Speaker
Description
Thermo-Calc Software is a well-known developer of large CALPHAD-type databases and software for property and phase diagram calculations based on Gibbs energy minimization. A database for oxides, TCOX, has been available since 1992 and development has been greatly accelerated in recenet years placing special emphasis on steel-slag interactions.
Parallel to the database, the Process Metallurgy Module (PMM) has been developed, that allows full kinetic simulations of steelmaking and -refining processes. The PMM graphical user interface enables simple and intuitive set-up of processes such as BOF, EAF, LF, VOD/AOD, etc… for the analysis and process optimization for different grades with different quality requirements. The model has been validated for several steelmaking processes including LF and VOD.
The PMM functionalities and models are currently being integrated into TC-Python, a software development kit, that allows openly coupling Thermo-Calc with other software. This enables directly accessing Level 2 systems and using actual stored steelplant process data and chemical analyses, to run process simulations off-line after the heat has been produced to understand the origin of quality issues and unexpected events that might have occurred during production or to investigate alternative processing routes that might have lower total production costs, have lower environmental impact, or might meet more stringent quality requirements.
We are also working on concepts to run the PMM on-line in parallel to the actual steelmaking and -refining process, thus effectively having a Digital Twin of the production process, enabling to track steel chemistry, inclusion amount and type, slag chemistry, viscosity and amount, steel and slag temperature, refractory wear, etc… in real time, allowing operators to perform corrective action for an optimal production process. To achieve the required calculation speeds and stability, it currently looks like this will require a metamodeling approach.