The blast furnace (BF) is a huge counter-flow reactor to produce pig iron. The molten pig iron and by-product slag are accumulated at the hearth of the furnace, from where they are regularly tapped. The campaign life of the BF is governed by the wear of the hearth refractory. Once the residual thickness of the hearth lining is critically low, it must be repaired during a long-term stoppage, which is quite costly. Therefore, it is essential to keep track of the residual lining thickness not only for the better planning of the relining but also for the operational safety (avoiding dangerous hearth breakthrough incidents). [1,2] Modern BFs are equipped with many thermocouples (TCs) in the hearth refractory because higher temperatures indicate a lower residual wall thickness. [3-7] However, the measured temperatures are also influenced by many other effects such as TC defects, brittle layers in the refractory hearth cooling conditions, production rate, temperature, and flow state of the hot metal within the hearth. The preparation of the measurement data is crucial and quite challenging. Existing models lack the comprehensive checks of the data plausibility or of possible effects unrelated to wear. [2] Therefore, the recorded TC data (usually denser than 15 min values) must be first filtered, e.g., by excluding the time intervals influenced by stoppages. Then, strange behaviors like sudden temperature drops or uncorrelation to other TCs must be identified, which can be used to assess TC plausibility. An inverse heat transfer model is developed and presented in this study to estimate the 3D hearth wear profile. The model uses the prepared and weighted online TC measurements. The numerical computations are performed using COMSOL Server. The LiveLink for MATLAB module is utilized for the 3D hearth wear geometry interpolation and optimization. Furthermore, a COMSOL application is programmed so that a standard web browser can be used to visualize the results interactively on any device connected to the internal network without local software installation. The new model provides a flexible platform to include other physical aspects that are important for operational hearth monitoring. For instance, the thermal stresses and the deformation of
At blast furnace B at Salzgitter Flachstahl a series of innovative measuring techniques are installed to monitor the processes at the blast furnace top, making this furnace one of the best equipped furnaces in Europe. These techniques comprise full 2D measurement of the temperature profile of the top gas shortly above the burden surface, 3D radar scan of the whole burden surface and online measurement of the dust concentration in the top gas. After more than 5 years’ experience with most of these techniques, they enable to better understand the complex chemical and physical interrelations occurring in the BF stack between the ascending process gas and the descending solid burden. A couple of examples of incidents that were monitored are presented in this article, including influences of charging programmes on top gas temperature profiles and influences of disturbed gas solids interaction on the BF working state. The new measuring techniques with tailor-made data processing enable the operators to gain a better picture of the processes currently occurring in the blast furnace, consequently supporting them in keeping the blast furnace operation as stable and efficient as possible.
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