Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has become a powerful simulation technology used in iron/steelmaking industrial applications for process design and optimization to save energy. In this paper, a Virtual Engineering (VE) application is presented that uses Virtual Reality (VR) to visualize CFD results in a tracked immersive projection system. The interactive Virtual Reality (VR) was specifically adapted for CFD post-processing to better understand CFD results and more efficiently communicate with non-CFD experts. The VE application has been utilized to make an assessment in terms of visualization and optimization for steelmaking furnaces. The immersive system makes it possible to gain a quick, intuitive understanding of the flow characteristics and distributions of pressure, temperature, and species properties in the industrial equipment. By introducing the virtual engineering environment, the value of CFD simulations has been greatly enhanced to allow engineers to gain much needed process insights for the design and optimization of industrial processes.

The petroleum refining industry involves many capital and energy intensive processes. Due to complex phenomena and the difficulties in taking measurements, the knowledge needed for process optimization can be most readily obtained through the development of high fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) numerical simulations. CFD has become a powerful simulation technology used in industrial process design and optimization for productivity enhancement, energy efficiency optimization, environmental management, and quality assurance. With increasingly complex CFD capable of simulating and analyzing ever-larger amounts of data, interpolating and presenting the numerical data in a meaningful fashion is a key for effective communication between CFD experts and plant engineers. Traditionally, CFD experts frequently develop two-dimensional pictures and animate their results to help make the information easily digestible. Recently, virtual reality (VR) technology made it possible for people to analyze huge amounts of CFD data in a virtual environment. VR creates a computer-generated world in which people who are not analysis experts can see the results in a context that they can easily understand. Even people who are familiar with interpreting analysis results can gain insights that make it possible to understand the root causes of observed problems and plan design changes in much less time. The integration of CFD with VR is a growing and emerging research field which can provide virtual engineering (VE) systems. In the present study, several VE applications in the petroleum refining industry have been discussed. The VE environment has greatly enhanced the value of CFD simulations and allows engineers to gain much needed process insights in order to make sound engineering decisions.

Virtual Reality (VR) is an emerging technology that creates a computer-generated immersive environment to provide users a realistic experience. VR has been applied to an increasing number of fields across different disciplines. Considerable progress has been made to apply VR to the engineering field, allowing the user to interpret data. However, the implementation of VR in complex simulation applications requires further and specific developments to more effectively and efficiently visualize the numerical models. The present study focuses on developing a solution to convert and visualize simulation results as well as constructing virtual engineering processes for industrial training in a VR system. By integrating and customizing multiple software packages, several functionalities have been designed and introduced to the VR package for interactive visualization. The newly developed integration of VR and engineering simulation has provided an efficient means of visualizing and analyzing huge amounts of numerical data in a virtual environment. This integration offers a technology to aid the design and optimization of industrial processes by empowering people to work collaboratively and intuitively to reduce design time for better engineering solutions. The VR based applications provide a virtual operating environment for the purpose of research and development as well as education and training.

The saltwater intrusion occurs in many coastal areas worldwide and has become a serious menace to freshwater quality. In the Pearl River estuary, saltwater intrusion has threatened the water supply for residential, agricultural, and industrial uses in the past decades, and resulted in economic losses. In this study, the observed saltwater intrusion records of 10 years (2012~2021) at 9 stations in Modaomen waterway, the largest inlet of the Pearl River estuary, were compiled and analyzed with the reported sea level heights and river discharge volumes during the same period. Along the Modaomen waterway, the annual saltwater intrusion days have inversely correlated exponential relationship (R2 = 0.97) with distance away from the Pearl River estuary mouth. The results from a multiple linear regression show that the observed annual saltwater intrusion days near the main Pearl River estuary mouth could be quantitatively explained by the combination of river discharge volumes and sea level rise values. Every 1 mm increase of annual sea level rise, would led to an extended saltwater intrusion for 0.410±0.116 day in the same year near the main estuary mouth of the Pearl River. This work presents an example to investigate the sea level rise impacts on saltwater intrusion with annually compiled observed data and from a time-change perspective.

Gas and burden distributions inside a blast furnace play an important role in optimizing gas utilization versus the furnace productivity and minimizing the CO2 emission in steel industries. In this paper, a mathematical model is presented to describe the burden descent in the blast furnace shaft and gas distribution, with the alternative structure of coke and ore layers being considered. Multi-dimensional Ergun’s equation is solved with considering the turbulent compressible gas flow through the burden column. The porosity of each material will be treated as a function of three dimensional functions which will be determined by the kinetics sub-models accordingly. A detailed investigation of gas flow through the blast furnace will be conducted with the given initial burden profiles along with the effects of redistribution during burden descending. Also, parametric studies will be carried out to analyze the gas distribution cross the blast furnace under different cohesive zone (CZ) shapes, charging rate, and furnace top pressure. A good agreement was obtained between the CFD simulation and published experimental data. Based on the results, the inverse V shape is proved to be the most desirable CZ profile.