Study of Preferential Refractory Wear in the Jet Impingement Region of a Blast Furnace Trough (BFT): A Mathematical, Physical, and Industrial Study
Part 1: Literature Review
Aim: To investigate the past works concerning BFT, understand the various metallurgical process, and identify the lacuna present.
Publication: S Ranjan, D Mazumdar, I N Chakraborty, S Sinha, and R Sarkar, "Review and Analysis of Metallurgical Processes in Blast Furnace Main Trough and Trough Performances", Transactions of Indian Institute of Metals. [https://doi.org/10.1007/s12666-021-02454-9 ]
Status: Completed
Part 2: Hydrodynamic Modeling
Aim:
To fabricate a BFT water model of a suitable length with an appropriate scaling factor to study the impact zone flow.
To suggest a suitable CFD modeling approach to accurately predict the wall shear stresses.
Validation of mean velocity and turbulence parameters using LDV.
Validation of wall shear stress using Electrochemical method.
To predict the wall shear stress in an industrial BFT using the above modeling approach.
A three-phase (hot metal - slag - air) modeling of a BFT from an Indian steel plant to predict the wall shear profile and compare it with the actual wear profile.
Publication/ Presentation: S Ranjan and D Mazumdar, "Modelling of Metallurgical Processes in a Blast Furnace Trough", Asia Steel 2021 Hybrid, Gyeongju, South Korea.
Status: Ongoing
Part 3: Miscellaneous Issues
Aim:
Thermal modeling of the BFT walls to determine the location of the critical isotherm
1D vs 2D
Effect of thermal contact resistance
Effect of different cooling practices: Natural vs Forced vs Insulating
Normal vs worn-out trough
Addition of radiative heat transfer
Refractory wear in the upper region in the BFT (at the air - refractory interface)
Influence of air entrainment on the wall shear stress in the impact zone
Single-phase vs two-phase with taphole vs two-phase without taphole
Status: Ongoing
Part 4: Development of predictive model for the BFT Wear Rate
Aim:
Prediction of wear rate using hydrodynamic model and Sherwood number correlation
Development of Sherwood number correlation for a vertical plate submerged in a two-phase gas-liquid turbulent flow
Application of the developed correlation in conjunction with the hydrodynamic model developed in the Part 2 to predict the wear rate
To develop a correlation to predict BFT refractory wear using operating parameters.
Publication/ Presentation: S Ranjan and D Mazumdar, "A Macroscopic Model for Prediction of Refractory Wear in Blast Furnace Main Trough" AISTech 2022, Pittsburgh, USA.
Status: Ongoing