Abstract
The selection of lining material for a steel ladle is important to heat preservation of molten steel. Aerogel insulation materials have very low thermal conductivity, however, they are rarely used in steel ladles. In this paper, the application of a new silica aerogel material on the steel ladle insulation layer is tested, and a new calculation method is designed to study its insulation effect. In other words, the ladle wall temperature is obtained by finite element model (FEM) and experiments, then the heat emission from the ladle wall is calculated by the Boltzmann mathematical model according to the ladle wall temperature, and the temperature loss of molten steel is calculated inversely according to the heat emission of ladle wall. Compared with the original steel ladle (comparison ladle), the application effect is analyzed. Due to the stable heat storage of the ladle wall after refining, the validity of the models are verified in ladle furnace (LF) process. The results show that the new calculation method is feasible, and the relevant parameter settings in the FEM and Boltzmann mathematical model are correct. Finally, after using the new aerogel insulation material, the temperature of molten steel is reduced by 16.67 °C, and the production cost is reduced by CNY 5.15/ton of steel.
Highlights
In the steelmaking process, the steel ladle is an extremely important piece of equipment
∆T = Q = φt where: ∆T is the temperature difference of molten steel, ◦C; Q is the total heat transferred by outer steel shell (OSS), J; m is the quality of molten steel, kg; CP is the specific heat capacity of molten steel, J/kg ◦C; t is the time of a furnace age under working conditions, s
The calculated results of the mathematical model are very close to the 18.8 ◦C drop of steel water temperature measured in Reference [40], the main reason for the difference of 2.13 ◦C is that the thermal conductivity of the insulation layer is 0.042 W/mK, ladle walls transfer heat outward quickly
Summary
The steel ladle is an extremely important piece of equipment. According to the measured temperature of molten steel and the ladle wall, the accuracy of the 2D heat transfer model and Boltzmann mathematical equation were verified. By comparing temperature difference of ladle wall with the counterparts calculated in the numerical model which contains a double quantity of mesh elements (including the test ladle wall model and the comparison ladle model), the difference in temperature difference remains constant, further refining of the mesh did not affect the results significantly, and the numerical computation independence on mesh is confirmed Considering this result, the steel ladle wall model was divided into 4450 units, and the total number of nodes is 11,236. The physical parameters of the insulating layer are derived from the test data of Table 1
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