“Redistribution” Effect of Lumpy Zone for Gas Flow in BF

The gas flow from tuyere to raceway zone by blasting involves three distributional zones, such as dripping, cohesive, and lumpy zone. The gas flow distribution in lumpy zone directly affects the gas utilization ration and smooth operation in the blast furnace. However, the furnace closeness brings about great difficulty in the study of high-temperature gas flow. The charging and blasting system affecting the gas flow and whether the top gas flow distribution could reflect its inner condition as well as the furnace state, such as hanging or scaffolding, which have become the main problems for the research on gas flow. Recently, several researches overseas studied gas flow distribution using the numerical simulation method; however, such a research was rare amongst the natives. In this study, the flow model of gas in cohesive and lumpy zone was established using the numerical simulation software and the gas flow distributions with uniform distribution of burden permeability, scaffolding of wall, and nonuniform charge level were analyzed. As a result, the effects of cohesive zone and lower parts on the gas flow are very limited and the charge level largely affects the distribution of top gas flow. Therefore, it was found that the distribution of top gas flow could hardly reflect the inner gas flow. The process is called “redistribution” effect, which means that the gas flow after passing through the raceway, dripping, and cohesive zone is distributed when it flows into the lumpy zone.