It is important to reduce fluctuation of the ore granulation for a stable operation of iron ore sinter plant, because the fluctuation affects directly productivity and productive yield of the operation. To clarify the granulation phenomena in a rotating granulator, an advanced mathematical model that is different from previously proposed ones was developed considering the probability theory. Mathematical characteristics of the model and granulation simulation by the model are summarized as follows:(1) Since it is difficult to analyze the phenomena by the models based on the motion of quasi-particles due to the complicated movement of large amounts of the quasi-particles, the present model treated it as a kind of probability phenomena.(2) This model is basically composed of matrix algebras defining following two granulation parameters, 1) overall granulation probability resulted from ore properties, and 2) granulation and disintegration probabilities at each size range of the ores.(3) This model is useful for evaluation of the granulation phenomena, because the simulation results using the appropriate granulation parameters agree with those from the granulation operation.(4) It is important to make clear the granulation conditions for defining the granulation parameters, because the parameters depend on the conditions of the granulation dynamics and the size of the granulator.KEY WORDS: granulation; simulation model; iron ore sinter; probability theory; Markov chain. granulation model in which fine particles coalesce mutually by both external and friction forces during rotating motion. Suzuki et al. 9) analyzed granulation phenomena formulating mass balance of iron ore fines in a drum mixer and discpelletizer. They concluded that size of quasi-particle is determined by total rotating distance in the granulators and granulation characteristics of a disc-pelletizer are superior to those by a drum mixer. Lister et al. 10) presented a population balance equation in which quasi-particles grow by the coating of fine ores on the surface of nuclei coarse ores. This equation made clear that it is important to control size of fine ores for size enlargement of the quasi-particles. Kanoh et al. 11) analyzed theoretically the granulation phenomena during rotating motion in a drum mixer, considering kinetic and colliding energy. They pointed out through the analysis that the granulation obtained in small-scaled tests does not agree with that in commercial plant operation. With recent advance of capacity of computers, analyses of granulation dynamics will progress remarkably introducing some advanced computational methods.
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Proposal of Granulation Model Based on the Probability TheoryWhen fine ores are granulated in a disc pelletizer or drum mixer, it is necessary to obtain information of the granulated quasi-particles considering both the ore properties and granulation conditions in a granulation operation. Figure 1 shows a relation among raw material conditions, granulation parameters and quasi-particle conditions. I...