Numerical Investigation on Heat Transfer Efficiency from Gas to Scrap in Feeding System of 100 t Consteel Electric Arc Furnace

Abstract

The Consteel electric arc furnace (EAF) has gained rapid development in the field of EAF steelmaking due to its advantageous features including short tap‐to‐tap time, low production energy consumption, and waste heat recovery. However, the low heat transfer efficiency from gas to scrap has remained a persistent technical challenge in Consteel EAF. This research establishes a scrap preheating model for the Consteel EAF to comprehensively investigate the heat transfer efficiency from gas to scrap. The calculation results demonstrate that the heat transfer efficiency from gas to scrap can be effectively enhanced by increasing the initial gas velocity and scrap porosity. Specifically, raising the initial gas velocity from 0.9 to 1.5 m s−1 improves convective and radiative heat exchange, leading to increased heat transfer efficiency from gas to scrap at the same positions within the scrap layer. Moreover, increasing the scrap porosity from 0.92 to 0.98 significantly enhances the heat transfer efficiency through augmented radiation heat exchange. Notably, the improvement in heat transfer efficiency resulting from increased porosity is considerably greater than that achieved through increased gas velocity. The findings of this study hold significant practical implications for the actual field production operations in the horizontal continuous feeding system of EAF.