Validation and Calibration Approach for Discrete Element Simulation of Burden Charging in Pre-reduction Shaft Furnace of COREX Process

Abstract

Discrete element method (DEM) has been an increasingly used tool to get better understanding of charging process and flow behaviors of granular materials in metallurgical reactors. However, validation and precision of DEM must be verified and calibrated. In this paper, a calibration approach is proposed for the sphere equivalence of irregular particles in DEM simulation of charging process. In this approach, the non-sphere behavior of irregular particles is characterized by a pair of apparent sliding and rolling resistance coefficients obtained by quantitative comparison of the angle of repose and discharging time of hopper based on laboratory measurement of physical benchmarking experiments. The calibration approach is applied in the DEM simulation of the charging process of a shaft furnace in COREX 3000. Validation of simulation results for flow trajectory and stream width after leaving chute and burden distribution and profile is investigated through comparison of DEM and experiments. The results show that, with such a calibration approach, DEM can be easily used to simulate solid flow of irregular particles.

Discrete Particle Simulation of Solid Flow in a Large-Scale Reduction Shaft Furnace with Center Gas Supply Device

“…They are beneficial for understanding the flow of burden materials in various ironmaking process. For example, some researchers used DEM to study the solid flow in COREX shaft furnaces, such as dynamic burden distribution, 21,22) particle descending behaviour, [23][24][25] effect of screw on solid flow 26,27) and effect of AGD beams on solid flow. 28,29) However, so far, the solid flow features in reduction shaft furnaces with CGSD have not been studied, particularly the residence time distribution of particle in this new design.…”

Modeling the Gas-solid Flow in the Reduction Shaft of COREX

“…Nevertheless, the transient features are often missing in these models, which can play a significant role in the operation of the process. To overcome this problem, the discrete element method (DEM) 8) has recently been used to study some process phenomena such as dynamic burden distribution [9][10][11] and particle descending velocity in the bottom part of a reduction shaft. 12) In those studies, the effects of some parameters such as distributor angle and rotating speed on burden profile and coke size segregation were investigated.…”

Analysis of Cohesive Particle Percolation in a Packed Bed Using Discrete Element Method

“…It can also be considered as a shape factor in DEM model. 36,37) The effect of rolling friction coefficient on percolation velocity is shown in Fig. 11.…”