COMPREHENSIVE MODEL FOR BLAST FURNACE USING OPENFOAM®

Abstract

Blast furnace is a complex, multi-phase and high temperature reactor involving multiple reactions between phases, heat transfer and phase change. Limited options are available to know internal state of the furnace through measurements using instruments or sensors. Hence, mathematical and numerical models play an important role in prediction of blast furnace performance. Considering the complex nature of equations to model flow, heat transfer, phase change, reaction kinetics and coupling between them a robust framework is required. In this context, to take advantage of new computational paradigms in terms of flexibility offered through open source codes, OpenFOAM® is selected as the primary platform. It offers generic field operations and manipulation solvers for partial differential equations in conjunction with excellent scalability across multiple CPUs. A Comprehensive blast furnace model has been developed using OpenFOAM® with axi-symmetric solver. The model is in implementation stage in the plant and typical simulation results compared with the field data are presented. In addition, the model can be used for scenario analysis, trend prediction, identification of shape and size of cohesive zone over range of process parameters.