Speaker
Description
A blast furnace belongs to the most complex and biggest reactors for the treatment of raw materials. One of the most promising approaches to describe numerically the complex process of a blast furnace is a coupled Euler-Lagrange simulation. It combines an accurate representation of the solid phase with its reducing gas formed by oxidation of coke and iron reduction in conjunction with the melting of iron and slag for the particulate phase. These processes are coupled via heat, mass and momentum transfer with the continuous phases of a multiphase flow consisting of gas, liquid iron and slag that operate in a counter-current flow. The extended discrete element (XDEM) method represents a simulation platform that predicts the thermodynamic state of both the particulate and fluid phase. The numerical framework describes the spatio-temporal thermodynamic state of each particle e.g. oxidation of coke, reduction of iron oxides and melting of iron and slag. OpenFoam as a multiphase CFD solver describes the flow, composition and temperature distribution in the void space between the particles. Thus, the key areas of a raceway, tripping zone, cohesive zone and shaft are modelled with high accuracy. An analysis of the results unveils the underlying physics and therefore, allows assessing performance and design issues. The current approach is more than easily adaptable to green blast furnace technologies that apply hydrogen as a reducing agent.