Numerical Modeling of the Iron Ore Sintering Process

Abstract

Iron ore sintering involves the movement of a flame front down a particulate bed, and a series of physico-chemical reactions over a large temperature range. In the literature simple and more sophisticated iron ore sintering models have been reported. In this paper a more comprehensive numerical model which incorporates most of the significant processes and heat transfer modes proposed in earlier models is given. Therefore, sub-models are available to describe the relationship between airflow rate through the bed and flame front speed, the evaporation and condensation of water ahead of the front, the calcination of fluxes nearer to the front, the reactions that occur in the front and cooling of the bed with the departure of the front. Improvements were made to several areas -such as coke combustion, and the melting and solidification processes -to more accurately quantify the phenomena involved. More recent progress in understanding the fundamentals of sintering from BHP Billiton studies have also been incorporated into the model. To date, twelve sinter pot tests have been used for validation studies. Reasonably good agreement was obtained between predicted and measured results -in areas such as bed temperature profiles and waste gas temperature and compositions. Work is continuing to further improve the model, and broaden the validation work to include other bed temperature profile parameters.

<i>In Situ</i> Temperature Measurement of Sinter Beds at High Spatial and Time Resolution

“…This tendency is well known and reported in many other reports. 12,13,[23][24][25][26] Some computer simulation results are in good agreement with the data of Fig. 7.…”

“…7. [23][24][25] However, there are no reports that experimentally determine FFS values at each depth of the sinter bed at such a high spatial resolution.…”

“…5(a). [23][24][25] However, to date, no reports have experimentally determined the time variation of the temperature at such a high time and spatial resolution, i.e., 10 s and 2 mm, respectively. It is worth noting that each sinter pot test gives distinctly different counterparts of Fig.…”

Model Predictions of Important Bed and Gas Properties during Iron Ore Sintering

“…14) Results of the model have been tested against some sinter pot test results 14) but a more rigorous examination of the capability of the model is clearly necessary. The main area of focus is the ability of the model to predict bed temperature profiles with the arrival and departure of the flame front.…”

Improving Energy Efficiency in Iron Ore Sintering through Segregation: a Theoretical Investigation

“…A well-validated hot model 1,5,7) has been formulated to describe heat transfer from the flame front to the bed and is used in this study. Data on segregated beds from the literature is used in the simulations.…”