Numerical Simulation of Particle and Air Velocity Fields in Raceway in Model Blast Furnace and Comparison with Experimental Data (Cold Model)

Abstract

Flows of solid particles and air in a model blast furnace have been simulated using Distinct Element Method (DEM) for the particles and Finite Difference Method for the numerical analysis of Navier-Stokes equations with the interaction terms between the air and the particles. The flow of solid particles, the air flow, the raceway and the packing fraction distribution are presented. The raceway depth, the diameter of particle inflow area and the raceway height which quantitatively represent a raceway are also presented and compared with the experimental data (CAMP-ISIJ, 16 (2003)). The fairly good agreement obtained by the comparison indicates that our simulation results are sound and the simulation results would represent the flow mechanisms of the solid particles and the air in the model blast furnace, and the simulation method that the Lagrangian motion of particles and the Eulerian motion of the air are simultaneously solved is a useful tool for predicting the flow fields of particles and the gas in a blast furnace. Unsteady state solutions of these flows suggest that dynamical characteristics in the model blast furnace are unstable and fluctuate, and that an unusual phenomenon would happen under some conditions even in the small scale model blast furnace.

Numerical Analysis of Raceway Formation in Isothermal and Non-reactive Packed Bed

“…A mathematical model to analyze the particle motion and the fluid flow in raceway used in this study has fundamentally same structure as the previous analyses. 45,46,[50][51][52][53][54][55] In other word, the particle tracking method and the computational fluid dynamics are combined. Details of the model are explained in the following sections.…”

“…45) As used in some combustion analyses, 45,46) the combination of the particle tracking method for the particle motion and techniques of computational fluid dynamics have been applied to the analysis of the raceway behaviors. [50][51][52][53][54][55] Additionally, the particle tracking techniques including irregular particle shape were also applied to the raceway analyses. 56,57) These approaches successfully reproduced the formation of the cavity in the packed bed, the particle circulation motion and the gas flow pattern and clarified the effect of particle shape on the motion and heat transfer characteristics in and around the raceway.…”

Development of 3-D mathematical model of raceway size in blast furnace

“…Furthermore, there have been some attempts to model the conditions in the raceway by 3-D numerical models. [27][28] From the above description, it is clear that a 3-D model of raceway size is very rare at present. It is necessary to improve this model more closely to actual BF situation.…”

“…Furthermore, there have been some attempts to model the conditions in the raceway by 3-D numerical models. 27–28…”