Numerical prediction on the variation of temperature in the eroded blast furnace hearth with titanium dioxide in hot metal

This paper numerically predicts the decrease in temperature of the eroded hearth of the blast furnace with floating deadman (coke zone) case for Port Kembla no. 5 blast furnace (PKBF5) by solving the Navier–Stokes equation, the thermal-energy-balance equation with conjugated heat transfer, and the mass transfer equation with the effect of chemical reaction during tapping process at steady state. The chemical reaction is generated by titanium dioxide (TiO2) reacting with saturated carbon in hot metal. The following calculations are done by using a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package, FLUENT (version 6.2), with a segregated model. As shown in the results, on the basis of the flow pattern of liquid iron, the inlet selection of adding TiO2 may be far away from the taphole. The calculated temperature variation in the damaged hearth by reaction is significant, but that on the other side of the hearth without adding TiO2 isn't influenced. Additionally, the numerical temperature data of different locations may be examined by the blast furnace operators to judge the effect of lowering temperature.