and the ne particle size distribution (Fig. 5(c)). As a result, the stronger char oxidation could occur there, yielding a higher coal burnout, compared to the deadman zone. Note that the interactions between the coal particles (treated as a dilute phase) and

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the coke bed (treated as a packed bed) are not included in this model. This simplication could shorten the residence time of coal particles in the coke bed and subsequently may underestimate the coal burnout in the coke bed. How to address this issue needs further work in the future.

(University of Newcastle, formerly BHPBillitons Newcastle Technology Centre) is acknowledged for providing the experimental data used in the model validation. References
[1] Ishii K. Advanced pulverised coal injection technology and blast furnace operation. Oxford, UK: Elsevier; 2000. [2] Shen YS, Guo BY, YuZulli P AB, Zulli P. A three-dimensional numerical study of the combustion of coal blends in blast furnace. Fuel 2009;88:25563. [3] Vamvuka D, Schwanekamp G, Gudenau HW. Combustion of pulverized coal with additives under conditions simulating blast furnace injection. Fuel 1996;75:114550. [4] Yagi J. Mathematical modeling of the ow of four uids in a packed bed. ISIJ Int 1993;33:61939. [5] Hutny WP, Lee GK, Price JT. Fundamentals of coal combustion during injection into a blast-furnace. Prog Energy Combust Sci 1991;17:37395. [6] Mathieson JG, Truelove JS, Rogers H. Toward an understanding of coal combustion in blast furnace tuyere injection. Fuel 2005;84:122937. [7] Jamaluddin AS, Wall TF, Truelove JS. Combustion of pulverised coal as a tuyereinjectant to the blast furnace. In: 21st Symposium (International) on Combustion. The Combustion Institute. 1986. p. 57584. [8] Nakajima R, Kishimoto S, Htta H, Ishii K, Sakuai M, Itagaki S. Behavior of coke degradation in a blast furnace. NKK Tech Rev 1990;60:18. [9] Ariyama T, Sato M, Yamakawa Y, Yamada Y, Suzuki M. Combustion behavior of pulverized coal in tuyere zone of blast-furnace and inuence of injection lance arrangement on combustibility. ISIJ Int 1994;34:47683. [10] Burgess JM. Fuel combustion in the blast-furnace raceway zone. Prog Energy Combust Sci 1985;11:6182. [11] Shen YS, Guo BY, Yu AB, Zulli P. Model study of the effects of coal properties and blast conditions on pulverized coal combustion. ISIJ Int 2009;49:81926. [12] Shen YS, Guo BY, Yu AB, Maldonado D, Austin P, Zulli P. Three-dimensional modelling of coal combustion in blast furnace. ISIJ Int 2008;48:77786. [13] Shen YS, Maldonado D, Guo BY, Yu AB, Austin P, Zulli P. Computational uid dynamics study of pulverized coal combustion in blast furnace raceway. Ind Eng Chem Res 2009;48:1031423. [14] Goto K, Murai R, Murao A, Sato M, Asanuma M, Ariyama T. Massive combustion technology of solid fuel injected into blast furnace. In: International Blast Furnace Lower Zone Symposium. Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM). Wollongong, Australia. 2002. p. 1. [15] Gu M, Zhang M, Selvarasu NKC, Zhao Y, Zhou CQ. Numerical analysis of pulverized coal combustion inside tuyere and raceway. Steel Res Int 2008;79:1724. [16] Nogami H, Yamaoka H, Takatani K. Raceway design for the innovative blast furnace. ISIJ Int 2004;44:21508. [17] Takeda K, Lockwood FC. Integrated mathematical model of pulverised coal combustion in a blast furnace. ISIJ Int 1997;37:43240. [18] Wakao N, Kaguei S, Funazkri T. Effect of uid dispersion coefcients on particle-to-uid heat-transfer coefcients in packed-beds - correlation of Nusselt numbers. Chem Eng Sci 1979;34:32536. [19] Ubhayakar SK, Stickler DB, von Rosenberg CW, Ganon RE. Rapid devolatilization of pulverized coal in hot combustion gases. In: 16th Symposium (International) on Combustion. The Combustion Institute. Pittsburgh. 1976. p. 42736. [20] Gibb J. Combustion of residual char remaining after devolatilization. In: Lecture at Course of Pulverised Coal Combustion. London: Imperial College; 1985. [21] Field M, Gill D, Morgan B, Hawksley P. The combustion of pulverised coal. London: British Coal Utilisation Research Association; 1967. [22] Magnussen BF, Hjertager BW. On mathematical modelling of turbulent combustion with special emphasis on soot formation and combustion. In: 16th Symposium (International) on Combustion. The Combustion Institute. Pittsburgh. 1977. p. 71929. [23] ANSYS-CFX-Documentation. [24] Zhou LX, Qiao L, Chen XL, Zhang J. A USM turbulence-chemistry model for simulating NOx formation in turbulent combustion. Fuel 2002;81:17039. [25] Peters N. Multiscale combustion and turbulence. Proc Combust Inst 2009;32:125. [26] Pope SB. PDF methods for turbulent reactive ows. Prog Energy Combust Sci 1985;11:11992. [27] Williams A, Pourkashanian M, Jones JM, Skorupska N. Combustion and gasication of coal. New York: Taylor & Francis; 2000. [28] Mondal SS, Som SK, Dash SK. Numerical predictions on the inuences of the air blast velocity, initial bed porosity and bed height on the shape and size of raceway zone in a blast furnace. J Phys D-Appl Phys 2005;38:13017. [29] Feng YQ, Pinson D, Yu AB, Chew SJ, Zulli P. Numerical study of gas-solid ow in the raceway of a blast furnace. Steel Res Int 2003;74:52330. [30] Xu BH, Yu AB, Chew SJ, Zulli P. Numerical simulation of the gas-solid ow in a bed with lateral gas blasting. Powder Technol 2000;109:1326. [31] Jamaluddin AS, Combustion of pulverised coal as a tuyere-injectant to blast furnace. 1985, University of Newcastle: Newcastle. [32] Truelove JS, Holcombe D. Measurement and modelling of coal ame stability in a pilot-scale combustor. Symposium (International) on Combustion 1991;23:96371.

