EUROPEAN STEEL TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATION DAYS 2017 - ESTAD 2017

With the steady increase in computation power numerical simulations offer new possibilities for the design and optimization of industrial facilities. In the highly competitive business of iron making with rapidly increasing requirements in metallurgic plant design numerical models can be highly beneficial in the development process. In this paper a coupled approach of numerical simulations to design and optimize traveling grate pelletizing plants for iron ore is presented. With the first numerical model the processes in the pelletizing bed were simulated. The code for the threedimensional numerical simulation was developed in Microsoft Excel’s Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). The model is based on the finite volume method and includes mass, momentum, energy and species balances for gas and solid phase. The plant configuration as well as the raw material composition are fully customizable. The second numerical simulation focusses on the induration hood of the pelletizing plant. 3D CFD studies were carried out with Ansys FLUENT. While boundary conditions such as temperature profiles and massflows were taken from the bed simulation, the CFD studies yield the firing zone temperature distribution which again can be used as input for the bed simulation. With this coupling the accuracy of both simulations significantly increases and detailed insights in the pelletizing process are obtained which offers great opportunities for design of new plants as well as optimization of existing plants. Keywords Pelletizing, Simulation, Plant Design, Process Optimization