Numerical Simulation of Particle and Air Velocity Fields in Raceway in Model Blast Furnace and Comparison with Experimental Data (Cold Model)

Abstract

Flows of solid particles and air in a model blast furnace have been simulated using Distinct Element Method (DEM) for the particles and Finite Difference Method for the numerical analysis of Navier–Stokes equations with the interaction terms between the air and the particles. The flow of solid particles, the air flow, the raceway and the packing fraction distribution are presented. The raceway depth, the diameter of particle inflow area and the raceway height which quantitatively represent a raceway are also presented and compared with the experimental data (CAMP-ISIJ, 16 (2003)). The fairly good agreement obtained by the comparison indicates that our simulation results are sound and the simulation results would represent the flow mechanisms of the solid particles and the air in the model blast furnace, and the simulation method that the Lagrangian motion of particles and the Eulerian motion of the air are simultaneously solved is a useful tool for predicting the flow fields of particles and the gas in a blast furnace. Unsteady state solutions of these flows suggest that dynamical characteristics in the model blast furnace are unstable and fluctuate, and that an unusual phenomenon would happen under some conditions even in the small scale model blast furnace.