Investigation on the uneven distribution of different types of ores in the hopper and stock surface during the charging process of blast furnace based on discrete element method

Abstract

The model of an actual 4070 m3 bell-less top blast furnace with two parallel hoppers was established, and the distribution of the sinter, pellet, and lump ore in the hopper and the stock surface was analyzed based on the discrete element method. The results show that the distribution of different types of ores is not uniform in the hopper already. In the radial direction of the stock surface, the sinter volume fraction in the center and peripheral region of the stock surface is higher than that in the intermediate region of the stock surface, but the volume distribution of the pellet and lump ore is opposite to the sinter volume distribution. Owing to the size of lump ore is small, so the pressure drop of burden layer in the intermediate region of the stock surface is larger than that in the center and peripheral region. In the circumferential direction of the stock surface, the standard deviation of the volume distribution of the sinter, pellet, and lump ore is 1.28, 0.92 and 0.49, respectively.

Modelling of phenomena affecting blast furnace burden permeability using the Discrete Element Method (DEM) – A review

“…As stated in Section 2.1, it is important for the ore layers to have an homogenous composition. The segregation behavior of ore mixtures during hopper filling and discharge has been studied by Xu et al [39,40]. As the different types of ores are generally charged to the hopper in batches rather than a mixture, they investigated how the order of charging ores to the hopper affects the order of discharging and the final component distribution in the throat.…”

“…Next, they investigated how the mass flow rate and Ytube design affect the circumferential imbalance. Xu et al [39,[93][94][95] investigated how design and operational factors can be adjusted to mitigate the circumferential imbalance. The results of all studies related to equipment and operation design are discussed in Section 2.3.…”

“…As the outlet size increases, the moving layers become larger and there is less time for the engulfing mechanism to take place; hence, there is less fluctuation and segregation decreases. When it comes to initial material arrangement, Xu et al [39,40] scrutinized the discharging behavior of a pellet, sinter and lump ore mixture. In practice, these materials are charged to the hopper in batches rather than as a mixture.…”

Effect of Selective Pellet Loading on Burden Distribution and Blast Furnace Operations

“…If there are more than one type of particles in the mixture, the constitution of the same at hopper output is liable to change with time. 18,19) As a result, the rotating chute input is always different and thus circumferential distribution of material in the blast furnace is non-uniform. Different particles of different sizes will constitute different positions along the radius of the blast furnace, thus dividing the entire layer in zones with differing permeability.…”

Numerical study on the influence of pellet proportion on burden distribution in blast furnace

“…DEM considers the translation and rotation motion and the interaction of every particle in the system and also their interaction with the system boundaries, so it can capture the motion and size distribution of particles [1]. So far, a lot of research has been carried out on the charging process of blast furnace [16][17][18][19]. Mitra et al [2] proposed a mathematical model for fast evaluation of charging programmes in bell-less top blast furnaces through simulation and experiment.…”