Comprehensive Mathematical Model for Particle Flow and Circumferential Burden Distribution in Charging Process of Bell-less Top Blast Furnace with Parallel Hoppers

The ironmaking blast furnace is mainly a huge countercurrent reactor of ascending gas and descending solid and liquid, coupled with heat exchange and chemical reactions.1) Thereinto, burden distribution within blast furnace is crucial for maintaining smooth burden descent and fine gas utilization.2) The importance of burden distribution control in actual production has long been recognized, and much attention has been paid along with the enlargement of blast furnace. Generally, burden distribution can be characterized by the structure of layered coke and ore, while it is determined by flow behavior of burden materials during charging process. Thus, it is essential to accurately predict particle flow behavior for efficient burden distribution control. Since the modern blast furnace production, burden distribution control technology and charging equipment have experienced numerous revolutionary changes. Until 1970s, when the bell-less top was introduced by Paul Wurth, due to its great control flexibility and high quality of burden distribution, it has been widely applied around the world Comprehensive Mathematical Model for Particle Flow and Circumferential Burden Distribution in Charging Process of Bell-less Top Blast Furnace with Parallel Hoppers