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Numerical investigation of burden distribution in ironmaking blast furnace

Article  in  Powder Technology · May 2019

DOI: 10.1016/j.powtec.2019.05.047

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 Powder Technology 353 (2019) 385–397

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Powder Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/powtec

Numerical investigation of burden distribution in ironmaking

blast furnace
Zhaoyang Li a,b, Shibo Kuang a,⁎, Sida Liu a,b, Jieqing Gan a, Aibing Yu a,b,⁎, Yuntao Li c, Xiaoming Mao c
a
ARC Research Hub for Computational Particle Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia
b
Centre for Simulation and Modelling of Particulate Systems, Southeast University - Monash University Joint Research Institute, Suzhou 215123, PR China
c
Ironmaking Division, Research Institute (R&D Centre), Baoshan Iron & Steel Co., Ltd, Shanghai 201900, PR China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The control of burden distribution at blast furnace (BF) top is of paramount importance and mostly practiced in
Received 4 February 2019 daily operations. However, to date, an effective method for optimizing top burden distribution under different
Received in revised form 17 May 2019 conditions is yet unavailable. This paper presents a numerical method to achieve this goal using a well-
Accepted 18 May 2019
developed and validated multi-fluid BF process model. The model simulates the BF region between burden sur-
Available online 21 May 2019
face and slag surface. First, a study of top burden distributions confirms that a uniform ore-to-coke distribution
Keywords:
presents the highest process efficiency but a sharp pressure drop across the cohesive zone (CZ), which can
Blast furnace lead to unstable production. Then, a top burden optimization method is proposed and tested. This is done by
Burden distribution loading more coke to the central area while keeping uniformity in other areas. This burden control method de-
Process model creases the in-furnace pressure drop significantly. When the coke charged into the central area is controlled
Simulation properly, the gas flow there can be reasonably developed, and the process efficiency shows comparable to that
Process efficiency of uniform burden distribution. These results are analyzed in terms of in-furnace flow, heat and mass transfer. Fi-
Operation stability nally, as an example, a method to achieve the simulated optimum burden is proposed for use in a BF operation.
This is done by use of DEM model simulating the flow of particle from the rotating chute into the throat in a BF
top. This optimization methodology is considered applicable to other BFs.
© 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Controlling burden distribution is most frequently performed in the

Blast furnace (BF) ironmaking is the most important technology by
which hot metal (HM) is rapidly and efficiently reduced from iron-
bearing materials [1]. This process accounts for more than 90% of the
HM production worldwide [2]. However, it generates the energy for
smelting the burden materials mainly by combusting carbonaceous ma-
terials such as coke and pulverized coal (PC), which are finally emitted
to the atmosphere as CO2. In an integrated steelwork, the BF ironmaking
system (including pelletizing-sintering machine and coke oven), ac-
counts for about 90% of the CO2 emission [3,4] and 70% of the energy
consumption [5]. As such, it is important to maintain optimum BF oper-
ations. In particular, BF production has a large scale (e.g., over 10,000
tons per day for a 5000-m3 BF). Thus, any improvement of this process,
being even small, can result in significant social, environmental and eco-
nomic benefits.
⁎ Corresponding authors at: ARC Research Hub for Computational Particle Technology,
Department of Chemical Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Melbourne, VIC 3800,
Australia.
E-mail addresses: shibo.kuang@monash.edu (S. Kuang), aibing.yu@monash.edu
(A. Yu).
BF practice. In such an operation, burden materials in the forms of iron
ore and coke are charged into a furnace alternately and intermittently,
forming a layered burden distribution inside the throat. This layered
structure tends to persist during descending [6]. Meanwhile, various
charged materials behave differently due to their disparate properties.
Compared with coke, iron ore has much higher densities and smaller
sizes. Consequently, iron ore layer is less permeable to reducing gas,
hereby delaying the heating-up of charged materials. Because burden
distribution is often desired and assumed axisymmetric, its description
refers mainly to the radial direction. In many situations, the radial distri-
bution of ore-to-coke volume ratios is mainly considered. As the reduc-
ing gas generated from raceways flows upwards, it encounters the
layered burden with different properties, especially in the radial direc-
tion, leading to spatially different gas distribution. It has been well rec-
ognized that the burden distribution inside a BF largely determines
the inner gas flow and plays a major role in affecting BF performance in-
cluding process efficiency, productivity, lining life and HM chemistry
[1]. This necessitates the efforts for optimizing top burden distribution
and its subsequent in-furnace patterns.In the BF practice, burden distri-
bution is controlled via a burden charging system, which is adjusted
mainly using the bell-less charging system at present [7]. The control ac-
curacy can be better secured [8] with the aid of measuring techniques

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2019.05.047
0032-5910/© 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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