5. Conclusions A three dimensional integrated model of coal/coke combustion is developed and then applied to the lance-blowpipe-tuyere-racewaycoke bed region in a BF. One single computational domain is used, where the blowpipe-tuyere-raceway is treated as a cavity and coke bed as a porous media. The model is validated against measurements from laboratory experiments and real blast furnace, respectively. On this basis, the typical in-furnace phenomena of the raceway and surrounding coke bed are investigated. (1) Inside the raceway: main coal plume and recirculation region show different patterns. Compared to the recirculation region, the main coal plume shows considerably higher gas velocity, shorter particle residence time, higher gas temperature and signicantly higher CO2 and VM concentrations. The coal is heated and does not start burning until exiting the tuyere; subsequently the burnout increases rapidly at the upstream of the raceway due to strong devolatilization and then plateaus at the downstream of the raceway due to slow char reactions. (2) In the coke bed: compared with the dripping zone, the deadman shows slightly lower gas velocity and longer residence time with large particle size, signicantly higher CO, lower O2 concentrations, and a lower burnout. (3) Coal devolatilization is the main contributor to raise the nal burnout level in the raceway. Local coal burnout mainly depends on particle size, residence time and oxygen availability in both the raceway and coke bed. Compared with the previous 3D models [12,13], the present model includes more complex settings, such as recirculation region of raceway, surrounding coke bed and its reactions etc. When comparing the simulations using the present model with the previous models, (a), in this study along the main coal plume, the dispersion of the coal plume is limited within the tuyere but more signicant in the raceway. Then a large-scale recirculation of ne coal particles forms in the upper part of raceway; (b), the present model predicts a lower temperature in the raceway; (c), the previous models were found to greatly under-predict the CO concentration in the raceway; and (d), the current model predicts a lower nal burnout along the tuyere axis by $5% (absolute). The inclusion of recirculation region in the raceway plays an important role in determining burnout. These comparisons also indicate that it is important to include recirculation region in the future numerical studies of PCI operation for better understanding in-furnace phenomena. More importantly, compared with nal burnout at one point predicted in previous models, this model could give a more reliable burnout prediction over the raceway surface, which could better represent the amount of unburnt char entering the coke bed. The average burnout over the raceway surface is around 90% in the base case. To our knowledge, this model is the rst 3D model to simulate the in-furnace phenomena of PCI operation in the literature. Considering the high cost for physical experiments or BF in situ measurements, this model provides a cost-effective tool for understanding the in-furnace ow-thermo-chemical behaviours of the PCI operation, and then optimizing operating conditions in fullscale BFs in the future. Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank the Australian Research Council and BlueScope Steel for their support of this project. Dr Harold Rogers