Numerical prediction on the erosion in the hearth of a blast furnace during tapping process

The erosion caused by mass transfer in hearth is the most important factor for determining blast furnace campaign life. To support a helpful insight information of mass transfer for the hearth of the No. 2 blast furnace at CSC (China Steel Corporation), a numerical model including the mass transfer of carbon in thermal convective flow from a blast furnace hearth has been developed during the steady tapping process (based on a uninterrupted tapping process assumption). The three dimensional Navier–Stokes equation combined with the transport equations of energy and species with conjugate heat transfer and physical dissolution source is solved by the finite control volume scheme subjected to the segregated iterate under propriety boundary conditions. The results showed the concentration distribution of carbon expressed in terms of mass flux for analyzing the erosion of carbon brick in the blast furnace hearth with the different conditions including the status of dead-man, production of liquid iron, carbon concentration at the inlet, and porosity distribution in coke zone during tapping process at steady state. The result is useful to mitigate the erosion caused by mass transfer, and prolong the life span of the blast furnace.