Numerical simulation of fuel layered distribution iron ore sintering technology

Abstract

FLDS (Fuel Layered Distribution Sintering) is a technology that can effectively reduce fuel consumption with evenly distributed heat pattern in the sintering bed compared to the conventional iron ore sintering. In this paper, a numerical model is established and used to predict the FLDS performance in terms of six different indicators such as FFS (Flame Front Speed), sintering time, maximum temperature, DTMT (Duration Time in Melting Temperature), MQI (Melt Quality Index) and VC (Cooling Velocity). The results show that the FLDS can improve the quality indices of the sinter product and make the process more stable. Moreover, both air velocity and bed height have significant influences on the quality metrics in FLDS operation. Sensitivity analysis shows that the order of sensitivity to air velocity is MQI > VC > FFS > sintering time > DTMT > maximum temperature, while that to the bed height is MQI > DTMT > sintering time > FFS > VC > maximum temperature. The findings are of significance for providing a guideline for FLDS operation.

Fuel-Appropriate Distribution of the Material Layer Based on Numerical Model of Sintering with Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm

“…Won [14] studied the effect of fuel characteristics on the thermal state, Minerals 2023, 13, 511 2 of 14 demonstrating that the better the combustion characteristics, the faster the spread of the burning zone. Shrestha [15] established a numerical simulation of fuel-layered distribution iron ore sintering, which was able to improve the quality indices of the sinter. Hou [16,17] investigated the effect of the internal temperature and oxygen concentration on the heat and mass transfer for three typical fuel structures and proposed a fuel addition technology in the form of granulation to improve the combustion efficiency of fuel in the material layer.…”

“…Assuming a fixed material segregation in the vertical direction of the material layer, the initial fuel fraction for each unit of the material layer is predicted based on the granulation model, and its absolute error with the theoretical value is used as the objective function, as seen in Equation (14). With the mass fraction of fuel in each particle size as a constraint, see Equation (15), the fuel size composition is optimized to achieve the theoretical fuel distribution. If it cannot meet the demand, the fuel segregation in the vertical direction in the three regions of the sinter layer is further optimized.…”