Simultaneous Measurements of Temperature and Iron–Slag Ratio at Taphole of Blast Furnace

Abstract

As the initial process in an integrated steel-making plant, molten iron is produced in a blast furnace. The molten iron has a temperature between 1700 K and 1900 K. The outflow stream discharged from a taphole comprises the molten iron and slag (which is a mixture of molten oxides). Monitoring of the stream temperature is important because it has information on the thermal condition inside the blast furnace. A newly developed simultaneous measurement technique for temperature and iron–slag ratio is reported. A monochromatic CCD camera with a short exposure time is used to obtain a thermal image of the rapidly moving stream. The thermal image has a marble-like pattern caused by the physical separation of the iron and slag and their different optical properties. Iron thermometry is realized by automatically detecting the peak of the iron gray-level distribution on a histogram. Meanwhile, the thermal radiance of the semitransparent slag varies as a function of the thickness. The slag temperature is calculated from the maximum gray level, presuming that the emissivity of the slag is constant at a thick slag part. The slag ratio is measured by counting the number of pixels on the histogram. A field test was carried out at an operating blast furnace. The iron temperature, slag temperature, and slag ratio were successfully measured. This multiple image measurement is expected to be the new information source for stable blast furnace operation.